Todd Danen (left) and Billy Falk have many years of SNC stories to tell.

SNC Storytellers Hark Back

The latest episodes of St. Norbert College’s new video series Behind the Arch are bringing campus history to light through conversation. Todd Danen ’77 (College Advancement) and Billy Falk ’08 (Alumni & Parents Relations) sit down in the Mulva Library to discuss the college’s past and how it connects to today through four 15-minute videos, the first of which premiered online late last month.

Danen has an unparalleled and immense knowledge of SNC’s storied past. In the first episode of the mini-series, he easily recalls the names of students who attended St. Norbert in the early 1900s, explains how student curfews were enforced throughout the years, and relates the current COVID-19 experience to how the campus community reacted to the influenza pandemic in 1917 and the onset of World War II in 1942.

“I was on my best behavior,” says Danen of the recording project. “We were being filmed and I needed to avoid my grandfather’s philosophy of ‘never letting the truth get in the way of a good story.’ ”

Danen and Falk are close friends and colleagues and have known each other for more than 12 years. They met in the summer of 2008 and have been swapping stories about the college ever since.

“Billy and I love St. Norbert,” says Danen. “We don’t work here, we live here. It’s a wonderful place with an interesting story, and we’re blessed to be part of that story.”

Falk shares in that same sentiment, that St. Norbert is a special place. To him, he and Danen have had the joy of being on campus long enough to “fully cherish the past while also having an eye toward the future.”

The two hope that viewers, whether they are directly connected to campus or not, find the conversations engaging and intriguing enough that they’ll reach out with questions, add their own bits to the stories being told and even correct them when they stretch the truth a little. Viewers are encouraged to email alumni@snc.edu if they have tales of their own to tell.

“Todd is an excellent storyteller and it’s wonderful to hear these stories, share them and preserve them,” says Falk. “These videos allow our alumni and college community to feel they are a part of the conversation.”

March 11, 2021