PORT ANGELES — A historical perspective of Peninsula College’s Studium Generale program will be presented next week.
The Studium’s first program of the 2012 winter quarter will begin at 12:35 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, in the college’s Little Theater on the Port Angeles campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Jim Fisher, college English professor, will present “A Look Back at Thirty-Seven Years of Success,” sharing highlights of the Studium Generale program with video clips of programs and guest speakers.
Studium Generale began during the 1970s when Peninsula College, like the rest of the country, was feeling the financial pinch of a weakened economy, high oil prices, inflation and high interest rates.
Werner Quast, one of Peninsula College’s founding faculty members, founded Studium.
Each Thursday
Over the years, the program developed a following of community members who come to the campus each Thursday during the regular academic year to hear programs dealing with topics of interest in the humanities, social sciences, sciences and global issues.
Quast’s legacy is carried on by retired history professor Dorothy Drain, who assumed the role of coordinator of Studium Generale in 1993 when Quast retired.
Fisher is now retired from full-time teaching but still teaches one online course for Peninsula College every quarter.
Procter & Gamble
Prior to teaching, he worked for 25 years for Procter & Gamble in Long Beach, Calif., but elected to leave the company when the Long Beach plant was closed.
He returned to school, got his master’s and doctorate degrees in English, and moved to Washington state, where he started teaching for Peninsula College in 1994.