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Peter Priest retires, ending 36-year career
What started out as a one-year sabbatical replacement turned into a 36-year career for
Peter Priest.
Now after almost four decades of teaching Russian, guiding tours to Russia, and helping
develop the Technical Translation program, Priest is retiring from Rose-Hulman. The
professor of Russian graded his last final exam in November.
In assessing his time at Rose-Hulman, Priest said he had to be the “highest paid
professor at the school.” He was not measuring his pay in rubles. Instead, he
measured it by the relationships he has developed along the way.
“The most rewarding part of my experience at Rose-Hulman unquestionably was found in
the friendships and communication with the students,” Priest said. “I got to
know them as people when they shared their personal triumphs and problems with me.”
The personal nature of Rose-Hulman was what kept Priest here after serving a sabbatical
replacement in 1962. “I came from teaching at the University of Illinois where
communication with students was more limited than it is here,” Priest explained.
“When I came to Rose-Hulman, students actually came to my office for help in class.
They also began talking about personal matters.
“At first I was offended by the personal nature of the conversations,” Priest
said. “I was somewhat of an academic snob. I thought ‘I’m a teacher, I
should be teaching.’ But I really began enjoying life with them. They started working
on me and I stayed.”
During his stay, he reveled in the challenge of teaching Rose-Hulman students.
“Engineers are different in how they approach learning and particularly how they
approach language,” Priest said. “The challenge is to make it relevant to them.
As a linguist I was able to provide a scientific explanation that suits them better.”
Part of making language relevant was the Technical Translation program that featured
Russian and German, beginning in 1973. “I figured it was a natural,” Priest
recalled. “The students got to study a foreign language and combine it with interest
in their chosen field.”
Many students took advantage of trips to Russia to ply their language skills. Priest led
15 trips with 177 students and/or faculty. (An overview page concerning the trips and
those who attend can be found on the world wide web at
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~priest/varia/trips.html.) He cited these advantages:
• the trips make students appreciate their American culture;
• students become more self-confident and outgoing because of travel abroad; and
• students gain a greater appreciation of the importance of studying humanities and
social sciences.
Some of the trips involved helping Christian students smuggle Bibles into Russia.
International accords allowed only one Bible per person coming into the country. Priest
recalls some trips where he would fast-talk his way through Soviet customs packing 20 to
30 Bibles. “That gave me a great personal satisfaction and brought home the
importance of religion to me in the everyday lives of Americans and Russians.”
While Priest admits students helped shape his life, he also credits some of his colleagues
at Rose-Hulman. Mentors he cited include Gordon Haist, John Logan, Bill Meeks, Cal Dyer,
Tom Mason, Pat Brophy, and Pat Carlson.
Outside of the classroom, Priest maintained a high interest in matters of Russia. He
helped with written translations and oral interpreting for government and business. He has
helped stock souvenirs for stores in the Indianapolis and Chicago areas. Many Russian
students and businessmen have been able to visit the United States thanks to the work of
Priest who also helped negotiate exchanges of students between Rose-Hulman and Russian
universities.
Although the classroom is now part of his past, Priest plans to continue his interest in
Russia. He plans on finishing a book about present-day Russia, developing a tourist
business, and continuing research about the differences between individualism and
collectivism. He and his wife, Natalya, will continue to reside in Terre Haute.
— by Bryan Taylor
 
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