WAUKESHA – Fran Kritzer, Waukesha, will step away from a teaching career that has spanned nearly 30 years when she retires from the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha this June. A Fort Mill, SC, native, the daughter of teachers felt a natural draw to the profession. Born Frances McCallum, she accepted her first teaching position at North Augusta, SC, High School after graduating from Columbia College, SC, with a bachelor’s degree in English and French.
The campus will celebrate her 19-year tenure at UW-Waukesha and her service to students at a retirement party June 4.
After she earned her master’s degree in English from Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, she moved to Augusta (GA) State University, where she was an instructor of freshman composition, humanities, American literature and children’s literature and, significantly, where she met her husband, Paul Krtizer. “He’s steadily moved me north,” she says.
They hop-scotched up to Washington, D.C., then to Iowa, and to Wisconsin, with a child being added to the family at each of the first two stops, and she has not regretted the moves. “I’ve been impressed by Midwesterners. It’s wonderful for raising children. The people are more open-minded,” she feels.
While her children were growing, Kritzer gave whatever extra time she could to community involvement. She served on the YWCA Board of Directors, chaired their community relations committee, and actively worked with the Waukesha Symphony and the United Way.
After she returned to teaching, she reduced that load but did not drop it. She was a member of the Fox River Development Committee, became vice president of the Waukesha Symphony (2001-2003) and, at the same time, president of the Board of Directors of the United Way in Waukesha County. In addition, she chaired the Waukesha Police and Fire Commission from 1999 to 2005 and currently is president-elect of the Ideal Club.
These she slipped in between raising two daughters – one a graduate of Northwestern University and living and working in Chicago and the other married and enrolled in a graduate program at the Kennedy School of Public Policy at Harvard University. In fact, her work as a mother and as an active part of the YWCA led her to co-found the Teen Leadership Council to give extra encouragement to young women who already are succeeding.
“Teaching has given me a fresher, more energetic outlook,” she feels. “I never got up in the morning not looking forward to a day of teaching. I like making students feel better about being able to write.” The part of her mission she won’t miss is “sitting in airports with papers [to grade].” In fact, this is what she sees as the only downside of teaching – time used to correct papers instead of reading a good book.
Some of the thank-you notes from past students have been both gratifying and revealing. One student from 1992, Heidi Bacon wrote some years later: “Having developed a reputation as a good writer, I directly relate my academic success to the learning that I experienced as a student in your classroom. It helped me across the curriculum.” Another former student gained the self-esteem that comes from knowing how to do something right: “The little note you wrote. . . promised that I would feel more confident about writing and would do it more often. Certainly, that promise has been fulfilled! . . . I feel like a different person when I communicate on paper. I’m very glad my first class at UW-Waukesha was your English class!”
In addition, Kritzer served on student-centered committees – scholarship, student life, and Honors & Degree. She also advised students on their academic programs.
Certainly, she proved her mission to teach extended beyond English. After listening to John Gardner, a national leader in student retention who made a presentation at UW-Waukesha, Kritzer initiated the Freshman Seminar on campus in 1997, developing a curriculum and working on marketing it. The class orients new students to college and to the campus, making it easier for them to navigate the system of learning in a higher education setting. Freshmen who have enrolled have been less likely to drop out of school. This fall, UW-Waukesha will offer 17 sections of the course, many focused on a particular academic subject and with many of the instructors mentored by Kritzer.
Perhaps she was able to start such a course because she could identify with many of the students’ tastes, she hypothesizes. “I like the same music, go to some of the same concerts they do, and listen to the same radio stations.” With tastes ranging from symphony to rap and hip hop, Kritzer can mingle comfortably with faculty and students alike.
Another reason she was the perfect person to start the new program is her philosophy. “When I see something that needs changing, I worry until I try to do something about it,” Kritzer professes. This has driven her many successes.
Leaving teaching and UW-Waukesha will be “bittersweet,” she feels. “It’s hard to look at the list of classes [for next fall] and not see my name.” Of course, she will find plenty of new ways to occupy herself. Immediate travel plans center on family – spending time with her parents, who are in their 80’s, in Rock Hill, and at her and husband Paul’s vacation home in Charleston, both in SC; visiting daughters Erica in Boston and Carrie in Chicago; and traveling together on his business trips. Now she can take along a book. And do some writing.
“I’ve got a couple writing projects I’d like to do.” A relative from the 1600’s left a diary, which is a great jumping off place for further research and interesting story-telling. And, the southern lady who moved north wants to write a cookbook for her family. |
