Tod Gimbel ‘81


Tod Gimbel ‘81
About

I was sold on Lawrence when I joined a prospective student overnight visit during my Senior year in High School. I had visited a number of schools, taken the tours and listened to the students talk about their experiences. All good. Honestly, LU wasn’t even in my top couple of choices. Who’d want to spend four years in Appleton? To make a long story short, I fell in love with the campus, the students and professors were smart, genuine and enthusiastic and I could tell that I would be able to get a great education in a cozy environment that meshed with my learning style. When I moved into Ormsby Hall less than a year later I knew pretty quickly I’d made the right call. I think I made the best of my four years. I was a Government and History major and soaked up as much as I could in those areas, but I also dove into classes in Literature, Drama, Art History, Geology and even Statistics (big mistake). Some friends and I designed and took tutorials on French philosophers Pascal and Montaigne and another on existential theater. I spent an amazing two terms in London studying Art, Music, English, Economics and so much more, not to mention the travel, camaraderie and a pint of bitter or two. The professors where engaging the students were diverse in interests and experiences. The time flew by and soon it was over. The amazing thing is that after I graduated and moved on to Law School and then the working world, I realized that the Lawrence experience stayed with me. It has kept me curious, grounded me, guided me, gave me confidence and has played a big part of everything I’ve done in the close to 40 years since left the Fox River Valley. When I went to Law School, my LU experience prepared me to know how to learn, when I changed careers in the early 90’s, my LU experience gave me courage to leap into the unknown, when I moved to Asia in early 2006, my LU experience gave me the tools to thrive in a new (to me) part of the world with many different cultures, and when I recently moved back to the US to take a senior corporate role, my LU experience prepared me to handle a high level, stress-filled job with confidence. I am forever grateful for that decision I made way back when. It has and continues to pay me dividends every day