You’d hear him before you saw him. Clear, tuneful whistling. The sharp “Hey, whoa!” A wisecrack letting you know how handsome he was and how far short you fell. His wheezy laugh.
Oh, Dr. Reist. The most colorful of professors, and still one of the most recognizable, even two years after his retirement.
John Reist is a living legend of Hillsdale College. He always said he’d once been expelled from Houghton College in New York. He went to Westminster Theological Seminary because he liked reading theology, but wasn’t planning on being a pastor. He served as a soldier in France. When he came home, he got his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He met his wife…somewhere. He worked at the Chicago Sun-Times. He became a pastor.
Then he moved to Hillsdale, and became one of this school’s most beloved English professors. In his more than 20 years of teaching, Reist saw the college change administrations. He pastored a local church. He laughed at students, counseled students, and officiated students’ weddings. He was brash, convicted, brilliant, and polarizing. When he suddenly retired in the fall of 2010, it was headline material— as much for the number of students who said, “Wait, I still haven’t bought him a drink!” as for the hole it left in the English department.
We have an opportunity to honor him this Friday. We hear he’s not going to be able to make it. Sad bear. But you will see his identical twin brother there (you know, the ugly one in the family, right Dr. Reist?). If you’re an upperclassman, chances are you knew him. Go celebrate his time here. If you came a year or two late, go anyway. You’ll learn something about a patriarch of Hillsdale College.
He’s got forearms like railroad ties. He’s still shocking the prudes. And he’s always welcome at Collegian parties.
God bless you, Dr. Reist.