Lawrence University will honor five retiring faculty members at the 2024 Commencement on June 9.
Psychology professor Beth Haines, anthropology professor Peter Peregrine, and three music faculty in the Conservatory—John Daniel, Matthew Michelic, and Steven Jordheim—will bid farewell at the close of the 2023-24 academic year.
John Daniel
A member of the Conservatory faculty since 2002, Daniel has shared his trumpet talents with hundreds of Lawrence students and countless audiences across the country.
Beyond the classroom, Daniel has been a sought-after trumpet player. He has served as principal trumpet with the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with numerous other orchestras. He has played recitals in major halls, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Closer to home, the associate professor of trumpet has played regularly with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, and Lawrence Brass.
He also wrote and self-published a book on trumpet technique, Special Studies for Trumpet, that is used and endorsed by teachers at many music institutes.
“The magical memories from my time at LU would include performances with colleagues,” Daniel said. “We created a CD, A Calling, of my jazz compositions using the jazz faculty. There were annual solo recitals, multiple performances with various LU ensembles, and dozens of recitals with Lawrence Brass.”
Daniel said he and the jazz faculty have performed for First-Year Studies enough times that every Lawrence student over the past 10 years has heard Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album.
“I can't think of another institution that can make that claim,” Daniel said.
In the classroom, Daniel said he has always been focused on helping each student develop a relationship to music-making that is healthy, sustainable, and empowering.
“To that end, I am taking the long view and helping each student learn how to teach themselves,” he said. “In the short term, this approach doesn't always produce the fastest results, but in the long term, the students develop a true love of growing music, which is really what I want for them.”
Beth Haines
A professor of psychology, Haines has focused much of her teaching and research on developmental psychology and gender studies since joining the Lawrence faculty in 1992.
She has taught and mentored generations of Lawrentians who have gone on to make their own marks in fields ranging from education to clinical psychology to cognitive development. She has been especially passionate about connecting Lawrence students to applied opportunities through her developmental psychology class, research, and community practicum and internship projects. She collaborated with community agencies such as the Community Early Learning Center (CELC) and the Building for Kids Children’s Museum, which led to meaningful connections and outcomes and provided opportunities for Lawrence students to build their skills while directly contributing to the community.
“I am particularly proud of the Mindfulness Based Kindness Project that Kathy Immel, a colleague at UWO-Fox Cities, and I began in 2017, which is continuing through the CELC beyond my retirement,” Haines said. “The Kindness Project supports early childhood education by providing mindfulness-based training and support for teachers who then teach the Kindness Curriculum (KC) to preschool children and learn mindfulness skills for their own personal well-being.”
More than 60 Lawrence students have served as research assistants and interns with the project, which has now served more than 100 teachers, with the Kindness Curriculum reaching thousands of young children.
In addition to developmental psychology, Haines’ teaching interests through the years have been in social development, cognitive development, adolescent psychology, and psychology of gender.
“I’ve had the privilege of teaching many wonderful LU students, particularly psychology and gender majors, and have been impressed with their sincere integrity in respecting, caring for, and including all people,” Haines said. “Therefore, my message to this year’s graduates is to become ethical leaders in their careers and communities—to speak out in support of compassion and kindness to all, and to challenge discrimination and oppression.”
Matthew Michelic
A violist, Michelic has been part of the Conservatory faculty since 1987. Besides teaching viola, he has taught courses in musicology, music theory, and music pedagogy during his 37 years at Lawrence.
He calls the day-to-day teaching in the viola studio his greatest reward.
“There have been a multitude of epiphany moments in lessons, when a student achieved an understanding or breakthrough that empowered their artistry,” Michelic said. “What a privilege it has been to guide so many gifted and dedicated Lawrentians.”
While his career has been in music education, Michelic also has a sterling resume as a music performer. At Lawrence, he has performed with the Lawrence Chamber Players, the Cantala Choir, the Concert Choir, the Percussion Ensemble, the LU Symphony Orchestra, and the Wind Ensemble, among others.
He has performed with multiple symphony orchestras, including as principal viola for the Oshkosh Symphony Orchestra, the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, and the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra. He also has been a violist-in-residence with the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, the Colorado College Summer Conservatory, and the Credo Chamber Music Program.
In the past two decades, the associate professor of music has been awarded faculty development grants to support concerts and teaching in China, Vietnam, Austria, and Greece. He has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia and has presented master classes at such schools as Butler University, the Central Conservatory of China (Beijing), the North Carolina School of the Arts, Oberlin College Conservatory, Ohio State University, Peabody School of Music, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In addition to spending more time with his family in retirement, Michelic said he’s hoping to present a series of recitals on the theme, Music My Students Taught Me.
“I plan to collaborate with former students and other colleagues living and teaching across the U.S. and I hope to engage with their own thriving studios and schools,” he said.
Steven Jordheim
A member of the Conservatory faculty since 1981, Jordheim has shared his saxophone talents widely. A winner of two major international performance competitions—the International Competition for Musical Performers (CIEM) in Geneva, Switzerland in 1983 and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York in 1984—he debuted at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1985 and has performed as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras in Italy, China, Switzerland, France, Canada, Taiwan, and the United States.
At Lawrence, Jordheim has taught courses in saxophone, chamber music, music education, instrumental pedagogy, and First-Year Studies. In 2012, he received the Freshman Studies Teaching Award, and in 2001 the faculty award for Excellence in Teaching.
He has been an artist-teacher of saxophone at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music in China, the International Saxophone Chamber Music Festival in Faenza, Italy, the Hsing Tien Kong Festival in Taiwan, and the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan.
“I treasure my memories of the students I taught in the saxophone studio, the classroom, and the rehearsal hall at Lawrence,” Jordheim said. “Seeing students develop as musicians, scholars, and human beings was the greatest joy of my career.”
In retirement, Jordheim said he’s looking forward to volunteer work with the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a Milwaukee service organization that partners with schools, nonprofit organizations, and charities to help address areas of need ranging from literacy to hunger to housing.
“My first service placement in the IVC is at Nativity Jesuit Academy in southwest Milwaukee, where I help eighth graders develop their writing skills and tutor middle school students in math and other subjects,” he said.
Peter Peregrine
The professor of anthropology has been a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1995.
With a focus on the evolution of complex societies, Peregrine has taught courses on world prehistory, historic preservation, and museum studies, among others. He also curates Lawrence’s sizable collection of archaeological and ethnographic artifacts housed in Briggs Hall.
He and his students have used remote sensing tools that allow them to search archaeological sites without disturbing the ground. Locally, that includes helping municipalities and landowners identify unmarked graves in old cemeteries. His work with remote sensing and archaeological studies has taken him to locations around the world over the past three decades.
“I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve had to work with students seeking answers to difficult questions,” Peregrine said. “I’ve wrestled with some great minds, some great people, and it has been a privilege every time.”
Peregrine is not so much retiring as moving on to the next challenge. And he’ll stay connected to Lawrence in the process.
“I’ll be here on campus about once a week helping to take care of the anthropology collections and doing a bit of research,” he said.
A Lutheran diaconal minister, Peregrine has accepted a position as chaplain to the residents at Eagle Point Senior Living and Eagle Court Memory Care. He previously helped develop a dementia respite center at First English Lutheran Church in Appleton.
"It’s my time to give back to the Appleton community that has given me and my family so much,” Peregrine said.
Ed Berthiaume
Ed Berthiaume is director of public information at Lawrence University.