William Schang

English

William J. “Bill” Schang was a professor of English for 41 years from 1969 to 2011, and served as dean of faculty from 2002 to 2006.

He was born Sept. 25, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Schang joined the English faculty at Ripon College in 1969 and was promoted to full professor in 1986.

He took the position of vice president and dean of faculty on a temporary basis from 2002 t0 2006. But he most loved teaching and returned to that position in the fall of 2007.

This resulted in nearly a dozen awards for outstanding teaching at Ripon, including the May Bumby Severy Award for Excellence in Teaching four times; Senior Class Award for Teaching four times; and James Underkofler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1993. He is associated with the Schang Family Visiting Writers Fund, and the William Schang Liberal Arts Scholarship is established in his honor.

Students remember his deep sense of caring for each student, his kindness, honesty and understanding, as well as his guidance on writing and his go-to phrase: “Questions? Comments? Personal attacks?”

He also stood out for transforming the educational process at Ripon. Professor of English and then-Dean of Faculty Douglas A. Northrop once wrote to him: “Your work as developer as well as coordinator of the writing-across-the-curriculum program needs to be considered in terms of its long-term impact on the College. … Indeed, the shift from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’ as the focus of our educational program is at the very center of the writing program and is the most important aspect of your contribution to the College as coordinator of the writing-across-the-curriculum program. Nothing less than a transformation of the faculty or a quiet revolution of the academic program has occurred.”

Julie Lynch Kummer, Class of 1985, shared: “His English classes were always ones I looked forward to. He engaged the students and worked hard to draw a variety of answers about both the material we read and wrote. I loved his satire seminar, as did many others, I’m sure. His classes were some of the more memorable ones at Ripon.”

A special memory for Brian Wegener, Class of 1986: “It was a regular day in American literature class at first, people filing in and taking seats, gossiping, complaining, asking each other what the reading assignment was, and so forth. As an English major and a voracious one at that, I scorned these people. I was ready for a discussion. ‘Let’s go,’ I thought. ‘I’ll rule the day since I am prepared.’ What happened was something different.

“Dr. Schang came in as usual and sat down, we quieted, and then he said something like, ‘Yeah, usually we discuss what we read, and I assign the next thing, but this time you read Jonathan Edwards’ ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.’ This calls for something different.’ He stood up and began to arrange his chair and the table in front of him. Some of us began to wonder what was going on.

“After he finished arranging the furniture, he stepped up onto the chair next to him, then up onto the table adjacent. He was now quite a bit higher than the class, standing on the table. We had never seen this before. He proceeded to deliver Edwards’ crazy but passionate sermon from the top of this table, pausing occasionally to look at us, in an appropriately menacing way, of course.

“Dr. Schang brought literature to life for me in a way that few had done before. Sure, he’s an expert on Goldsmith and an influential force in the College community, but he also inspired many future teachers like me.”

Schang died Oct. 12, 2015, at age 74.