Roberts’ final farewell

April 28, 2006

David Roberts with wife, Donna Roberts   Photo by Amanda Moore

This is the last week of finals R. David Roberts, area chair of Biblical learning, must endure. He is retiring after a 24-year teaching career at Milligan College. Originally, Roberts planned to retire after the spring semester of 2007, but, for several reasons, found it best to retire after this year.

Roberts began his journey at Milligan in the fall of 1982, a time when "nobody had computers on their desks," Roberts said.

"Then, if you wanted a letter written, you took it to the secretary and she would type it up," Roberts said. "Now everyone has their own computer and access to e-mail."

The technological advancement in education is the biggest change Roberts has encountered in the teaching vocation, particularly the use of programs like Blackboard or Angel.

The challenge Roberts found was living up to students' expectations to have a more visual teaching style by incorporating technology into the curriculum.

"I am too old-fashioned for that," Roberts said. "I figure let someone new come in who can do it better than I can."
Roberts has also seen a change in the economic status of the students.

"Students are much more affluent," Roberts said. "Most of them have a car and go out to eat (fairly often). That was not the case when I started teaching."

Even though the students have become wealthier, it has not changed the relationship between him as a professor and them as students. He will miss the interaction he has with his students and watching them change over the years, he said.

"I just got an e-mail today from an alumnus letting me know what's going on his life," Roberts said. "It's great to see progression and development, to see what these students are like down the road."

When asked what he considered to be the best thing about teaching at Milligan, Roberts responded, "Relationships with faculty and students."

"These past few months, everyone has been amazingly kind and thoughtful," Roberts said.

Before he began teaching at Milligan, Roberts managed a full-time ministry career for 20 years. His transition into the education arena was a move into "a different phase of ministry," he said.

After his retirement, Roberts will be "shifting gears" again, preaching two Sundays a month for 11 months at Grandview Christian Church, where he serves as an elder. Roberts will provide some stability while the senior minister, Aaron Whymer, goes on sabbatical to finish a doctoral degree.

Roberts will remain employed at Milligan throughout the summer, overseeing 15 Bible-student internships.