Proposed 2013 Rose-Hulman Alumni Reunion Tour - Your Hosts

Peter Priest

Emeritus Professor Peter F. H. Priest served 36 1/3 years from 1962-1998 in the Humanities and Social Sciences division, teaching the greatest number of courses, including English, French, Russian, most of the early "core" courses, many literature courses. He started The Quarterly, RHIT’s first literary journal. He organized and led 15 Russian study trips between 1975- 1998. After his retirement, he led 5 United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) trips to Russia. He arranged transportation, hotels, and excursions for all American and Canadian participants to an International Optics Education Conference in St. Petersburg. He negotiated exchange agreements with universities in Leningrad, Moscow, and Lithuania.

 

Tamara Philippova

Tamara lives in Moscow and has known Professor Priest for over twenty years. They met when she was in charge of recreation and social activities for a department store chain. Tamara first planned a weekend camping trip for him and his students along with the young men and women from the store. She had planned many activities: volleyball, orienting in the forest, singing competitions by the bonfire and more. Unfortunately her administration forbade it because she had forgotten to mention the group was from America.

As the cold war hostility decreased, Tamara continued to help Professor Priest with his groups, arranging hotels, restaurants, and transportation. She has visited the United States four times and loves the country, especially Terre Haute. Peter and Tamara share the same philosophy; She says "we want to help our people get to meet and know each other. In spite of what you may have heard, the Russian people, just like me, love Americans and love what you stand for. So having said that, I want to come to Moscow and let me and my friends show you the Moscow we love."