When answering a national survey, a Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology student assessed his college’s academic environment as akin to "taking a drink from a fire hydrant – full throttle, all the time."

That student must have just come from a class taught by Dale Bremmer. Economics courses instructed by Rose-Hulman’s 2002 Outstanding Teacher of the Year are fastpaced, intellectually stimulating and fun-filled. And that would summarize the first 10 minutes!

"Everybody OK here?" . . . "Did You Get That?" . . . "How Are You Doing?" are questions Bremmer intermingles throughout a 50-minute classroom period. At a brisk pace, he addressed four homework questions (in a 10-minute period) and plotted a graph on the blackboard that analyzed society’s abatement costs of pollution controls. The graph was drawn with black, red and blue lines . . . or "Blues Clues’ Blue," as Bremmer jokingly described. "Isn’t that a great line? Everyone loves the ‘Blues Clues Blue’ line."

The reference brought a quick smile to the faces of several students.

"My goal is to give students their money’s worth . . . You give me a whiteboard, markers and a classroom and learning can take place," proudly states Bremmer, a member of Rose-Hulman faculty since 1988. "I cover the material at the pace demanded. I’m here to help students learn. If I haven’t turned someone on to the subject matter in a particular class or lecture, I haven’t done my job."

Bremmer’s classes don’t have a mandatory attendance policy. Students can skip class on any day that they have more important things to do or when they think class is not going to be worth their time.

The classroom is always full.

"Dr. Bremmer is so full of energy and loves the subject so much that you just can't help but to be interested in what he is teaching," assessed Mark Gauger, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.

"What makes Dr. Bremmer such a great professor is how active and enthusiastic he is while lecturing. Because that is his style, it brings out more class participation from the students," states Samuel Zurcher, a junior economics major. "Even though he lectures from bell to bell, there are breaks in between where he takes questions . . . and if it doesn't feel like he did a good job answering a question, whether he did or not, he'll be back the next day with a full answer."

Nathaniel Bowe, a senior mechanical engineering major who is adding a minor in economics, adds "Dr. Bremmer is the quintessential professor I pictured when I was thinking about coming to Rose-Hulman: A professor who does an excellent job teaching in the classroom and a professor who views me not just a student but as a friend . . . Every time I am having problems in economics and go to Dr. Bremmer for help, he not only tries to get me to understand the material but seems to have a genuine interest in me, my family and my life."

Bremmer’s hard-charging teaching style comes from his family heritage, his own collegiate educational experiences and mentoring by well-respected colleagues in Rose-Hulman’s humanities and social sciences faculty. His father was a celebrated engineering professor at Texas A&M and University of Southern Mississippi, while his grandmother was a caring high school teacher.

Interests in mathematics, statistics and public policy were molded into the study of economics at Arkansas State University (bachelor’s degree in 1979; master’s degree in 1981), while working 40 hours a week at a local restaurant. He earned a doctorate at Texas A&M (1985), concentrating on developing an econometric model of petroleum drilling in Texas. Not surprisingly, Bremmer’s fields of academic specialization include applied econometrics, monetary theory, industrial organization, and natural resources and energy.

Bremmer joined the Rose-Hulman faculty after three years of teaching at Arkansas State University (1985-88). Retired RHIT English Professor Calvin Dyer was an early mentor, while Bremmer also admired the teaching styles and personalities of former Outstanding Teacher Award winners John Ying (1972), Thad Smith (1976) and Thomas Mason (1997).

"I didn’t have to look very far for inspiration and motivation. The Humanities and Social Sciences Department was filled with persons dedicated to teaching, the joy of student interaction and importance of being a disciplined specialist," Bremmer said. "Fortunately, economics has always played a vital role in Rose-Hulman’s curriculum since a quality engineering program always has a quality economics program."

Those high academic standards and a quality student body allow Bremmer to teach specialized and newly developed courses in financial economics, environmental economics, and financial markets and institutions that expand the academic horizons of both student and teacher. For instance, in a previous econometrics class, a student team examined the impact of regional competition of gasoline prices, while other groups tested complex economic hypotheses by using gathered data.

Bremmer also teaches in Rose-Hulman’s engineering management graduate school program, writes columns on economic issues for the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, and has collaborated with senior economics majors to publish research papers in scholarly journals.

During the 1994-95 school year, Bremmer spent an academic sabbatical leave as a utility analyst in the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor for the State of Indiana, making utility companies justify proposed rate increases. He worked with Rose-Hulman alumni Daniel Kuester (’76, Civil Eng.), Timothy Geswein (’90, Civil Eng.) and Kyle Hamm (’94, Mech. Eng.) on several cases.

 "If I knew how to make money or I cared about making money I wouldn’t be here," said Bremmer, who saw his testimony as a utility analyst disputed by high-priced attorneys and economists. "The beauty of Rose-Hulman is I can teach a more interesting approach to economics, using mathematics principles as a base. Rose-Hulman has a challenging student body that keeps you on your toes. I share a common bond with them: We both get turned on by this stuff."

Bremmer’s classroom lectures are also filled with stories about his undergraduate research projects, his family, his ever-receding hairline and his weekly faculty racquetball matches.

When questioned by a student about the logic of an economic model, Bremmer replied, "Yes, it’s not fair. However, neither is it fair that I’m going bald."

This is definitely a person that doesn’t mind poking fun at himself.

"I’m a meat-and-potatoes type of guy who enjoys life, and takes time to stop and smell the roses. I encourage my students to do the same," he says. "I am also very fortunate to be where I am and making a living doing something that I thoroughly enjoy. I’m a very lucky man."

Bremmer is also a prolific scholar, publishing research and opinion articles on such diverse topics as "The Advertising Effect of University Athletic Success: A Reappraisal of the Evidence" and making presentations on "Military Spending: Is the Peace Dividend Real or Illusionary" and "The Relationship Between Female Labor Force Participation and Divorce." He also conducted research that examined the accuracy of the State of Florida’s voting procedures in the 2002 Presidential election.

But don’t get him started on that one.