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“I had a list of things I was looking for. I wanted a small liberal arts school near a big city; a Catholic school was a plus. I had never heard of Irving, never heard of UD, but it fit the criteria.”
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- Dr. Doe
He Stayed for the Students
6 l TOWER l WINTER 2017
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ssociate Professor of Biology Frank Doe admits to missing Lynch Auditorium and the 8 a.m. General Biology I class he used to teach there. “No one else misses that 8 a.m. class,” he said. “But I do. And Lynch Auditorium — World War III, heaven forbid, could be going on right outside, but inside Lynch we’d never know it — we’d just be carrying on.” This coming summer, Doe will retire, just before his 80th birthday, after 47 years of teaching at UD. Sometimes students and alumni ask him why he’s stayed here for so long. “You guys,” he’ll tell them. “I stayed because of you guys.” He has often considered what characteristics he’s most enjoyed in UD students while teaching and associating with them; the list includes cooperation, empathy, fidelity, integrity, loyalty and responsibility. “Now, I’ve only ever taught here,” he said. “So maybe this is true of students everywhere. But I do think that displaying these qualities in such prevalence is somewhat unique to UD.” He believes that the greatest gifts UD gives students are a strong sense of responsibility and a work ethic. “That’s so boring,” he admitted. “You can’t sell that to prospective students. But it’s the truth. I watch these students grow from freshmen to seniors, and some of them are hardly recognizable. And that’s a good thing.”
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