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In December of 1994 I was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Chicago City Colleges. According to the CCC "The Distinguished Service Professorship is the highest honor a college can bestow upon a member of its faculty. The selection is made by the faculty and administration of the college. To earn the respect and support of one’s colleagues is the greatest recognition a professor can receive. Wright College is blessed with an excellent faculty that has given many years of service to the students, the college, and the community. To qualify for this award, a teacher must demonstrate excellence in the classroom as exemplified by work with students and creativity in teaching. Our distinguished professors have frequently been honored previously with Excellence in Teaching awards and Outstanding Faculty of the Year awards. The service component is exemplified by department activities, professional development, and service to the College and to the District. The nominations originate with the faculty, who forward them to the college committee, which considers all nominees and forwards its recommendation to the President. A college is its faculty, and Wright is proud to be represented by our Distinguished Professors, who personify the best that the academic world can offer—professionals committed to their respective disciplines, teachers dedicated to the success of their students, and colleagues concerned with helping others achieve their goals." This award was created jointly by the College Board of Trustees and the Cook College Teachers Union. The following spring, on April 28, Wright College honored me at the faculty awards ceremony. I thanked everyone who had helped me to get this award with the following words: |
Thank you -
You know today has been a wonderful day. First I got a paycheck. Then I got a free dinner. And now I have a captive audience.
I'd like to start by thanking Dennis Dudek, Walter Pravica, Dan Lackowski, George Trent, and Warren Plunket for nominating me for this award. I know how hard their job was, because I too had tried a few years ago to nominate someone. I don't know what Dennis said to the selection committee, but whatever it was it seemed to do the trick.
Then of course, I want to thank the members of the selection committee: John DeRoule, Peter Metropolous and Gloria Winslow for believing whatever Dennis had told them.
I wish to give special recognition to my parents who got me started in the right direction. I don't think my father has ever gotten over his disappointment when I dropped out of graduate school without completing my Ph.D. Every so often he still offers to pay for my tuition if I were to take a leave and go back to school. You know it's strange to think of the things you learned from your parents. Even today if I bend a nail, I can't just throw it out. My father, who grew up in Hungary which had to import all of its iron and steel, would never allow us to throw out a nail. I would have to pound it out and use it again.
You all know the old adage that behind ever successful man there is a strong woman. I guess I'm no different, and I wish to thank my wife, Erika, for being there and supporting me. My children, Krisztina, Gyula, Zsolt and Tas don't have any children yet so they have no way of knowing how much of an incentive they are for me to keep me doing the things I do.
There is another person I wish I could thank for helping me get this award. I am sure many of you remember John Lales who taught at Wright and who was only 46 years old when he died ten years ago in the fall of 1984. John and I had worked together for many years at Sperry Univac before he came to Wright. He was the one who recruited me to come Wright to teach because he knew how much I would enjoy it. John, I've thanked you a million times before, and now I would like to thank you in public.
I guess I could go down the list and thank all the individuals who helped me grow (both physically and in my role as a teacher). There were my friends and mentors Andy Nicosia, Bill Muckian and Tom Bauhs. There were presidents, vice presidents, deans, other administrators, clerks and hourly-s. But of all these individuals the one who is most responsible for getting me involved in everything I have done at Wright is our president, Ray LeFevour. A few weeks ago after he and I had finished another one of our discussions, he switched subjects and started to talk about the current RIF's. He compared our faculty here at Wright with the faculty at the other colleges. We agreed that the majority of them were top notch educators and that they could be tremendous assets to our school if we could motivate them to get involved with the things that we do here.
All of you know President LeFevour's motivational techniques. He is not subtle. I don't know whether he even remembers the incidence that got me started on the road to being Distinguished Professor. I forget how long ago it was, but I guess he was telling Bill Muckian his opinion of various faculty members. According to Bill, when they got to my name, President LeFevour said that I was a slug. A slug, I asked Bill, you mean like a 45 caliber bullet that can go miles and miles and still pack a wallop. No, Bill said, not like a bullet, more like a snail without a shell. Lazy, useless, and self centered. It takes different things to motivate different people. But by calling me a slug, president LeFevour may have found the best way to motivate me; because it was then that I decided that I had to prove him wrong. I think I have succeeded.