A lot of times people go somewhere and end up staying much longer than they had originally intended. For Dr. Gary Steinke, what was supposed to be a two-year stint in 1977 has turned into more than 36 years serving as a professor at UTM.
In the spring of 1977, on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Mich., a young Steinke was finishing his doctorate degree and looking for work.
After working for some of the major networks, including ABC, Steinke decided to go into teaching.
“I had an offer to interview at Northwestern and Boston College, and I had one from Martin,” Steinke said.
“They were starting a new department here and that’s what really interested me more than anything else. It was an opportunity to go work in a new place.”
At the time, the current Department of Communications did not exist. Still in its infancy, what is now known as one of the more decorated departments on campus was being run out of the Humanities Building under the Department of English.
“They had a situation here where they needed to have someone come in and help them get structured for a program,” Steinke said.
“I had quite a bit of experience doing that because when I was at Michigan, I was a teaching assistant.”
ABC, convinced that he would spend one year behind a desk and then return to his job at the network, granted Steinke a one-year leave of absence to pursue being a full-time professor.
“I expected to stay about two years,” Steinke said.
“My wife and I were on our way to Florida. … I had a tentative offer from Florida State to come because they had a program that was starting to develop and I thought I would just go on down there. I wanted to be in Florida because I like to sail. … I came and thought I would stay as long as people needed me and wanted to do stuff, and quite frankly, it took a lot longer than I realized to establish a department.”
Steinke said that people in Michigan were surprised to see him flee to the small town of Martin. Tired of the weather and waiting in line for things, and impressed by the students and administration at UTM, he officially made Martin his home.
However, Steinke found starting a new department wasn’t exactly the easiest project.
“It was starting from ground zero,” Steinke said.
“We didn’t have any equipment, [we] didn’t have anything here. … I had friends of mine that I knew in Detroit that sent equipment down here for us to use for free because they liked me. They didn’t think I would stay here, because I was fairly successful up [there].”
The Department of Communications officially came to life in 1978 and with Steinke’s help, has developed into only one of about 100 programs that is accredited by the National Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
However, all of this came very close to not happening because of two very different and unique circumstances.
In 1969, after graduating Michigan State University with his bachelor’s degree, Steinke nearly headed out to Hollywood.
In search of some editing equipment, he responded to an ad in a newspaper that was posted by a former editor for The Three Stooges who had recently moved back to Michigan to retire. While he never made the move to Hollywood, he nearly made another one to Vietnam.
Prior to being at Michigan State, Steinke was enrolled in the ROTC program while at Dartmouth College studying music.
“I had started at Dartmouth College in music, but my local draft board didn’t recognize music as being a legitimate area to get a college deferment. So, I stayed with music as a [hobby] and went into communications because they recognized that,” Steinke said.
“I was about ready to go from there [to] the Vietnam War. … I had been drafted and I was ready to go in about 30 days. … I had psychologically adjusted [to the idea] that I would be going; then, I found out I didn’t have to go.”
Steinke said that if he had made it to Hollywood he would have probably never made it to graduate school.
After all his years at UTM, Steinke knows he doesn’t have much time left as a professor.
“I’m reaching the end of the road, there’s no question about that,” Steinke said.
“I’m 67 years old. … I’ve been trying to do it to help the department with staffing purposes right now, but I’d be surprised if I was here more than a year or so. … If I keep waiting and holding off for retirement I won’t have one. It will just be over, and everything will be over.”
One of the major things that is keeping Steinke at UTM is students.
“I really enjoy the teaching,” Steinke said.
“It’s an addictive thing. I don’t look at it as a career; it’s more of a mental addiction. … I’ve been treated really well and it’s been a good run, but I can’t go on forever. That’s the sad thing about it because I’ll miss people.”
As Steinke nears the end of his long career at UTM, he has his sights set on several things after retirement.
He plans on traveling with his wife, who retired six years ago, and taking the time to work on various projects, including jukeboxes.
Despite the family’s traveling bug, Steinke believes that he will remain in Martin, but he might have to travel the world more before settling back in.
Featured photo: This photo is of Dr. Gary Steinke teaching his Comm. Law and Ethics class during the current semester. Photo credit Sarah Martin
