THE KANSAS COLLECTION



Congratulations, Lynn!




Hello, Lynn,
     Now at last you have time to do all those things you've been wanting to! Wishing you all the best,

~Susan.


From fellow Kansans, now in Wyoming, Congratulations on a job well done. Happy Trails ahead!! The D. Bradleys


One bad thing about retiring--you'll be busier than ever. Congratulations and good luck,

~Jude Glad


Hello Lynn
     As a former Kansan, now in Arizona, I've always enjoyed your letters & comments to the mailing lists. Hope you continue to be active there as well as doing all the other things you will have time for now. Enjoy your retirement!

~Ramona


Lynn, I hope you enjoy your retirement from your 'other job' and will have more time to write all kinds of interesting stories for us to enjoy. Have a wonderful retirement! -- Connie Snyder


As a retiree I never have figured out whether you should be congratulated when you retire or not, it's really just another milestone in life. I hope you enjoy your retirement as much as I have mine. One of the reasons for the enjoyment is working for EKIS and Susan Stafford, so you have a head start in that department.
     I hope you keep telling your stories, I know they are enjoyed by everyone.
     May your retirement be long and full!

~John Maier


Congratulations Lynn,
     Seems you have had a great life. God Bless you and may the rest of your life be even more interesting than the first part. Wish you all the best always. I intend to bookmark your pages and read the stories later.

~Barbara in Salem, MO


Thank's Lynn, you've been a big help to someone new to research. Best Wishes

~Lou Windholz
Ness City Ks


Congratulations on your achievements and thank you for your contributions. I didn't take any history courses from you when I was on the hill but I sure wish I had. I hope you enjoy your retirement and have a ball with all your new projects and adventures. Please don't forget us on Ks-L. Please continue to share your observations and interpretations. We love them.

~Barbara Kidwell


Dear Lynn,
     Congratulations on your retirement. Hope this give you more time to contribute some more of your great stories to the Kansas-L list [g]

~Teresa Lindquist
(EKIS volunteer)


Thanks, Lynn, for helping create a truly world class genealogy and Kansas history resource! Good luck and Best wishes!

~Dave Leebrick


Lynn, congratulations on a long career at the University of Kansas (and perhaps other universities that I don't know about), and THANKS so much for giving us former and present Kansans an opportunity to create a record on the World Wide Web of the sacrifices and achievements of our ancestors in Kansas! Also I enjoyed reading about your story of your experience with sunflowers, keep up the good (and for you, enjoyable) work!
     Yours truly,

~Bonnie Bunce
(volunteer on Cutler's
History of the State of Kansas
on the Kansas Heritage Server)


Congratulations and thanks for making history alive and well on the internet. Good luck in your future endeavors.

~Dwayne Crandall
Senior Auditor
University of Missouri - System


Congratulations to Prof. Nelson on his retirement. I have come to have enormous respect and admiration for his stories and for his work in helping make KANSAS-L the great virtual community it has become.
     With best wishes,

~Mike
(Mike Jacobs)


Good Luck. You were a great teacher and a great inspiration!

~John H. Monnett
Professor of History
Metropolitan State College of Denver


As a born & raised Kansan, and a graduate of KU, I extend a heartfelt "yeehaw" as celebration and congratulations of this new chapter you are beginning! wow, 35 yrs at KU! ya know, I envy that. you had a long career in something you feel very passionate about, and that's rare. keep sendin' them cards and letters, we love 'em.

~margie in seattle


lynn, congratulations. who would have thought those years back when i was an ancient/medieval history student and you a medieval history professor that we would end up doing kansas history together. go figure. mat.


You've been retired now for at least a month, and that should be enough for anybody. Time to start again....

/AJP


Lynn,
     Although I've "known" you for only a year, I've enjoyed the stories you have written and I've benefitted greatly from your internet activities. Congratulations!

~Glenn Larson


Thank you for getting this "Kansas THING" started. Many of us have rekindled interest in our family's Kansas Pioneers because of what you started, but the Kansas History sites are interesting even if our ancestors weren't involved in the particular county. It is just another reason to be proud of being a Kansan.

~Bob Mills


Lynn ... I have enjoyed your stories so much, that I have a special folder in my email to save them. I am sure your retirement is well earned and I can't wait to see what you do with the second half of your life. More stories, I hope. You have been so successful in all of your endeavors, you will surely become a great curmudgeon. ;-) Congratulations on your retirement and I look forward to reading more email and stories.

~Freda Eaton-Lea
Phoenix, AZ


Although I've only enjoyed your stories for a brief time I am looking forward to more and would like to see a collection of short stories or a book by you to add to my bookshelf. Intertaining, humor, fine writing and educational at the same time. Wonderful! Happiness, good health and prosperity in your future.

~Lee Nichols -- your Topeka neighbor.


Thank you.....
     ......as you enter your Emeritus status, for creating the most informative, exciting historical web site on the entire internet. Although I've never met Lynn, I am most grateful for his efforts. I also now know more about Kansas than most Kansans!

~Ray Downing in Las Vegas, NV


Lynn, congratulations on your 35 years at the 2nd best university in the great state of Kansas! And a great big huge "Thank You" for your work on the Kansas web sites and kansas-l. Having this connection to my home state makes me a little less homesick and makes me feel connected in a way that only being there exceeds. I'm looking forward to much more of your writings in the years to come.
     Go Wildcats. Jayhawks too.

~Jane
Jane Beach Soder, Seattle


Lynn,
     For the last couple of years it has been the highlight of my day when I find a post of yours coming out of KU. You have informed and entertained; you were kind enough to respond to me personally when I asked about Nelson relatives.
     KU will miss you, your e-mail friends will hope you stay in touch.
     Best Wishes

~Col. Ray Beery, USAF-Ret.
Vienna, VA
KU 1955


The best is left unsaid. With much appreciation.

@


Best wishes on your new career. As one approaching retirement, I'm looking forward to all those projects and items of interest that have been postponed (like learning how to play a bass guitar in a blues band). I know you have lots of those stored somewhere and hope that you can get after them in a timely fashion. Again-- Congratulations.

~Ivan Pechanec
Wichita
The polka is Czech blues


Thanks, Lynn, for your personal attention in the midst of the whirlwind of academic work. It's always a bit amazing to realize that somewhere beneath all the paper and punditry there still beats the heart of true adventurers.
     Regardless of where I live, I'll always be a fan of the story of Kansans.
     Thanks again

~Ted Grossardt
Sr. Professional Associate
Kentucky Transportation Center
University of Kentucky, Lexington


Lynn,
     Best wishes on beginning a new phase on your journey through life. Many thanks for the help and support you've given us over the years, taking care of cranky servers, crankier list owners and users, and related problems. If nature truly abhors a vacuum, then life should provide many many more things for you to do with all of your "free time" that you haven't even thought about yet. Don't let anyone tempt you into trying fly-fishing for trout.....

~Les Peters
WWI-L


To Dad,
     Congratulations ... now that the KU administration is out of the way, Sam the Dog can set your schedule by himself. We're betting you'll be twice as productive now!

Your son and daughter-in-law,
~Lynn Albert and Antoinette


Hi! I wish you all the best in your retirement, and I hope that you find many great things to do - I've read about some of them: writing etc.
     Sincerely,

~Rebecca Fenton
exchange student
Wollongong University - University of Kansas


Lynn,
     May you always have sunshine at your back and the wind on your face. Whoops! -- maybe it should be the other way around, so just reverse that. Anyway, I wish all good things for you and Carolyn and Sam and Cat. And thanks for cultural enrichment you've shared with so very many people.
      With best regards,

~Dick Taylor
Director
EKIS, KanColl, Heritage Village


Lynn,
     I'll raise a glass of Sonoma County's finest in a toast for your long and happy retirement. And if you should ever find yourself in the neighborhood, allow us to extend our welcome as you did for us when we visited Lawrence last summer. Thanks for all your efforts in making "virtual Kansas" the great place that it is!

~Frank, Jeanne, & Travis
Healdsburg, CA


Lynn - I wish you all the best in your new found "state of relaxation" (isn't that what retirement is all about? if not, please don't tell me and ruin my illusion [smile]) Anyway, I wish you happiness and health, no matter what you find yourself involved in next. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to find a "home" with all the wonderful EKIS/KanColl folks!

~Connie DiPasquale
(Orphan Trains of Kansas)


Best of times in your retirement.
     I have to thank you for the sunflower and it's story. Thanks!

~kat.


Hi Lynn! Congratulations on your recent retirement. We have only been "connected" for about 8 months, but we have most assuredly enjoyed all your offerings on KANSAS-L. We especially got a kick out of your piece on the the comparative intelligence of cows and horses. We could easily visualize your staring/licking contest. You are a great wit! (Note I left one of the "t's" out of that word.) Have a great retirement, and "don't be no stranger, now, ya hear?"

~Gary & Mary Lee Presson, Wichita


Congratulations, Lynn!

~Victoria Foth.


Lynn,
     I have enjoyed all your stories, insights, explanations, etc. over the past year and one half. I hope you will be able to continue to share "the history that you have experienced" with all of us. Thanks for your dedication to this web site.

~(Rev.) Thomas H. Dolezal
Axtell, KS


a good wish for retirement and future endeavors:

     Just a note from a stranger to wish Lynn Nelson a very fulfilling retirement. I'm sure there won't be enough time to investigate all the things he wants, but the adventure and joy of discovering things makes every day exciting.
     I'm a displaced Kansan that ended up in Florida. I love it here, but there is something about the smell in the air and the wind that always makes Kansas "home". It's definitely in the blood.

~Janet Higley Elliott.


[Paula McSweeney provided these stories, which are recorded here, in conversation rather than by email.]

     Paula remembers Lynn Nelson very well, since she was a student in his medieval history class at KU. She says that it seemed to her he not only tried to teach the material but also how to get on in class, how to study (adding wryly, "which I probably could have used...").

     One thing she remembers is that, like all professors, he always wanted them to keep up with their reading, and would assign something like five to ten pages a night. Since it was a five-hour class, that meant the students had reading assignments every night.

     In order to make sure that the students kept up with reading, the professors often gave pop quizzes. Lynn didn't like these much, and he had a way of handling that. He would start the class and take out two coins, and flip them. If both coins came up heads, the students would get a pop quiz. If the coins came up in any other combination, there would be no quiz. Lynn figured that this way, the students would face a pop quiz about every fourth day, or about a dozen times during a semester. In any event, Paula said, it worked -- she worked very hard at the reading every night because she never knew when a quiz would be taken!

     Though she added that the quiz -- usually just one question -- was always straightforward, and if you'd done the reading you'd be all right. There was nothing tricky about it, the quiz was just a technique to make sure you kept up with the reading.

     Paula also remembers "the Nelson quotient" for success. She explained that this was his method for grading the class. He said that success in his class was partly based on how much you knew the material, and partly on how well you took tests. So if you knew the material -- say that was graded at 90% -- and okay at tests -- graded at 80% -- your overall grade would be 85%. Conversely, if you really great at taking tests, but didn't know the material all that well, you still had a chance at succeeding.

     He also told his students, "You won't remember any of this, of course." And she said he was right! She remembers Charlemagne, and sort of the feel of the period, but she doesn't remember details and dates. Even classes that she really studied hard for, and got A's in, did all the reading -- now she doesn't really even remember the class.

     But Paula remembers Lynn Nelson very well, and her respect and liking for him were evident in the way she spoke of him. She had been surprised to learn that Lynn retired, and she hopes that he would have the opportunity to travel and do other exciting things now.


Hallo Lynn,

     many greetings from Germany and great thank for the very wonderful sizes. All the health of the world you and your family. Next year i'll stay for a while in Ft. Riley by my son in law an my daughter with the great grandchilds. Maybe see you.

Good bye
~Bernd Zeh.




Return to Lynn's page Return to KanColl