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- Dr. Augie Mauser
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Augie Mauser
LB: I’m sure you have a number of stories you can share with us, so what would be some of those memories or humorous stories or whatever you recall from your days here at USF?
AM: Well, I’ll try.
LB: It doesn’t have to be humorous.
AM: One thing I can always say is that I wake up every morning, still do, with kind of a smile on my face. There’s several kind of humorous stories that I might share. I don’t want to pick on Dean Katzenmeyer or anything like that. However, at his retirement he walks into the banquet room with a roll of toilet paper hanging down and out of his pants from the rear. Now those kinds of things are funny. Oh, I’ll tell you this one, too. This goes back to not necessarily to USF, but I do remember going in to the restroom before an 8 o’clock class. I was washing my hands in a hurry and spilling water all over my front, including my pants. Since my pants were wet and it was nearing class time, I took out a lighter because I smoked pipes in those days and I tried to dry my pants with the flame of the lighter. And the next thing I realized was that my polyester suit pants started to burn.
LB: Right before class?
AM: You know the polyester types of suits that they had in those days. Anyway, thank God for a leather professor-type of brief case. You know they cover things up. I’ve got some other interesting kinds of stories that I think were humorous. You know we all have mentors in our chosen academic area and one of my mentors was an eminent professor in child development, Nick Long. I was asked to be on a program with him near my home area of northwest Indiana and Chicago. Nick and I were doing a workshop in one of the area’s larger school districts, Rockford, Illinois. I heard everything that my mentor had ever said in his professional life many, many times. We were both on the stage as presenters and panelists. And when he was giving his presentation on behavior management and the conflict cycle which I had heard many, many, many times before. I literally fell asleep on the stage and so someone had to nudge me. Funny to everybody else, I think it’s kind of funny to be jabbed and I said, “Well, I heard this stuff before.” I’ve had many enjoyable as well as funny experiences.
LB: Yes.
AM: Oh, wait a second. I have another good one. Many of us have had a story about their car being stolen. I was scheduled to give a speech at a nearby conference. I was in my office. My car was loaded up and it was out in the parking lot. I left my office and went to my parking space to get my car and it’s gone. I went back up and told the secretary that someone stole my car. She says, “Oh, my gosh! You do know that someone from a car repair shop called asking where your parking spot was as they needed to locate your car for some quick repairs that you requested.” Well, the deal was that I actually had some work done at this place. There was an employee on work release from prison who took a molding of my key while he worked at the car repair shop. Several weeks later he used the key to drive off with my car. So here I was, with no car to get to St. Petersburg where I was scheduled to give a speech. It was funny to me, after I found out the circumstances of the car theft. Most anything amused me and it still does.
LB: If you could share a sentiment or words of wisdom with students entering the College of Education to become special education teachers today, what would you say?
AM: OK, Lou. You should know this about me. An axiomatic phrase and statement that I can make that’s been a philosophy of mine for a long time since I was a little kid deals with the concept of persistence. I’ve always said that persistence is omnipotent. You can be extremely bright. And you can have many positive attributes along with good character. But you’ve got to be persistent. Working with children and youth in the school setting is loaded with inconveniences. They’re up out of their chairs. That takes them away from their work and learning. And they are not paying attention to you. What you have got to do is be persistent in whatever you do; persistence in getting your students on task and persistence in keeping them on task. You must have goals, let’s hope they’re the appropriate goals and then be persistent in your efforts to insure the achievement of those goals. In education you can have all the content matter down, but let me tell you, you’ve got to connect with those students. You know there’s more to education than being a classroom technician in teaching mathematics, reading, and language arts. Especially with special education kids, whether it’s adaptive physical education or in the classroom, you must have a persistent and unwavering focus on what those students’ academic, as well as what social and vocational needs, each student has. You tirelessly must keep working on achieving acceptable goals and behaviors. Practice, practice, practice and that’s what persistence is all about.
LB: Yes.
AM: So, and whether it’s back in Indiana working on dribbling and ball handling; or on free throws where we would shoot a minimum of a 100 a day; or in football where we run pass patterns over and over and over again, that’s part of the old persistence until you get perfection. Very seldom have I reached perfection, maybe in selecting, Jean, my bride. You, Lou, with RoseAnne were lucky in that respect also.
LB: Yes, I was.
LB: Are there any questions I didn’t ask you that you, are wanting to answer? Here’s the chance to ask the question and answer it too.
AM: I think you’ve done a super job. I mean you don’t have many notes there to use, so I must be near the last on the list. But I think if there is life after retirement, it still must include USF. I think that’s important. As they say, I could have continued teaching and hung on, you know, for a few more years. But I had always said that I wanted to retire at the top when I still felt great and could function at a top level. I jumped at retiring when I had the opportunity. It was the state of Florida’s DROP program which was billed as a kind of an early retirement program which made it possible.
When I was a young faculty member at Indiana University, I was about 25 years old and not much older than the students, what made an impression on me was the great number so called elderly scholars who should have retired from Indiana University, but they did not. They did make their way to the library every day, just trudging up the steps every day to continue their life’s work. I made a firm vow, years ago, to retire when I’m young enough to still smell the roses and begin a new career in one of the many business interests and ventures that I had started. So, a couple of years ago I retired. I was healthy, with a high energy level and fortunately the good health and energy continues. I’m slightly older now. But there is life after USF. I have a super wife and family. I still consult, have a long-time cigar business, a hot tub and spa distributorship, as well as a travel business. With a working wife, it doesn’t get much better than that. I still have a strong relationship with the University and go to all of the athletics events I can attend. I have season tickets for just about everything and travel extensively. Life is great.
LB: That sounds great. Thanks for all you have done and continue to do for USF and thanks for sharing your experiences for the College of Education’s 50th Anniversary Oral History Project.
AM: But the best thing is that USF is a great university with a great national reputation for academics, athletics, and a quality of life. And it’s going to continue to be a great place and focal point. I’m proud to say that I was a faculty member here.
LB: Great. Well we thank you for your time and sharing your experiences with us this morning and all you have done for the field of special education and the University of South Florida.
AM: Thank you.
LB: Thank you for being a part of the 50-year history of the College of Education. Thank you very much for being here.
AM: Thanks, Lou.
End of Interview