Alumni

Brian Fogarty, MA ’74

After finishing my MA at UNCG, I went on to Purdue University for my PhD. After completion, I taught in Saint Louis University’s MA program in Hospital Administration. Convinced that I had reached the pinnacle of academic success, I failed to make tenure. Because I had had a lot of statistics, I was hired to be a cost analyst at the Army Aviation Systems Command, where I multiplied large numbers by even-larger numbers to determine how much helicopters should cost. It was an easy, soul-crushing job, for which I was well paid.

After six years, during which time I married and acquired two teens, I found an academic position at Briar Cliff College in Iowa. It only cost me a 50% salary reduction, a reasonable deal. After two years, we escaped to the Twin Cities, where I began at The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.

Here I made tenure, served as chair for 20 years, wrote two books, wrote the libretto for an opera, and generally came to enjoy the role of senior faculty, graybeard, curmudgeon. I have a great 32-year marriage, two children who are loving and successful, five grandkids, and two years left to retirement.

Overall, it has been very gratifying—but none more gratifying, professionally and intellectually, than my two years at UNCG.  There I learned more per semester than anywhere else before or since, and I acquired the persona of a thinking person, a curse for which I am very grateful.