Minor Myers jr. Memorial

Editor's note: Nancy Steele Brokaw, a Bloomington-based freelance writer who regularly contributes to The Pantagraph, was a friend of Illinois Wesleyan University President Minor Myers Jr. She is an Illinois Wesleyan graduate and served on several IWU boards. This is her personal recollection of Myers. BLOOMINGTON -- A lot of people will remember Minor Myers Jr. this way: walking across the Illinois Wesleyan University campus at breakneck speed, head down, listening to someone who's struggling to keep up. His reading glasses are stuck in his tangle of hair, and he's sipping coffee from a paper cup. Abruptly, he stops midstride and fishes a small piece of paper from his shirt pocket. His interest has just been piqued, and he wants to jot a note. Myers brought passion and a wide-ranging intellect to everything he did in life, from collecting model trains to building a university. "What's your passion?" was typically the first thing out of Myers' mouth when he met someone new. That could seem disconcerting, but, with Myers, it was a gateway to something more interesting than small talk. Whatever the passion, Myers either knew something about it or he soon would. Then he'd share it with his new friend. Myers understood passions, usually coupling his own with something tangible such as a skill (playing the harpsichord), a book (he wrote about subjects as diverse as the study of coins and Baroque cookery) or a collection. Myers was the first guy through the gates at Third Sunday Market. He collected Baroque musical instruments, early Chicago theater sheet music, pieces of meteors, model trains and enough old books to fill a library. A university president has to answer to a lot of people -- the board of trustees, alumni, faculty, parents and, of course, students. Maybe it was Myers' gift that he reported to all of them in the same style. Which is to say he remained an infectious blend of energy and enthusiasm -- a "gentleman scholar" who didn't want or need to show off but was rather, and always, consumed by learning more. His sense of humor was infectious. It was hard not to respond to a guy whose eyes crinkled shut when he laughed. Most of all, Myers believed in IWU students, and they knew it. He believed in Illinois Wesleyan, too. He dared everyone there to envision the school as something bigger and better than had been dreamed of before. At the end of each graduation, Myers liked to say, "Go forth and do well, but more than that, go forth and do good." It wasn't just something he said, it was something he did.