frlday, november 2, 1979
daily nebraskan
pags9
Lincdlnite has enough ideas to go another hundred years
By Dill Graf
In three months she will be 100 years
old, but she says she has enough ideas to
keep her going for another 100 years.
However, Alice Loomis says she is ready
to "step off into the next world, because it
. will be just as interesting."
Born on Jan. 21, 1880, Loomis began
her teaching career after graduating from
Peru Normal School in 1896.
But after four years of teaching in a
grade school shewent back to college.
During the next 30 years she received a
B.S. degree from Kansas University, an
M.A. from Wisconsin University, and a
Ph.D. from Columbia University.
She said she received her doctorate in
child education because "adult education
hadn't been discovered yet."
She added that she was happy that the
continuing education programs evolved.
"I think that's the only common-sense
point of view, I see so many hopeful signs
of organizations and people who are hunt
ing for a part of the real goal. The real goal
is the unification of mankind with diversity
and yet unity."
BECAUSE ADULT education as well as
several other educational programs "hadn't
been discovered yet," Loomis said she had
to develop many of her own bibliographies
for research projects.
However, her innovation didn't end
when she left the universities.
From the time that she graduated from
Peru until her retirement most of the dosI.
tions she held didn't exist before she
created them. And many of the jobs that
did exist were reserved for men.
"Once I was involved in designing a cor
respondence course for foundry workers.
They wouldn't have anything to do with a
woman. They were pretty tough chaps."
"So I wrote the course and signed it A.
Loomis." ,
She said "When I was working toward
my B.S. in Manhattan, Kan., I was one of
two assistants doing laboratory work. They
decided that they only had room for one
assistant so they let me go because they
said that a woman would get married in a
couple of years and leave," she said.
"It didn't bother me, one door was
closed but another was open."
LOOMIS SAID she never considered
herself a feminist.
"I have always said I was a human
being. And I dealt with men as human
beings, so I never had any trouble, dealing
with men or women."
Of all the changes that she has seen dur
ing the last century, Loomis sees as the .
most important the increased concern to
find the truth.
"Doctors, lawyers and politicians have
lost their crowns. More people are asking,
'Why?' More people investigate to find the
common good."
She added that because of this change
she is only encouraged and pleased but also
amused.
Loomis said Lincoln has become more
world conscious in the past century and
that the morality of the Midwest has
changed considerably.
"It used to be that the school systems
wouldn't hire a teacher if she had been
seen dancing."
"WHILE I WAS responsible for hiring
teachers at . Nebraska University, I would
hire someone even if they liked to dance,
but I always tried to do it legally," she
said.
A change she has been working for in
recent years has been the treatment of
senilty.
In an article written for a publication
put out by the Nebraska Commission on
Aging, Loomis wrote about the problems
and myths surrounding senility.
"Decreasing mental ability with the
passing years has been recognized by lay.
men and measured by scientists, but con
structive work in this field has lagged."
Too often, she said, "Older people are
written off as senile and beyond help,
when a closer look could reveal a way to
return them to their full potential. Many
diseases are confused with senility.
Deteriorating vision and hearing can be
mistaken for senility. Cut off from the
sights and sounds that give meaning to the
world, a person can begin to withdraw in
ward," she explained.
f
CONTEMPORARY PRODUCTIONS,
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
CHRIS FRITZ, PRESENT A
? CONCERT EVENT
FRIDAY, NOVEf.
0PM
ARENA
(Chair Soatlng
On Tha Floor)
$0 ADVANCE
$9 SHOW DAY
I V. i 3 V II I f on. C
, r V: . II L . 346-1323
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An x -
Alice Loomis, a 99-year-old k v 1 TV 'SP ff () T-v-vTLr CX.SK
Lincoln resident, said she '"''f A lin tf" VjiP ft P" 1 an rA V rN I tVi J
had to pioneer many jobs ?VG' M 'M t IjEgf. H K .4 I I V J LJ M i 1 (n
vvicii. ruuiu uy 0111 urai, , '.r-.-jFj n UJ trl l
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Tickets at the Civic Auditorium
& Brandeis or by mail . . , Send
stamped return envelope and
money order (no checks) to:
Omaha Civic Auditorium, P.
v 719. Omaha,
NE 68101.
ooo
R7 IFoaficacDinj
lLd linitii?GaninirirDrfn
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The Even Keel Loungs Capitol Beach Marina
Southeast end of Capitol Beach Lake
' 7 I 1 ' .
n
720 South Lskeshore Drive Lincoln 477-6792 Ample FREE Parking Available