Post by Okwes on Feb 24, 2006 11:17:12 GMT -5
IN MEMORY: Dr. Robert Alfred Roessel, Jr., 80
Education pioneer
Roessel believed in Navajo control of education first, last, always
Posted by Webmaster on February 23rd 2006 to Headlines
By Jason Begay
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK - A week after his passing and still, it's difficult to accurately and entirely
amass all of his contributions to the Navajo Nation's education system.
What is clear is that it would be hard to imagine the Navajo Nation without the storied 50-
year career of Dr. Robert Alfred Roessel Jr.
"I can't really predict the way things would be now without Bob Roessel," said former tribal
chairman and president Peterson Zah. "The only thing I can say, we wouldn't be where we
are now without him."
Roessel, a longtime resident of the Navajo Nation, died Feb. 16 of lung cancer. He was 80.
Roessel is survived by his wife and partner in education, Ruth, and five children: Faith,
Mary, Robert, Monty and Raymond.
During his half-century on the reservation, Roessel helped create Navajo Community
College (now Diné College) in Tsaile, Ariz., as well as the Navajo Education Center and the
Navajo Museum and Library in Window Rock.
He served as a teacher in at least a dozen reservation schools and even helped initiate a
lawsuit opening up the reservation's public schools to local leadership.
But he didn't come here to teach. He just liked Navajos
Fascinated as a youth (sub)
According to accounts from family and colleagues, Roessel, who was born in Webster
Groves, Mo., just outside St. Louis, first came to the Southwest as a child on trips with his
father.
Influenced also by his grandmother's interests, the young Roessel became increasingly
infatuated with American Indian tribes.
"He just liked the Navajo," said his son Raymond. "He liked the way they looked – they
were tall. He was a kid and he took a liking to them."
So much so that Roessel wrote his 1951 graduate thesis at Washington University in St.
Louis on "Sheep in Navajo Culture."
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in anthropology with the express intent
of working with the Navajo.
"At the time, that was how people worked with Indians," Raymond Roessel said about his
father's choice of study. "But then I think he realized that anthropologists only deal with
the dead Indian."
Roessel quickly realized it was far better to work and serve the Navajo tribe through
education, his son said.
Starting in 1951, Roessel began teaching second grade in Crownpoint. A year later he was
principal in Round Rock, Ariz., before moving to Low Mountain, Ariz., and then Tolani
Lake, Ariz.
It was here that Zah first met Roessel. While on summer vacation from boarding school,
Zah returned to his home community of Low Mountain. Zah met him again in 1960, when
he enrolled at Arizona State University where Roessel was an instructor.
"He kind of took me in as one of his own boys from the Navajo," Zah said. "We formed a
greater understanding and appreciation for each other's role and position."
Roessel taught at ASU from 1958 to 1971, starting in anthropology. However, he quickly
switched to teaching about American Indian education.
In 1960, he began teaching classes like "Curriculum and Practices for Indian Children," and
"Guidance of the Indian Student."
While at ASU, Roessel in 1960 established the Indian Education Center, which prepared
teachers who planned to teach Indian students. It was the first of its kind in the nation.
Roessel's work for Indian students, particularly Navajos, was likely inspired by his own
evolving identity, Zah said.
"Bob Roessel had completely forgotten that he was a non-Indian," Zah said.
He cited Roessel's Navajo family, which he shared with his wife Ruth.
"He fully embraced Navajo culture, Navajo lifestyle and never ever thought of himself as
being outside," Zah said.
Roessel followed both Navajo and Christian religious ideals, said his son Robert.
"He had faith in Jesus, God and the Holy People," Robert Roessel said. "That's what allowed
him to prevail."
Community college started (sub)
One of the first things people say about the late Roessel's work is that his ultimate goal
was to see local education controlled by the tribe and more Navajo culture in the
classroom.
In 1966, Roessel started Rough Rock Demonstration School, the reservation's first Navajo-
controlled school. Among its chief missions was to create Navajo-specific curricula.
Two years later, Roessel helped steer the creation of Navajo Community College and
became its first president.
Roessel wrote the initial proposal and spearheaded the fundraising effort to open the
school in 1968. It was the first tribal college in the country.
The gargantuan project was held up by the politics of the era, when the country was
undergoing changes incited by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said Ferlin Clark,
current president of the college.
During the college's initial years, state lawmakers made comments condemning the school
as failure-bound, Clark said.
As a result, Roessel drafted his oft-quoted mantra, "If it is to be, it is up to me." As a
guiding slogan, this one seemed to work for Roessel.
In 1971, he helped draft the Navajo Community College Act, which became a model for
the federal Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 and has since
been used to build 36 tribal colleges across the country.
Education center built (sub)
Roessel was also widely known for his ability to raise massive sums of money for Navajo
projects.
"He was probably one of the most successful fundraisers on Navajo," Clark said.
In total, Roessel raised more than $55 million for seven projects, including the college, the
Round Rock Chapter and the Navajo Education Center.
In the early to mid 1980s, Roessel embarked on a mission to construct the Navajo
Education Center. At the time, the tribal education department was housed in a village of
11 trailers.
"They were ugly, ugly, rundown trailers," Zah recalled. "Bob said, `This is really ugly. We
should have one huge building that can house all these programs under one roof.'"
Roessel and an independent committee worked for four years, raising about $3.6 million
for the building's construction. All of the funds were raised through donations and grants,
Zah said.
"We did not spend any of the Navajo people's money," he said. "This was all done through
donations."
The education center was completed in fall 1986. The fundraising committee then sold it
to the tribe for $1.
Roessel used the same plan to build the Navajo Nation Museum and Library in Window
Rock about a decade later.
In 1985, he helped draft the Navajo Nation's education law, now Title X of the Navajo
Nation Code, which laid the groundwork for reforms passed last summer by the tribal
council.
A booming voice (sub)
Still, despite these accomplishments, his children say Roessel was always a father, not
afraid to attend games and use his broad, booming voice to cheer them on.
"He never came home and talked about what he had done that day," Robert Roessel said.
"We always got the feeling that he was never done. He always had new ideas he was
working on."
Younger brother Raymond added, "Even though he accomplished a lot, he was always
thinking of new ideas. He was still thinking, toward the end."
Roessel continued in education, serving as superintendent of several reservation school
districts in the 80s and 90s.
He also taught at ASU throughout both decades and was still teaching there as recently as
spring 2005, despite a slew of medical issues including injuries from a car accident, a
horse accident and a bout of colon cancer and then lung cancer.
The latter of which was cleared in 2005 before re-emerging later that year.
He also continued to write, including numerous letters to the editor to the Navajo Times.
In one of the last letters printed in the paper from Roessel in October, he stated again his
overall wish for Navajo education.
"It is ridiculous to think that passing the AIMS test in Arizona means the person is
educated," he wrote. "My wife and I have given over 50 years to the principle that a Navajo
must know who (they are), be proud of the fact and act as if (they were) proud of that
fact."
His point made, Roessel typed his signature simply:
Bob Roessel
Round Rock, Navajo Nation.
Education pioneer
Roessel believed in Navajo control of education first, last, always
Posted by Webmaster on February 23rd 2006 to Headlines
By Jason Begay
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK - A week after his passing and still, it's difficult to accurately and entirely
amass all of his contributions to the Navajo Nation's education system.
What is clear is that it would be hard to imagine the Navajo Nation without the storied 50-
year career of Dr. Robert Alfred Roessel Jr.
"I can't really predict the way things would be now without Bob Roessel," said former tribal
chairman and president Peterson Zah. "The only thing I can say, we wouldn't be where we
are now without him."
Roessel, a longtime resident of the Navajo Nation, died Feb. 16 of lung cancer. He was 80.
Roessel is survived by his wife and partner in education, Ruth, and five children: Faith,
Mary, Robert, Monty and Raymond.
During his half-century on the reservation, Roessel helped create Navajo Community
College (now Diné College) in Tsaile, Ariz., as well as the Navajo Education Center and the
Navajo Museum and Library in Window Rock.
He served as a teacher in at least a dozen reservation schools and even helped initiate a
lawsuit opening up the reservation's public schools to local leadership.
But he didn't come here to teach. He just liked Navajos
Fascinated as a youth (sub)
According to accounts from family and colleagues, Roessel, who was born in Webster
Groves, Mo., just outside St. Louis, first came to the Southwest as a child on trips with his
father.
Influenced also by his grandmother's interests, the young Roessel became increasingly
infatuated with American Indian tribes.
"He just liked the Navajo," said his son Raymond. "He liked the way they looked – they
were tall. He was a kid and he took a liking to them."
So much so that Roessel wrote his 1951 graduate thesis at Washington University in St.
Louis on "Sheep in Navajo Culture."
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in anthropology with the express intent
of working with the Navajo.
"At the time, that was how people worked with Indians," Raymond Roessel said about his
father's choice of study. "But then I think he realized that anthropologists only deal with
the dead Indian."
Roessel quickly realized it was far better to work and serve the Navajo tribe through
education, his son said.
Starting in 1951, Roessel began teaching second grade in Crownpoint. A year later he was
principal in Round Rock, Ariz., before moving to Low Mountain, Ariz., and then Tolani
Lake, Ariz.
It was here that Zah first met Roessel. While on summer vacation from boarding school,
Zah returned to his home community of Low Mountain. Zah met him again in 1960, when
he enrolled at Arizona State University where Roessel was an instructor.
"He kind of took me in as one of his own boys from the Navajo," Zah said. "We formed a
greater understanding and appreciation for each other's role and position."
Roessel taught at ASU from 1958 to 1971, starting in anthropology. However, he quickly
switched to teaching about American Indian education.
In 1960, he began teaching classes like "Curriculum and Practices for Indian Children," and
"Guidance of the Indian Student."
While at ASU, Roessel in 1960 established the Indian Education Center, which prepared
teachers who planned to teach Indian students. It was the first of its kind in the nation.
Roessel's work for Indian students, particularly Navajos, was likely inspired by his own
evolving identity, Zah said.
"Bob Roessel had completely forgotten that he was a non-Indian," Zah said.
He cited Roessel's Navajo family, which he shared with his wife Ruth.
"He fully embraced Navajo culture, Navajo lifestyle and never ever thought of himself as
being outside," Zah said.
Roessel followed both Navajo and Christian religious ideals, said his son Robert.
"He had faith in Jesus, God and the Holy People," Robert Roessel said. "That's what allowed
him to prevail."
Community college started (sub)
One of the first things people say about the late Roessel's work is that his ultimate goal
was to see local education controlled by the tribe and more Navajo culture in the
classroom.
In 1966, Roessel started Rough Rock Demonstration School, the reservation's first Navajo-
controlled school. Among its chief missions was to create Navajo-specific curricula.
Two years later, Roessel helped steer the creation of Navajo Community College and
became its first president.
Roessel wrote the initial proposal and spearheaded the fundraising effort to open the
school in 1968. It was the first tribal college in the country.
The gargantuan project was held up by the politics of the era, when the country was
undergoing changes incited by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, said Ferlin Clark,
current president of the college.
During the college's initial years, state lawmakers made comments condemning the school
as failure-bound, Clark said.
As a result, Roessel drafted his oft-quoted mantra, "If it is to be, it is up to me." As a
guiding slogan, this one seemed to work for Roessel.
In 1971, he helped draft the Navajo Community College Act, which became a model for
the federal Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 and has since
been used to build 36 tribal colleges across the country.
Education center built (sub)
Roessel was also widely known for his ability to raise massive sums of money for Navajo
projects.
"He was probably one of the most successful fundraisers on Navajo," Clark said.
In total, Roessel raised more than $55 million for seven projects, including the college, the
Round Rock Chapter and the Navajo Education Center.
In the early to mid 1980s, Roessel embarked on a mission to construct the Navajo
Education Center. At the time, the tribal education department was housed in a village of
11 trailers.
"They were ugly, ugly, rundown trailers," Zah recalled. "Bob said, `This is really ugly. We
should have one huge building that can house all these programs under one roof.'"
Roessel and an independent committee worked for four years, raising about $3.6 million
for the building's construction. All of the funds were raised through donations and grants,
Zah said.
"We did not spend any of the Navajo people's money," he said. "This was all done through
donations."
The education center was completed in fall 1986. The fundraising committee then sold it
to the tribe for $1.
Roessel used the same plan to build the Navajo Nation Museum and Library in Window
Rock about a decade later.
In 1985, he helped draft the Navajo Nation's education law, now Title X of the Navajo
Nation Code, which laid the groundwork for reforms passed last summer by the tribal
council.
A booming voice (sub)
Still, despite these accomplishments, his children say Roessel was always a father, not
afraid to attend games and use his broad, booming voice to cheer them on.
"He never came home and talked about what he had done that day," Robert Roessel said.
"We always got the feeling that he was never done. He always had new ideas he was
working on."
Younger brother Raymond added, "Even though he accomplished a lot, he was always
thinking of new ideas. He was still thinking, toward the end."
Roessel continued in education, serving as superintendent of several reservation school
districts in the 80s and 90s.
He also taught at ASU throughout both decades and was still teaching there as recently as
spring 2005, despite a slew of medical issues including injuries from a car accident, a
horse accident and a bout of colon cancer and then lung cancer.
The latter of which was cleared in 2005 before re-emerging later that year.
He also continued to write, including numerous letters to the editor to the Navajo Times.
In one of the last letters printed in the paper from Roessel in October, he stated again his
overall wish for Navajo education.
"It is ridiculous to think that passing the AIMS test in Arizona means the person is
educated," he wrote. "My wife and I have given over 50 years to the principle that a Navajo
must know who (they are), be proud of the fact and act as if (they were) proud of that
fact."
His point made, Roessel typed his signature simply:
Bob Roessel
Round Rock, Navajo Nation.