James “Jim” Rhatigan made a daily habit of writing “thank you” notes to people throughout his career.
Christine Schneikart-Luebbe, the former associate vice president of Student Affairs at Wichita State, said it was just one of many ways her former boss would connect with students, faculty and staff. She recalled an instance where Rhatigan gave a speech about this practice.
“From the podium, he wrote three thank you notes, and he had me time him,” Schneikart-Luebbe said. “And his point to everyone in the room was it took less than 10 minutes. And if you wrote three ‘thank you’ notes every morning to start your day … he did the math, how many that was in a week, how many it was in a month, how many it was in a year, and the impact that you could have.”
From phone calls to emails to handwritten notes, Schneikart-Luebbe said each personalized message showed that the former dean of students and vice president for Student Affairs cared.
Rhatigan, once referred to as the “grandfather of the student affairs profession” by former Student Body President Matt Conklin, worked for nearly 50 years at Wichita State University. Rhatigan was still alive — and employed at WSU — when the Campus Activities Center was renamed as the Rhatigan Student Center in his honor.
Unrelenting advocacy
After his retirement, Rhatigan served as a consultant to the WSU Foundation before his “final” retirement in 2014.
Rhatigan died on Sunday, Oct. 27, at the age of 89 after being admitted to hospice two days prior.
In the wake of his death, former WSU students and staff remembered the ways Rhatigan advocated for and supported them.
Schneikart-Luebbe said Rhatigan deeply cared for and prioritized every individual who crossed his path.
“I just think Jim had an incredible ability to want to get to know people,” Schneikart-Luebbe said. “He was a huge student advocate.”
Rhatigan was hired as WSU’s dean of students in 1965. At 30, Rhatigan was the youngest to reach the position at any university with more than 10,000 students.
Gretchen Torline, the director of Student Athletic Services at WSU, said she always knew she could depend on Rhatigan when she was an adviser.
“If I had issues with (students) — maybe they couldn’t pay their bill, maybe they were in a class and it was past the drop date, but they were having issues — we just knew that we could take them over to Dr. Rhatigan, and he listened to them, cared about them,” Torline said. “He always found a way to help them.”
Nowadays, she uses Rhatigan’s philosophies and practices to guide her mentorship.
“When I kind of want to be harder on (students) and maybe don’t want to listen to what’s … going on in their life, I think about, ‘What would Dr. Rhatigan do?’” Torline said. “I’ve said that several times in my career, and I think it’s helped me be a better advocate for students and help my students.”
In 1970, Rhatigan was named vice president of Student Affairs, then later a senior vice president until he retired in 2002.
Bobby Gandu, who leads admissions at WSU, was an undergraduate student in the years leading up to Rhatigan’s retirement. He remembered how he always saw Rhatigan at events, encouraging students and meeting them where they were.
“He would find ways to impact individual students,” Gandu said. “Of course, he would speak at large events and engage (in) ceremonial activities. But I think as I got going through my career at Wichita State, more often than not, he would call me about individual students that he would … advocate for … and to make sure that those students’ voices and needs were being taken care of by the university.”
Gandu was one of those students that Rhatigan personally advocated for. When Gandu realized he was having trouble enrolling in a class that he needed to graduate, Rhatigan came to the rescue.
“Somehow, Dr. Rhatigan heard about this, that I was trying to get into a particular class, and he said, ‘Bobby, I’m going to call for you,’” Gandu said. “So he did. He called the person who was overseeing business advising at the time and advocated for me to be allowed into that class.”
Reflecting on his legacy, Gandu said Rhatigan “put Wichita State on (the) map.” But his mission was always to connect with students, not to receive accolades and recognition.
“He’s a pillar,” Gandu said. “He’s someone that we are so fortunate to have crossed through Wichita State and really made his professional home here. And I personally am going to miss having his calls to check on me. And you know, hearing his voice.”
Rhatigan worked for the WSU Foundation until 2014 and continued to hold the titles of professor of education and senior vice president emeritus.
Defending the press
Rhatigan advised the Student Government Association during his tenure. He consistently helped to protect funding for Wichita State’s student-led news publication, The Sunflower.
“Whenever there was an effort to try to flush the budget or in any way punish student journalists, he was always in the forefront of defending freedom of the press and defending student journalists,” said Laura Kelly, a former Sunflower news editor and later, opinion writer for The Wichita Eagle.
“I was so grateful for that support because he understood how important it was that the entire campus be able to rely on the free flow of information.”
Chance Swaim, reporter for The Wichita Eagle and former editor-in-chief of The Sunflower, said Rhatigan’s support for student journalism was just one aspect of his advocacy for student voices.
“I didn’t live through it, but from what I’ve read from The Sunflower and from conversations, this (was) during a time of massive campus unrest and administration throughout the country, cracking down on protesters and student movements,” Swaim said. “I think Dr. Rhatigan was able to bridge that gap … and say, ‘The students of Wichita State are Wichita State. That’s what matters most.’”
Rhatigan’s support for The Sunflower extended beyond protecting funding; he also checked in on editors and reporters personally and throughout their careers. Swaim said Rhatigan wrote him a letter of recommendation for any newspaper job when he graduated from Wichita State.
“It was a blanket endorsement letter saying, ‘I believe in Chance and that he has shown his chops as a reporter,’” Swaim said. “I still have a copy of that somewhere at my house. I actually made copies, so I would never lose it.”
Bringing joy
Rhatigan’s grandson, Reid Linot, remembers him dressing up as Santa Claus every year for family Christmas gatherings.
“It was very fitting for him because he was shaped like Santa Claus and just known for the joy that he brings anyways,” Linot said.
Linot also shared a memory from grade school in which he announced to his class that his grandfather was named after a bowling alley — the one located in the basement of the Rhatigan Student Center.
“That is, of course, the inverse of the truth,” Linot said. “But he loved that story and would always share that.”
Aside from putting the “R” in the RSC, Rhatigan would continue to represent WSU locally and nationally.
“He’s kind of inextricably linked to the university in a number of ways,” Linot said. “I don’t think Wichita State would be where it is without him, and that goes for his work as the dean all the way until his work at the foundation and all that he did there.”
Linot and his grandfather had a podcast together called “Lessons from the Dean.” He said Rhatigan was “my grandpa and best friend.”
“He’s such a large presence still on campus to this day; a lot of people talk about how much he meant to them,” Linot said.
Schneikart-Luebbe said she spoke with Rhatigan the week before he died.
“I just think the world is a sadder place without Jim Rhatigan in it,” she said. “He brought so much joy, so much kindness, so much love to so many people, and I just think that those kind of people don’t come around as often as we’d like, and so when we lose someone like that, it’s a real sad day, it’s a real loss, and I miss him already.”
A memorial service for Rhatigan will be held at the University Congregational Church on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 1 p.m., followed by a reception at the Rhatigan Student Center.
