By Julia Sikora · Contributing Writer
Grove City College would not be the place that it is without the dedication of the faculty and staff. It is evident that our professors are committed to working for the mission of the school, continuously supporting the students that come in and out of the classrooms and labs every year.
The college recognizes seven professors who will be retiring at the end of the academic year.
The student body would not be the same without their commitment to teaching, advising, mentoring and building relationships during their time at Grove City.
Among the retirees are Drs. Joseph Augspurger, Kristin Barbour, Glenn Marsch, Kristin Homan, Timothy Homan, Andrew Markley and Stacy Paparone. All will be greatly missed by students and faculty alike.
Augspurger, a professor of chemistry since 1996, reflected fondly on his experience at Grove City. Augspurger says that it was the “relationships between both the faculty and the students that make this the place that it is.”
Augspurger served as the chair of the Chemistry Department from 2018 to 2024, and the most notable class he taught was Physical Chemistry.
His favorite memory is “playing faculty basketball over lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” He was grateful for the opportunity to meet faculty across multiple disciplines through this weekly tradition.
He is excited for the opportunity to travel and visit his family more frequently in his retirement. Augspurger is looking forward to visiting his children in South Dakota and Guatemala, as well as traveling to the national parks in the Southwest.
Kristen Homan, working with Grove City College since 1992, has made significant contributions in the field of psychology.
She enjoyed the opportunity to teach all of her classes, noting that “weirdly, I even like teaching statistics!”
Homan says that it makes her happy to mentor students through their senior research projects and when students enjoy classes “even a little bit.”
Though it is hard to choose one notable memory, she asserted that “every one of the memories that I treasure involves relationships with wonderful people that I got to know. I will definitely miss my ordinary, everyday interactions with students and colleagues.”
Homan and her husband, Timothy, plan to “make lots of trips to visit my adult children, (one of whom lives) in France.” She intends to continue learning French, volunteering for a local nonprofit that helps low-income families in crisis and anticipates finding other ways to volunteer.
Homan “looks forward to continuing our many friendships with people in Grove City that we have known and loved for decades.”
Grove City College will certainly miss the professors that have become such an integral part of the campus community, and we wish all the retirees luck in this new chapter that God has in store for them.
