“I was an artist, as many children are, from the beginning. I was the kid who spaced out in class (first through sixteenth grades) and drew pictures in the margins of my papers. Still do. I lived for the assignments and class projects that required building and designing things. Years later in graduate school I would learn, for the first time, that I am actually a visual / kinesthetic learner. We used to call it ‘right brained.’ It’s the way my brain is wired and it finally made sense why I struggled in school with math and linear type thinking. Still do! I was blessed to have parents who encouraged my art expression and my career goals. And I was fortunate to be able to take four years, eight semesters, of high school art which helped fan the flames of my passion,” said Quinn.

Quinn earned a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Science in Education from Northwest Missouri State University. He also completed coursework and part of the dissertation for a Doctorate of Education from Baker University.

Before joining Jewell faculty, Quinn began teaching art at Lathrop High School, in Lathrop Mo., where he served for seven years. Then he taught secondary art in the Liberty School District for fourteen years. While there, he also taught adjunct metal smithing and photography courses at Jewell. He will be retiring after teaching at Jewell for eighteen years.

“I’ve been asked why I didn’t attend Jewell when most of my family did, and it was simply because Jewell didn’t offer an Art Education major at the time. I had been good-naturedly teased about being the black sheep of the Jewell alums in the family, but I was able to redeem myself, to everyone’s satisfaction, by becoming part of the faculty,” said Quinn.

Although Dr. Quinn is scheduled to retire from full time teaching next semester, he will not be in full retirement. He plans to continue to teach adjunct classes at Jewell in the fall and in the future. He will also enjoy some free time to work on side projects and be around his granddaughters.

“I might finish that dissertation, or not. I have several sculpture ideas ready to be completed. If I win the lottery, I may donate funds to establish the Johnson-Nore-Quinn School of Visual Art at William Jewell College. But most importantly I plan to hang around my granddaughters more who are eight, five, and three months, so they can teach me how to be a better artist,” said Quinn.

Quinn’s greatest joy in being a teacher has always been working with students. It is what motivated and sustained him. He also greatly appreciates the collegiality and friendships he formed at Jewell. He feels honored to be part of the Jewell family.

“Some of my earliest memories are of hearing about William Jewell in reverential tones from my parents and grandparents, and visiting the campus with my dad as a child. Jewell was considered a sacred place to our family. It represented the highest standards of learning, opportunity, possibility, and a future. Jewell has been a part of the interwoven fabric of our family, and I can recall even as a small child of understanding that it was a special, even magical, place. To become a part of that heritage has truly been a blessing and privilege,” said Quinn.

Photos by Mykala Crews. 

It takes them to places and times they have never seen, introduces them to figures they have never known and fills them with memories of events they have never experienced. The facts are not what captivate them. Rather, it is the intrigue of knowing ideas, people and events that stretch beyond one’s lifetime.

For 52 years, 12 of which were at Jewell, Dr. Thomas Howell has taught history and, for 52 years, history is what has driven him. While Howell’s dedication to history is as unshakable now as it was when he first started, a career in history was not Howell’s first choice. Instead, he was poised to select a different path.

“When I came out of high school, I was aiming to be a chemical engineer,” Howell said. “However, upon entering college, I discovered calculus. Or, calculus discovered me.”

Howell’s brief brush with calculus caused him to move away from chemical engineering. As he thought about what to pursue next, he turned to an area that had previously caught his attention.

“When I was in high school, I was picked for a state history competition. I didn’t study, didn’t even think about it and won the state,” Howell said. “When I dropped calculus and started rethinking my options, it occurred to me that history was easy and math wasn’t. Once I started looking at it, I got fascinated by it. But in other words, I kind of backed into it because it came easily and I remembered things and put things together and so forth,” Howell said.  

With 52 years of hindsight, Howell believes he made the right decision.

“I am quite confident, very confident, that I am a better college professor of history than I would’ve been a chemical engineer,” Howell said.

As a historian, Howell has had the opportunity to engage a variety of different topics. However, the Second World War, specifically, had always fascinated him. The son of a Baptist preacher’s daughter and a soldier, Howell himself was a product of the war, which left a significant impact on him.

“Growing up as a child, I was kind of curious about this. I didn’t have a father because of World War Two. I had always been vaguely interested in it,” Howell said.

However, once he began studying history in college, his fascination with World War Two shifted from mere curiosity to intellectual obsession.

“It started out wondering why I didn’t have a father, and then it morphed into a kind of obsession as I tried to trace this thing out and how we got involved in it. It just grabbed me in a way,” Howell said.

After spending much of his life working on the subject, Howell has procured a seemingly infinite base of knowledge. He is able to cite the best authors on the subject, the work they did and the influence they had on him.

“Rick Atkinson, who has written a trilogy on the American army in Europe, Cornelius Ryan and A Bridge Too Far, he’s a guy who really grabbed me. There’s a guy named John Toland who writes on the Pacific War and does kind of the same thing that Ryan does,” Howell said.

In accordance with this passion, Howell’s World War Two and the Holocaust course is by far his favorite course to teach. In fact, he counts it has the best he has ever taught.

“That course is constantly developing. It has changed every year. I keep finding more angles and peeling more layers off the onion so to speak. That’s part of the reason you keep going. It just keeps going over and over,” Howell said.

Even though Howell is enamored with history, the courses he teaches and the work he does, many of his fondest memories are centered around his students.

“The students at Jewell are by the far best students I’ve ever worked with. The level of ability is well beyond any that I’ve ever worked with before. They keep you alive,” Howell said.

Retirement, however, is not far from Howell’s mind. Howell’s plans are currently in flux but that is the way he wants it.

“One of my daughters is getting married in September and that kind of controls the immediate thing. But my wife and I have some things we want to see. We have some friends in places that we’d like to see. The immediate thing is settle down and see some people,” Howell said.

Beyond those intentions, he and his wife have greater visions for retirement. Howell and his wife hope to visit Scotland and to see the Faroe Islands.

As Howell moves on to the next stage of his life, history will continue to guide him as it has done for 52 years.

Photos by Mykala Crews.  

Horne had originally planned to be a pastor and attended seminary school at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. At seminary, his fascination with religion began.

“I became interested in religion as a phenomenon to study in seminary, mostly from reading Peter Berger’s book, ‘The Sacred Canopy’ (I would go on and rely heavily upon this book, and his ‘The Social Construction of Reality,’ in my doctoral dissertation.) I was fascinated with Berger’s conception of anomy, alienation and false consciousness as it related to another book I read in my undergraduate career at Univ. of Missouri, Columbia (after I left Indiana University): Erving Goffman’s, ‘The Presentation in Everyday Life,'” Horne said.

Seminary caused Horne to have more questions, which led to him completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford.

“I went to seminary to get questions answered. Instead, I read Berger—while also learning that the meaning of the Bible’s story was up for interpretative grabs—and only struggled with more questions. So, I went from there to Oxford to write a dissertation on the book of Job, suffering, false consciousness, and Goffman’s notion of the front stage and back stage of our lives.”

Upon completing his dissertation, Horne’s mentor recommended he apply for a teaching position at Jewell. Even though Horne submitted his application late, he got the job.  

When asked if there was a significant memory or favorite story he would carry with him from Jewell, Horne recalled a particular story that stood out to him.

“Of course, I’ll never forget the student who took me out for a coffee upon graduation to inform me that he was making something of his life by starting a marijuana farm, in Missouri, no less—this was the cutting edge in entrepreneurship, I guess. Hell, he may have been right,” said Horne.

Over the course of the following academic year, courses in the department of religion at Jewell will be discontinued. While Horne is saddened by this decision, he understands the logic of it.

“I’m sad that the Religion department will discontinue (my colleague Dr. Benz will continue to teach religion in the History department). Religion is not going away, in fact it is more likely coming back (e.g., ‘The Revenge of God’). But, for Jewell it is mere cost-benefit and there’s no escaping that at this time in the college’s life. I understand that,” said Horne.

After he retires, Horne plans to build his piano tuning and technology business and will be an adjunct professor for Jewell when needed.  

“Plans after retirement? Well, to make a living, I will do what I have done at various stages of my life: build up my piano tuning and technology business. I am a registered piano technician in the Piano Technician’s Guild and have experience that goes back to my apprenticeship in a rebuilder’s shop between the ages of 13-17. I plan to stay in Liberty and see what challenges are around the corner,” Horne said.

When asked if he was excited about his retirement, Horne says part of the excitement is in the unknown of retirement.

“It’s the kind of excitement a runner feels when she is at the starting line, she doesn’t really know how it’s going to turn out, she hopes she doesn’t stumble over the starting block…she knows it’s a new race. So, it’s that kind of excitement.”

Horne says that the thing he will miss the most about Jewell is the community of learning.

“What I’ll miss about Jewell is the community of learning. This is hard to explain to people who don’t work where learning is taught. I’m the one who has probably shown the most progress in learning, simply from being around colleagues who are so thoughtful and smart, in so many disciplines, with so many different life experiences that motivated them to learn. I’ll miss that the most. There will always be good individual students and smart people; but community of learning is rare,” said Horne.

Horne hopes to be remembered as a member of this community of learning.

“When you talk about a legacy you realize that legacies themselves usually last half a generation if at all. So, I’m really not looking for that kind of legacy, I’m far more interested in, if students ever remember that they had a course with me, what I would like for them to remember is that I loved to learn and that really is it…if anything, I would like to be remembered as someone who really, really tried to induct students into a community of learning,” Horne said.

Photos by Mykala Crews.

[Editors’ Amendment: Phrasing within this article was susceptible to misinterpretation. Hence, the following phrase was removed and amended from this article: “This year, Jewell announced that religion courses would be discontinued.”]