Tim Tibbetts: Taking it down a notch, retiring from teaching biology but not bagpiping

BY BARRY MCNAMARA

Biology professor Tim Tibbetts has retired after teaching the past 22 years at Monmouth College. Does that mean he can finally chill out?

Actually, Tibbetts has been in a laid-back state his entire life, with the possible exception of his rookie year on Monmouth’s faculty.

The origins of Tibbetts’ easygoing approach to life can be traced to his earliest days.

“It was a while before I really figured out that biology was my thing,” he said. “I kind of slept-walked through grade school and middle school and high school, and as an undergrad, I was pre-med. I took the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) and was getting ready to apply to medical schools. My father was a physician, and he said, ‘Are you sure you’re cut out for that? Are you sure you want to do that?’”

The answer, Tibbetts realized before getting too far into the process, was “No.”

Med school didn’t intrigue him, but continuing to take classes did, so he enrolled in courses at Colorado State University, where his wife, Amy Zesbaugh, attended after graduating from Lawrence University the year after Tibbetts. He worked a few odd jobs and realized he enjoyed being outside, as well as being in a college environment. One of the courses he took at CSU was “Field Biology.”

“That’s when I really figured it out,” he said. “It was like, ‘Dude, this is what you enjoy.’”

To continue enjoying it as a professor meant Tibbetts would have to earn a doctorate, which took him to Michigan State University. He did not establish a new standard for the quickest path to a degree, which he completed six years following his master’s degree from Colorado State.

“The last two years, I taught my own class, ‘The Vegetation of Michigan,’ or something like that,” he said. “Then I finally wrapped up. It was not a land speed record, but what’s the hurry?”

He’d finally become Dr. Tim Tibbetts, after all.

“It took me a while,” he said. “I have a lot of hobbies, things like brewing beer, and playing soccer and volleyball.”

Of his teaching career at Monmouth, Tib- betts said, “It’s been a lot of fun. And it’s had its challenges for sure.”

One of those challenges came in his first year on the faculty. He was not only teaching new material in his zoology and botany classes — with a session of the latter subject starting at 8 a.m. each day — but his and Amy’s son “Zane had just been born, and my head was all kinds of twisted around. I was keeping ahead of my students by about a week, or maybe just five minutes or so.”

But he soon widened that gap and, along with Ken Cramer, Kevin Baldwin and James Godde helped develop a very solid biology department. The quartet served on the faculty together for 20 years.

“Teaching field botany is at the top of the list, and ecology was another favorite of mine,” said Tibbetts. “I also enjoyed the Citizenship class that focused on sustainability. Some of the students were science majors, but some were not. That was a good challenge. For many of those students, the issues we discussed were things they’d never thought about. Just as an example, there was some statistic I used in the class about aluminum cans, and about how many 747s you could build from their waste. The students didn’t think about the

world in that way.”

In addition to teaching a diverse group of courses that included botany, ecology and citizenship, Tibbetts is known for a pair of activities that take place outdoors. One, which is very related to his academic discipline, is the annual prairie burn he oversees every spring at the College’s LeSuer Nature Preserve. He’s also led annual prairie burns at the Spring Grove Cemetery outside Monmouth.

Tibbetts also became director of the Monmouth Pipe Band. That was far from his intention when he signed on to come to campus, even though he had experience with the instrument. At its peak under his direction, Tibbetts said the band had between 12-15 pipers and five drummers and successfully competed on the national stage.

Looking to the future, Tibbetts will still be seen playing the bagpipe at College events, and he’ll also travel, with trips to Big Bend National Park, Hot Springs and Las Vegas on his list for this year alone.

As for a hyper-focused daily itinerary for those trips, don’t count on it. If Tibbetts wasn’t trying to set a land speed record while he was studying and working, it’s a good bet he’ll take it down another notch or two in retirement.