Treasure/A Signature Experience

Every issue, we invite one member of the college community to share their delight in an object found on campus. Here, Chris Betcher (Alumni and Community Engagement) comments on an office memento she found in 2005 among other supplies and stationery on her assigned desk in the alumni house. The stamp bearing the signature of the Rev. Dennis Burke, Class of 1926 — a St. Norbert alum, faculty member, president and chancellor — brought her thoughts to the gravity of her work and the lasting impact it can have. 

When I started in the alumni office in 2005, I sat at the desk Father Burke sat at. We had a lawyer’s cabinet in there, and inside were a lot of things that used to sit on his desk. One of those things was this rubber stamp with his signature, and I always thought how amazing it was that we still had Father Burke’s signature and the ability to use it. It’s interesting just seeing what his handwriting looked like.

Anytime someone would come into the office, they would pull out his things and specifically that stamp. It’s a neat archival object that made it through the course of time. I would imagine it was going on all sorts of documents, diplomas of students. I think there are probably a lot of things they did differently back then, a lot more personally. I wish I was here when Father Burke was; from what I’m told he was a very tall, empowering, kind and gentle man. When I first started in the alumni office, I would hear stories about him from alums. They said he was strict, but always here for the students.

Alumni often say that everything looks so much different around here, but how much they feel at home. And you get a connection to the past in this building a lot, there’s just a feeling when looking around and flipping through the old yearbooks. It brings you back to a different time, and I think that connection is key to St. Norbert.

June 30, 2022