Timothy Richmond has always been kind of a college kid. Growing up, Richmond?s parents worked at Judson College in Elgin, Ill.
?I was always around campus after school,? Richmond said. ?I spent my days on the soccer field and following the basketball team.?
Now Richmond returns to the college scene at Tabor as assistant professor of chemistry.
Richmond graduated from Judson College in 1999 with a majors in biology and chemistry. He married Mindy that Decem?ber and worked for about a year and a half while she finished her degree at Judson.
Then he returned to the classroom to earn his doctorate in the chemistry department at the University of Illinois. He graduated in January 2007 and proceeded to teach two courses that spring at the university.
He then began looking for a permanent position.
?My wife is from Pretty Prairie,? Richmond said. ?Most of her family lives in Kingman County and her parents have a home near Galva. So when I was applying for positions, we were looking at everything within a day?s drive of where they live. I applied at the schools that were the type I was looking for, which was small, religiously affiliated, liberal arts schools.
?I interviewed at Tabor and at Greenville College and was offered positions at both,? he added. ?I took the position here because of the proximity and I was really looking forward to working with the other staff here.?
Jeffrey Henderson, associate professor of biology at Tabor, also graduated from Judson. Though they were there at different times, Henderson and Richmond were on campus together.
?That was a bit of a pull too, having someone in common that we kind of already knew,? Richmond said.
Tabor hired Richmond to begin employment last fall, but he didn?t begin teaching until this year because he was offered a post-doctorate position to do research overseas in Belgium at the Catholic University of Leuven.
?I talked to Lawrence Ressler (vice president for academics) here about the opportunity and we worked it out so I could do both??I could work at Tabor, but not until this year,? he said.
His family moved overseas in June 2007 and returned this summer. In Belgium, Richmond was able to continue some research he had done for his doctorate. He was awarded funding from the Catholic University of Leuven for one year with the possibility of extending it.
?It was a great experience,? he said. ?We?re very glad we did it and also very happy to be back in the United Sates.?
He and Mindy, who teaches at Canton-Galva High School, have two daughters. Their first daughter, Mia, will turn 4 years old in November and their second daughter, Carmen, was born in January while they were still in Belgium.
?It was funny when we got to Belgium,? Richmond said. ?Everybody was like ?Mia? That?s such a Flemish name.? We were in a Flemish-speaking country. We said, ?Really? OK.? So then we picked Carmen, because it was another Flemish name.
?So now we actually have two Flemish-named girls.?
Aside from being a professor and father, Richmond enjoys watching sports. His favorite team is the Chicago Bears and he pulls for the Fighting Illini during basketball season. Handiwork and ?going green? are among his other hobbies.
?I?m a Mr. Fix It guy,? he said. ?We remodeled a house while I was in graduate school. So that?s one of my hobbies. I like to do things like that. In fact, when we moved here this summer, one of the things we did was re-siding our house with a little bit of help. I?d never done siding before.
?Another thing I do, I brew my own biodiesel, kind of like Eric Codding here on campus. I hooked up with him when we got here. I haven?t gotten my setup running yet, but when I was in graduate school, me and another guy started doing that about two years ago. It?s a fun little hobby.?
Richmond is conscious about the environment. He and his wife volunteer at the recycling center in town with the First Mennonite Church.
?I?m into everything green,? he said. ?Someday I?d like to have some alternative energy on my property, maybe some wind energy or solar energy.?
This semester Richmond is teaching general chemistry and general physics. In the future he will be teaching the physics courses on campus and then some of the chemistry courses along with Bruce Heyen, professor of chemistry.
