Curiosity inspires OLLI class leaders

Curiosity, not credentials, is all that’s needed to lead a group of learners.

Back up your interest with a few good books, and you can inspire others to pursue your path.

For proof that the ability to teach is not restricted to academia, talk to Pam and Dick Duchaine, study group leaders in the Green Valley program of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arizona.

This couple retired from the corporate world, where their math and business degrees channeled them into information technology. Since moving to Green Valley, Pam has led several OLLI courses. She currently is co-leading “Great American Short Stories of the Century” with Sylvia Woolley and will present “Birding in Paradise” at 9 a.m. on March 26 at First American Title Co. in the Green Valley Mall.

Earlier this month, Dick introduced an OLLI class to “Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice.”

“I have always been interested in geology,” he explained. “I read about volcanic action in Iceland splitting the country in half, so that interest made me think of a course. And Chuck Parsons was willing to lead the class with me.”

While he and Pam were spending a summer in Utah, Dick discovered that a group of Icelanders had emigrated to Spanish Fork, Utah.

“Your first thought is Mormons, and you’re absolutely right,” he explained. “They were baptized on the seashore of Iceland, and Brigham Young assigned them to Spanish Fork.”

Many Icelanders emigrated to Washington Island in Door County, Wis., a site Dick could see while growing up on the opposite shore in Escanaba, Mich.

More distant shores expanded both Dick’s and Pam’s interests. After completing his MBA at the University of Michigan in 1961, Dick went to work for McDonald Aircraft. Six months later, during the Berlin crisis, he was activated into the U.S. Air Force and spent a year in France while the Soviets were building the Berlin Wall.

Pam was born in Cincinnati, but later the family moved to a nearby farming community so her father could pursue his dream of becoming a professional trainer of hunting dogs.

“I was a freshman in high school, so, of course, I thought the end of my life had come,” she recalled.

Now she appreciates the small rural high school that prepared her to receive a scholarship to Lake Erie College, where she pursued double majors in math and Italian. During the school’s semester-abroad program, she concentrated on Italian studies and lived with a family in Pisa, Italy.

“When I graduated in ‘65, I went to work in a jewelry store right off the Ponte Vecchio (in Florence),” she said.

Her math major lead to her next job with the Mead Corp., a paper manufacturer.

“I met Dick at work. We were both working in information technology in the headquarters in Dayton,” she said. “We literally met at the key punch.”

When Dick was offered a position at Appleton Papers, the couple, along with their four-year-old son Brad, moved to Wisconsin, where Pam began her 17-year career with Kimberly-Clark Corp.

“My best assignment was a year in England working on the merger between Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper,” she said.

Dick took early retirement, accompanied his wife to London and reveled in the opportunity to explore the city and surrounding environs.

“I went on many London Walks,” he recalled. “I’d be on the guided tour until one o’clock, then rush to Leicester Square to get a theater ticket to go to a play in the afternoon.”

“We really got involved in theater there,” Pam added. She shared her memories with participants in the current OLLI “Theater in Tucson” class.

When Pam chose to retire in 1997, the couple headed to the American West, first checking out Santa Barbara, where their son completed his Ph.D., then Arizona. They considered Scottsdale and SaddleBrooke before discovering Green Valley.

“When we arrived, we called the University of Arizona to see if they had a senior education program,” Pam explained. “They put us on the waiting list for SAGE (Senior Achievement and Growth through Education).

“After we became members, SAGE became a prime activity for us. We would go to Tucson two or three days a week to take courses.”

Immigration, globalization, the Constitution, opera, literature and the arts/crafts of Mexico were some of the couple’s choices. With Dick’s assistance, Pam led classes on Sicily, Tuscany, birds and short stories.

The SAGE board chose to affiliate with the nationwide OLLI program and in late 2006 proposed expanding its outreach to Green Valley.

“The Tucson OLLI board had a vision that we’d have three or four courses and maybe 30 members in Green Valley,” Pam recalled. “By the time we were three weeks into the first semester in Spring 2007, we had 240 members. We now have 313 members and 36 classes.”

The number of courses is dependent upon volunteers who offer to lead classes on topics that interest them or in which they have experience or knowledge. Class participation is encouraged, and UA professors contribute their expertise.

“We’re having a call now for curriculum for next fall and 2009,” Pam said. “We have members who are only here January through March. We hope that some of them will say, ‘Yes, I’ll lead something a year from now’.”

The OLLI/GV Community Coordinating Council, on which Pam serves, also is looking for leaders for four-week classes during June 2008.

Those interested in leading an OLLI class can contact Pam at 399-2969 or Penny Schmitt at the OLLI/UA office (520) 626-9039 or ollimail@u.arizona.edu.

OLLI membership packets are available at the Joyner-Green Valley Library.

Marge Hanley is a Green Valley resident and former journalist with the Indianapolis Star.