Leaving a legacy: Katz retires after 38 years at IU

Every university has its own living legend. There are stories about him or her that date back before our time. Everyone hears about how hard these people are, yet they still want to have them as their professors, just to say they had them. \nIU is losing its own living legend. \nAfter 38 years of teaching history and Jewish studies here in Bloomington, professor Irving Katz is retiring. He will teach the second session of summer session and then pack his bags and move back to his beloved Manhattan. \nAt the Wilkie Auditorium on Sunday, Katz's 38 years of service to the school, community and residence halls was honored with "A Roast in Honor of Irving Katz." The two-and-a-half-hour event featured music from the IU School of Music, dinner, dessert and the roast to professor Katz. With more than 100 students, friends, faculty and administrators in attendance, Katz made it clear he was pleasantly shocked with the dinner. \n"I had no idea it was going to be on that scale. I was told it was going to be a small going away party, or maybe a small dinner," Katz said. "But when I saw that many people, and all those faces, I was honored but shocked at the same time."\nHeadlining the event was IU President Myles Brand, who presented Katz with the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion, which upon presentation Brand dropped to the ground. This ignited a roar of laughter and applause from the jubilant crowd. Those who also spoke were: Patrick Connor, executive director of Residential Programs and Services; Richard McKaig, vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students; Michelle Bernstein, resident assistant in Read Center; Al Ruesnik, residential fellow and professor of biology; Amy Cornell, academic advisor at the Department of Communication and Culture; Nancy Lorenz, director of Academic Initiative Services and Residential Programs and Services; and professor Katz. \nThe roast and dinner were put on by Residential Programs and Services, with which Katz has had a long and solid relationship. \nKatz has spent 17 years with RPS but has been involved with the resident halls since 1965, beginning as a faculty advisor for Foster Residence Center until 1967. However, his work with residence halls did not stop in 1967. It had begun. \nAfter a 14-year break, Katz began working again with the residence halls. From 1981 to 1984 he was part of the University Residence Halls Committee. From 1985 to 1999 he was a Forest Friend. During that time he worked with many other residence halls. From 1988 to 1993, he was on the Residential Education Advisory Board. From 1988 to 1994, Katz was on the Campus Housing Advisory Committee. From 1990 to 1993 he was on the Wellness Center Task Force. Since 1990 he has been a Groups Faculty Friend. Also since 1993, he has been part of the Foster International Advisory Board, as well as the Briscoe Wellness Center Advisory Board. From 1997 to 1999 Katz was the chair of the Campus Community Council. In 2001, Katz was the Keynote Speaker at the Big Ten Housing Officers Conference. \nEvery year, Katz is given one or more floors from any of the residence halls, and he is that floor's floor fellow. That means he interacts with these students on a weekly basis, including eating a few meals in the residence halls each week. One of those meals is usually with his floor. \nOne of the speakers during the evening was Bernstein, a Read Center resident assistant.\n"He's very dedicated to his students," Bernstein said.\nKatz goes to dinner with Bernstein's floor once a week and has taken the students to dress rehearsals of the operas that perform at the Musical Arts Center. \nThat's on top of the in-depth discussions he has with his floors about a wide range of topics. Bernstein presented him with a few gifts: a pocket organizer, a Read Center T-shirt and a book titled "The Joys of Yiddish."\n"One of the girls on Michelle's floor and I always get into it about why different foods are Kosher. We discussed how pigs weren't, and every time we'd eat together, she would sit down with a plate of ham. And I'd tell her, 'Now is that Kosher?'" said Katz, igniting a roar of laughter during his speech. \nKatz also addressed his love of opera. \n"Ever since I was a little boy, I loved musicals. I love going to Broadway and hearing Rogers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin," Katz said. "I guess I have just grown to love opera. It was a natural progression. Opera demands more from the voice and from the orchestra."\nUsing baseball as his metaphor, Katz explained the way musicals are just the minor leagues, but opera is reaching the majors because of the demands he mentioned above. \n"Seeing all the fine arts come together is unreal. The orchestra, the drama, the individual singing, the chorus singing, the dance and even the sets," Katz said. "When it works it's heaven."\nHis daughter Naomi, a graduate of the IU School of Music, is a violinist on Broadway. The last performance he attended on Broadway was "Suessical," a musical about the Dr. Suess children's books; Naomi performed in the orchestra. \n"I love sharing my love," Katz said. "I'm not impeding it on anyone -- just sharing it. If they don't like it, to each their own. I don't get offended. Opera isn't for everyone."\nThe evening was full of presentations, hugs and even some tears. But what kept everyone's attention was the anticipation of Katz's response to it all. In the natural Katz character, he cracked jokes, using his signature Jewish humor throughout almost his entire speech. \nReligion is one thing Katz is not afraid to discuss. He is very proud of his Jewish heritage, and he will talk about it with whoever dares to listen. That is why he has taught American Jewish history for more than 25 years. He incorporates some piece of Jewish history into all of his lectures, whether they are about Jewish history or not. During his speech, he used many Yiddish words, some out of habit, some as an example of what his students heard in every class. \nAnother topic very close to Katz's heart is his hometown of New York. Born Sept. 24, 1932, Katz lived in Manhattan until he graduated from City College of New York in 1954. Before he went to CCNY, Katz attended the Yeshiva until he was Bar Mitzvah'd at age 13 and then attended Peter Stuyvesant High School, an elitist high school in Manhattan. \nAfter graduating from CCNY, Katz was immediately drafted into the U.S. Army. The war in North Korea had just ended, so Katz was in the infantry for two years and came out an infantry corporal. \n"I was very grateful to the United States Army for helping defeat the Nazi's," he said. "And for that I would have gone to war in a second."\nFrom the Army he went to graduate school at New York University, where he got his master's in 1959 and his doctorate in 1964. \nIn 1959, Katz met and married Sarah Katz and began teaching full time at a junior high school in East Harlem from 1958 to 1961 to support the family while Sarah was a piano student at the Julliard School of Music. In 1961, Katz moved to Cambridge, Mass., and worked in the Harvard research faculty for three years, researching investment banking in America, about which he wrote a book. After the three years was over and his dissertation for NYU was through, Katz went to an American Historical Association convention and received three offers for teaching positions -- one at Northwestern and one at Berkeley. Both were only one-year offers, and Irving and Sarah did not want to move to Evanston, Ill., or Berkeley, Calif., for one year. Then IU gave Katz a three-year offer. Katz accepted, and after the three years was over he was offered another three years as a history professor. After those six years, the University decided to tenure Katz and offered him a seventh year. He has been here ever since. \n"The real reason why I took the job at Indiana was because the offices were bigger," Katz joked. "I got my own office and a library; they didn't offer me that at Northwestern or Berkeley." \nEvery seven years Katz takes a sabbatical, usually back to New York. \nWhen Katz finishes the summer session, he will return to Manhattan. Except this time it will be to the other side of town. He will live in the Upper West Side, within walking distance from Columbia University. \nHe said he wants to get back into teaching, most likely adult education, either at the local Jewish Community Center or Columbia University. But that venture will not be likely for a few more years, until Katz gets settled back into his home. \n"They are more motivated to learn than undergraduates," Katz said of teaching adults. "They are already motivated when you get them, compared to the younger kids -- you need to motivate them. But there's nothing more rejuvenating then being with young people."\nAnd over the course of 38 years, Katz has been with plenty of young people; he figured he has taught more than 20,000 students. His goal the whole time was to just keep them awake, as enthusiastic about history as he is.\n"History is something everybody should be concerned with," Katz said, "because everyone has a history."\nAnd Katz has built quite a storied one at IU.