ARC OF A CAREER:

Doug Rankin goes from faculty brat, to outstanding student, to talented set designer, to emeritus professor of theatre

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

“The finest and most talented theatre student” that Monmouth College emeritus professor Jim De Young ever had has now become an emeritus professor himself.

Doug Rankin has retired from teaching at his alma mater after 32 years, although his connection to the College goes back to the late 1950s, growing up as one of the twin sons of the late Monmouth administrator Glen Rankin ’43. It continued throughout the 1960s until 1975, when Rankin made the connection even stronger, enrolling as a freshman.

“He began his work with me while still in high school,” said De Young, who taught theatre at Monmouth from 1963-2002. “That he returned to his alma mater to make his teaching career here made him a treasured colleague.”

While recalling the advantages of growing up around a college campus, Rankin said it was a play directed by De Young in the late 1960s that sparked his interest in theatre — an interest that became a hobby, his academic focus and, eventually, his career.

Rankin was 11 years old when the College staged a memorable production of a children’s story in its former space, The Little Theater.

“I caught the theatre bug in 1969,” said Rankin. “The College put on Reynard the Fox, and it was just magic. I went to every single performance.”

By the time he assisted a year or so later with a production at Monmouth High School, the theatre hook was firmly set.

Rankin took advantage of his higher education ties to get the college experience while still a student at MHS. In addition to helping De Young with theatre productions, he and another high school student enrolled in a psychology class

Rankin’s work ethic and involvement continued once he enrolled at Monmouth. In addition to emerging as a star theatre pupil, he was an active member of Zeta Beta Tau — forging a lifelong friendship with the chapter’s beloved adviser, the late Richard “Doc” Kieft

— and edited The Oracle, Monmouth’s student newspaper.

Rankin graduated with departmental honors with a major in speech/communication/ arts. He eventually headed to Northwestern University, where he earned a master’s degree in scenery, lighting and costume design.

He has used that expertise on hundreds of productions throughout the Midwest, and his scenery designs include two for Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati.

Rankin’s department had a major moment in 1990, when the College held the first production in its new Wells Theater. In addition to designing the scene shop for the new facility, Rankin was cast in a starring role opposite 1938 Monmouth graduate Helen Wagner Willey, the acclaimed matriarch on the soap opera As the World Turns.

“That was a wonderful experience,” he said of the theatre-opening production of The Lion in Winter. “We played a husband and wife, even though I was 33 and she was 72. Then, in the other productions after she left, my wife was played by an 18-year-old. ... That really started the ball rolling for the new theatre, and the last 30 years have just been a blur.”

Another memory from the past three decades was annually attending the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. In addition to taking students to compete at the event, Rankin served for five years as co-chair of the festival’s Design, Technology and Management Committee.

When he was starting out, Rankin learned from De Young how to discern the arc of each scene, as well as how to tie the scenes together, perhaps through the use of a metaphor. He also learned from his father about the privilege of working at Monmouth College.

“It was my destiny to try to continue on after him at Monmouth,” said Rankin. “It’s been an honor.”

Listen Up: Doug Rankin talks about his Monmouth career on Monmouth College Conversations podcast: soundcloud.com/ monmouthcollege.