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His final act
Beloved theater and film professor Ron Perrier takes his final bows at SCSU
 Media Credit: Jessica Tonsfeld/Staff Photographer Theater and film professor Ron Perrier will retire when the 2001-2002 school draws to a close. Perrier has taught at SCSU since 1975 and has taught more than 50,000 students.
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Tuesday was the last day that theater and film professor Ron Perrier will be seen in his regular classes. And after Wednesday, the last day that he gives finals, he won't be seen much around campus. The beloved Perrier will be retiring.
Born in Stillwater in 1940, Perrier is the second oldest of six children. It on that farm five miles out of Stillwater where Perrier was raised.
"I went to school in a one-room country school for all eight grades, and with the same, excellent teacher for all eight grades," Perrier said.
It was in that very classroom that he learned about teaching, and the strong desire he had to be a teacher.
"I admired many of my teachers and I learned a great deal from the good ones about the art of teaching," Perrier said. "I never wanted to do anything else besides teach. And now, after 40 years in the profession, I probably love the excitement and creativity of teaching more than I ever have before."
Perrier wasn't always a teacher, however. As a child, he started out selling garden seeds and magazine subscriptions door-to-door. In high school, he worked at a drug store, where he stocked shelves, helped customers and did janitor work.
After high school, his extensive education went from getting his bachelor of science degree in Secondary Education, majoring in English and Speech/Theater at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
After that, he worked at a couple of different high schools, teaching English, speech, theater arts, directed theater productions and coached speech and forensics activities.
Perrier received his master's degree at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Speech Communication, Oral Interpretation of Literature and Theater. By the year 1968, he moved up in the teaching world to teach at a community college in Bloomington. He worked there for five years and got his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
He later took a job teaching at the college from which he got his bachelor's degrees, which eventually brought him to SCSU in 1975; the year SCSU was honored enough to have an extraordinarily influential professor that would bring optimism, intelligence and more for 27 years to come.
In these 27 years, Perrier has contributed much to this campus. He has taught most of the theater courses, directed many productions and has taught film studies courses over the last 10 years. He has even planned the film studies minor that SCSU now offers. Perrier has also written a plethora of books which he has used for the class he has regularly taught all the years he has worked for SCSU, which is Theater 140, Introduction to Theatre and Film.
His latest book is Growing Up Male in America, which was published in January, as a mainstream-public book, rather than his usual course guide. The book deals with interviews of men in their 20s dealing with being a male in this day and age. The men in this book reveal many concerns, frustrations, memories, secrets and fears.
Perrier has begun to work on a new book project, which is a photo book called Men of Minnesota. The book will feature men of various ages at different locations and situations around the state of Minnesota. He hopes to have it finished by late fall.
Perrier has done so much that the community cannot and will not forget.
Film studies professor Brad Chisholm shared his fondness for Perrier and all the influence he has had here at SCSU.
"Honestly, I don't believe (he's leaving)," Chisholm said. "When walking in the door of the theater department office, he's often the first person anyone sees. He's the reason I came to this department. His humor, warmth and balance (of emotion is extraordinary). He's the ideal person you'd ever want to work with."
Students, colleagues, associates and all agree that he's simply amazing, and has had much influence over many people.
"It just boggles my mind when I think that 50,000 people have walked through his class. He's influenced a lot of people and it's a pretty amazing thing," Chisholm said.
"He's had a very positive influence on the university," agreed Erin Slynn, a teaching assistant of Theater 140.
But alas, the time has come for him to end his career here.
"I am retiring because I thought at the age of 62 it was time to get involved in a new chapter of life. I bought a condo downtown Minneapolis, which is (in) close walking distance to most everything of interest to me."
Certainly, students and faculty will all miss Perrier, but what will he miss?
"I'm always amazed that a person who is 1/3 my age can sit for long periods of time and just chat with me. I love it. It is that contact with students that I will miss the most."
As Perrier looks back on his years teaching, he can't help but get a little sentimental.
"Some educational scholar once called teaching The Immortal Profession. I think he was right. The teacher can have a lasting influence on students; that influence can go on and on and on. Good teachers are remembered."
And remembered Perrier will be.
"A number of the nearly 50,000 students who have sat in my classes in my 40-year career have come back to me to say that something I said or some movie I showed or some idea I proposed made a difference in their lives," Perrier said. "That is what makes teaching immortal."
Britt Johnsen can be reached at: [email protected]
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