Ben Doehr::  So if you could each say your name, your full name, your-- where you're currently living, and the-- your class year that you graduated from Grinnell, or not.
Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  Right now?
Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  Yes.
Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  My name is Robert Schwaller. I currently live in Lawrence, Kansas and I’m a member of the Grinnell College Class of 2003.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  My name is Rachel Schwaller. I currently live in Lawrence, Kansas and I am not a Grinnellian, which is the great tragedy of my life.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  It is.
Robert Schwaller::  So I was thinking about talking about... one of the, certainly the most influential aspect of my time at Grinnell, which was being... being a college athlete. And.. what I liked most about Grinnell, one of the things that drew me to Grinnell, was that I had always been athletic. I'd played a number of sports.
Robert Schwaller::  In high school, I had sort of... the sports that I played had changed ‘cause we moved to Montana. There weren’t as many sports to play, and I ended up playing football for two years in high school, but I wanted to keep playing in college, and..
Robert Schwaller::  When I visited Grinnell, I got a chance to talk with the coaches and the players, and what I found was a very welcoming place, where, unlike other schools that, you know-- I didn’t realize this until I came later --but even Division III, there’s a lot of recruiting for college football, and trying to get good players and I wasn’t really part of it. I just sort of expressed an interest in playing, and....
Robert Schwaller::  And despite the fact that there really hadn’t been much recruiting-- and certainly coming out of high school, I was not... I was not a star prospect. I had basically... when-- been a JV kicker and then played a little bit as a backup-backup-backup wide receiver on the varsity team, and...
Robert Schwaller::  Doesn’t matter when I got here in the fall of 1999. You know, I was sort of welcomed along with everyone else. We had a very large recruiting freshman class for the football team. We had something like, 21 guys, and...
Robert Schwaller::  And it-- at that point, it didn’t matter what-- you know, that I'd only played two years in high school. They moved me to the defense. I had a really great coach, Coach Hollibaugh, who was in charge of the defensive backs where I was, and...
Robert Schwaller::  The first year was a learning experience for me in terms of football. I'd-- I really learned a lot about the game, and... and about the team, because in high school-- and being part of a team, because in high school, you know, I’d sort of come in late and I had sort of come in being a soccer player to being a kicker, so that-- I was always a little bit of an outsider, but...
Robert Schwaller::  But here, you know, straight away, I was a member of the team and part of everything, and-- even though I drove the coaches nuts because I asked too many questions. I asked so many questions, in fact, that Coach Hollibaugh moved me from playing safety to playing linebacker because I asked too many questions.
Robert Schwaller::  I wanted to know too much, so they moved me to a position where I didn’t have to think as much-- which was, in the long run, a good thing because it was one of the things that I am very fond of and very proud of was that I went from, you know, being in a high school, you know, not even a starter at any means at the varsity level, to... to coming here and working with coaches that really cared about, not just their top recruits or the people that came in that they knew were going to be starters, but everyone, and I was able, over the course of the four years, to actually start at least one game every season.
Robert Schwaller::  The-- my freshman year was a little bit of a fluke because a whole bunch of juniors and seniors had done some incredibly bad things that got them kicked off of the starting lineup, so I had-- I got to step in to fill in their shoes. But... but I legitimately sort of earned the starting position from sophomore year in both my junior and senior years, and... you know, I...
Robert Schwaller::  Obviously I’m talking a lot about the athletic program because, you know, for me, that was the part that... I think most well-rounded me as a person. The academics at Grinnell were excellent. I was an Anthropology and Art History double major. Those were both incredibly important to me, and you know, now I’m a... I'm an Assistant Professor of History at KU.
Robert Schwaller::  So the academic part, I think, you know, doesn’t need as much description because it was great, and I had great teachers, and I learned a lot and I was well prepared for graduate school, but... For me, the ability to... play a Division III NCAA sport, to have coaches that cared and to sort of be able to step outside of the academics for... you know, during the season, four or five hours a day, or even in the off season, you know, two or three hours a day...
Robert Schwaller::  To do that and be able to sort of have that time off from academics was, I think, to me, the most important thing. And I know that... that in the future, I really do hope that Grinnell doesn’t lose that.
Robert Schwaller::  I remember my parents-- my dad’s class of ’69, my mom’s ’71 --that, when they were here, the athletic program was not that big. But what has changed, I think, since that time is that it has become big and, you know..
Robert Schwaller::  I just heard the statistic that 60% of Grinnell students are going to participate in a varsity sport and something like 80% are going to participate in some sport-- sort of, organized athletic activity, and I think that my experience, which I think is the experience of a lot of people, is that having that opportunity, whether its to play in inter-collegiate athletics, or just to play intramural, is really what helps to kind of round out the education and provide something else to... to help you grow and develop in new ways.
Robert Schwaller::  But the other thing that I wanted to talk about was, as a historian: there’s the question here about, "Describe something that is no longer available on campus, but that was meaningful to you." I would say that one of the things about this campus that I love is the history that you can see in the architecture.
Robert Schwaller::  And what... what I miss is, is, I think, that-- the tearing down of Darby Gym was a bad idea. It was a historic building in any number of ways: in terms of the architecture, in terms of its meaning to the Grinnell basketball team... And as much as I know that the new JRC is a wonderful facility, and it is certainly much better that what we had before, I think that there should have been other ways of being able to add that new facility and somehow retain Darby.
Robert Schwaller::  And I know that right now, sort of going to the future, I’ve heard that there are going to be discussions about doing something about the Forum, and certainly Burling at some point is probably going to need to be renovated or rebuilt, and I would just hope that going forward, we try and, you know, either preserve those building, or--
Robert Schwaller::  You know, today I was walking by the Forum and I was thinking, you know, I could be okay with them getting rid of the Forum if whatever was going to go there did something to, sort of, keep the memory of what the Forum was and what it looked like.
Robert Schwaller::  As much as it would be hard to lose that building, which at least in my family… is important because my parents met there... I think that, you know, replacing it with something that evokes it, or that sort of references the architectural features of it-- which when it was built were certainly incredibly modern and incredibly cutting edge --I think would... would be important.
Robert Schwaller::  Or with Burling, the same kind of thing, you know, maybe instead of trying to create a new Burling, to... try and, you know, make-- I think I called it Burling 2.0 earlier --where it’s, you know... it's still Burling and it still has, you know, a lot of the features of it, but it has been renovated and changed to... you know, to meet the new demands.
Robert Schwaller::  And what had gotten me thinking about this was that at one point when I was a student, I was doing research for... the Pfitsch's Tales book, which is this history of Grinnell’s athletics, and I was looking through all of these old yearbooks and I saw a building in one of the photos.
Robert Schwaller::  It was beautiful. It was of the same... sort of, era as Goodnow, but it was beautiful. It had a tower, as I recall, or a turret somewhat like Goodnow does, but it had this beautiful sort of, porch with... kind of, masonry... which-- railings and decorations, and I was like, “Where is this building? Where does it exist?”
Robert Schwaller::  And I eventually sort of figured out that it is actually where Burling was, and.... you know, obviously, you know, I like Burling, and now I wanna say I want to keep Burling, but... It just made me think that there're, you know-- that every... every however many decades we have these decisions to make about how we need to sort of change the Campus, to take something down and build something new.
Robert Schwaller::  And I just hope that as we go forward, that even if it’s not about keeping all of the old buildings, it’s about trying to keep some... reference or some attempt to preserve how they had affected the Campus and the landscape in the past, so that even if we replace them with something new, that uniqueness that they had sort of lives on in a new way.
Robert Schwaller & Rachel Schwaller::  Now, I also wanted to have Rachel share a little bit about her thoughts about being on Grinnell's campus. She had been here once before for a couple hours as we drove through Iowa, but now she’s been here for several days as part of the reunion, so... I thought that she might share what she thought of Grinnell as being an outsider and just getting to come back for the alumni reunion.
Robert Schwaller & Rachel Schwaller::  If I can be forgiven for not being a Grinnellian...
Rachel Schwaller::  So, the history, just very briefly, for this: for me, coming into Rob’s family, is that his parents are Grinnellians, he’s a Grinnellian, and his brother is a Grinnellian. And so when I went into his family, that was all I heard about. It was always something that would be referenced.
Rachel Schwaller::  I mean, it had to be once a day, once every two days, you know, when we’d visit. Something about Grinnell is going to be said and it is going to be said in a wistful, longing, nostalgic, loving way that is just... you know, heart-rending because it’s like, "Really, there is this wonderful place like this that you have to speak so wistfully about?"
Rachel Schwaller::  I couldn’t believe that there was this place that was that great and it certainly... How they talked about it certainly didn’t mirror my own college experience. I went to Penn State: state school, very large. I was one in a sea of people.
Rachel Schwaller::  And so for them, you know, hearing this about College, I didn’t really think that there was such a thing as.... as the kind of place that they would describe. And also, I kind of... was always under the impression that Grinnell is a very... it's a liberal arts college. It’s very hippy-dippy. It’s very out there and it’s out in the middle of corn fields, and... so that was just the way, when Robert would talk about it, I'd be like, “Yeah, whatever. It’s Grinnell. Okay. That's fine.”
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  But... Then when we came out here-- we drove out on our honey moon, was it?
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  Mhm.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  We did kind of a road trip to Minnesota to stay at the cabin, his grandfather’s cabin there, and we drove through here and it was just a couple of hours and I noticed that it was a very beautiful campus and Rob had a lot to say about it, but... coming back here has really been extraordinary, I have to say.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  And I’m starting to realize exactly why everybody loves this place and it’s-- it's really true that everybody does. I’ve never met an unhappy Grinnellian, ever... I’m starting to think that they might not exist. I’m sure there’s gotta’ be someone. Maybe I'll--
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  Oh, those don’t come back.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  They don’t come back! I'll make that my mission: to find someone who's been unhappy here, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Rachel Schwaller::  And.. whenever Rob has mentioned, like, where he’s gone to college and someone happens to say, “Oh, yeah! I went to Grinnell,” or, you know, we’ve been working out at the gym, you know, in Lawrence and he’s been wearing his Grinnellian football shirt, and a guy will say, “My daughter," you know, "goes to Grinnell!” or something and there’s this automatic bond between them, and that is amazing.
Rachel Schwaller::  And again, something that I didn’t really understand is existing before, and so there’s just automatically this idea that you and I both went to this extraordinary place. We both had these incredible opportunities and were given these incredible opportunities, and not only do we have fun memories there, but we both appreciate so much.
Rachel Schwaller::  We realize, you know, the importance of this opportunity and the importance of this school. And so, as I started to realize this, and then coming here, it kind of feels like I’ve also come full circle, because... We were making a joke with someone yesterday that I-- 'I wasn't smart enough to go to Grinnell, but I was smart enough to marry a Grinnellian,' and I definitely think that that’s true.
Rachel Schwaller::  After being here, meeting the people in Rob’s class-- even people that Rob didn’t know that well, it doesn’t matter. You’re in the same class, heck, you’re all from Grinnell, so it didn’t matter if you didn’t know them very well. You’re automatically friends, colleagues... You automatically both understand the importance of having gone here, and...
Rachel Schwaller::  And I feel very... blessed to have been able to participate in this experience which has been extremely special... and extremely important, being able to hear the stories that people have to tell and everything that they have to say about it.
Rachel Schwaller::  And actually, just earlier, the story that had been kind of the story that I have been telling, is - I was on a bike-- we went on a bike tour on... Friday? On Friday. And there was a woman there who was really absolutely wonderful and she was so nice, but she asked both of us, you know, “Oh, what class are you from?” and Rob's like, “Well, I’m from ’03” and da, dada, dada!
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  And I said, “Oh, I didn’t go here. I’m not a Grinnellian.” And she goes, “Oh, I’m so sorry!” And I’m sure she just meant: 'Oh, I’m sorry for assuming,' but... it wasn’t how it sounded.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  No, I don’t think…
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  I don't think she actua--
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  I think she actually meant it, you know.
Rachel Schwaller::  But, what I’ve come to realize is that's actually so true. It really is. You know, we’re all people together, but... I really am sorry that I didn’t go to Grinnell, that I didn’t have these kinds of experiences with these incredibly unique people because they are all unique.
Rachel Schwaller::  The people in Rob’s class are very special and they're very unique, and... They’ve treated me like family, you know, as soon as they know that I’m Rob’s spouse. I mean, I’m sure they’d do that if they didn’t know that, but when they found out that I’m Rob’s spouse, you know...
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  And hanging out with his football buddies, getting to hear stories about him.... Rob was the creator of the 'Blowjob tackle'..
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  Ehh, you had to bring that up.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  --which should go down in history, I think.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  I don’t know if any of them are coming in to tell that story though.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  Probably not, but it’s... it's good. Rob did that. If you ever hear about it on the football team, that was my husband.
Rachel Schwaller::  And then also getting to hear from his brother, who was also on the football team; the amount that Will changed, being here, and if he comes back for his class-- well, I mean, I know that he will-- but I hope that they do the Oral History, and that Will will sit down-- I’ll tell him to do it-- and tell how much he’s changed being here. That he came in as a really shy... really shy kid who was a very unsure of himself, joined the football team and now he’s a paragon of confidence and excellence.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  So I know that Grinnell has changed him a lot there, so.. Very special place, I’m honored to be a part of it through marriage, and I hope one day to be a part of it in... in deeper ways, you know, when we have kids and maybe they’ll get to grow up with the Grinnell experience if they want to.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller::  Mhm.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  So, that’s an outsider’s perspective.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  Excellent.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  Thank you so much.
Rachel Schwaller & Robert Schwaller & Ben Doehr::  Thank you.
