CSC professor looking forward to more traveling

Frequently quoting the Turkish proverb, “Books impart knowledge, travel gives wisdom,” Shepherd likes to say that he’s “visited 77 countries and I’m working on 100.” He’s also been to all 50 states. His wife, Sara, has accompanied him on most of his travels and will continue to be his travel partner.

“We plan to travel until we can’t do it any more,” he said. “We may do it a little slower than we have done it in the past, but we’re both in good health and are looking forward to seeing a lot more of the world and to revisiting some of the places where we’ve already been.”

Most recently, the Shepherds visited a half dozen of the “Lesser Antilles” island nations in the Caribbean during the holidays this past December and January. He said the travel has definitely made him a better teacher because he’s been able to see the places where history occurred and share much of the “behind the scenes” information that he learned with his students.

Shepherd said his love for travel dates back to the vacation trips his family took when he was growing up in Madrid, Neb. Most of them were short excursions throughout the Midwest, but it whetted his appetite for seeing the world.

His late father, Harold, had been a teacher before serving as the Madrid postmaster for 28 years. His mother, LaDeen, who now lives at Mesa, Ariz., taught in Perkins and Chase County schools for 22 years after Shepherd and his sister, Cheryl, were in school.

Shepherd recalls that he was bitten by the history bug when he was in junior and senior high school and majored in it while attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he earned all three of his degrees.

During his senior year in college, he met his future wife, who had fled Hungary with a cousin, the cousin’s husband and their two children during the 1956 revolution against the communist dictatorship in their homeland.

This summer, the couple plans to return to Hungary to commemorate the golden anniversary of her decision to “vote with her feet,” as he puts it, and come to America. The trip won’t be a new experience for them. Through the years they’ve gone back to visit Sara’s relatives about a dozen times.

Immediately after receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1961, Shepherd spent three years in the Army, including a year in Korea. He then taught high school social studies for a year at Cozad High School before using the GI bill to return to UNL and earn graduate degrees so he could teach in college.

He was on the faculty at Nebraska Wesleyan University two years before coming to Chadron State in the fall of 1972 to replace Virginia Speich, who was retiring.

“I planned to stay in Chadron only two years, but I’ve learned that life is what happens while you’re busy making plans,” he said with a grin. “I’ve really enjoyed being here. It’s been a rewarding experience.”

At CSC, Shepherd taught nearly 20 different courses. They range from Nebraska and U.S. history to several that he developed following his travels, such as “The Ottoman Centuries,” “Europe in the 1920s,” “Socialism, Marxism and Communism” and “The Napoleon Age.”

He is recognized as a leading scholar on European and Middle Eastern history, but is especially well-versed on late medieval Hungary and the Ottoman Empire that ruled much of Balkans and Levant (Eastern Mediterranean) in the 16th century. The latter fields have been the topic of many of the 38 papers that Shepherd has written and delivered papers at history conferences through the years.

He’s also had nearly 20 papers published and is the author of books on the centennial history of his hometown of Madrid and “Billy the Bear” Iaeger, a colorful character in the early history of Chadron.

Never one to be idle, Shepherd has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study on five U.S. university campuses since coming to CSC. He also was selected for a seminar on Yugoslavia in the summer of 1972, was a Fulbright Fellow to Turkey in 1988 and a Malone Fellow to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in 1995.

Shepherd has encouraged his students to travel and led numerous study tours for them.

In 1980, he founded the Campus Historical Forum for history students. The organization raised funds by hosting the popular Oktoberfest on the CSC campus the past 22 years and used most of the proceeds for numerous trips that he led spanning from the California Coast and the Spanish Southwest to Washington, D.C. Most of the traveling was done during spring break.

“I really enjoyed those trips because I got to know the students much better than I would have otherwise,” he said. Nearly every trip resulted in slide show that he presented both on- and off-campus.

In addition, he’s led student groups on five tours of Europe and co-sponsored two trips to Mexico and one to Hawaii with CSC Biology Professor Ron Weedon.

The “crowning” experience while leading student groups, Shepherd said, was in the spring of 1992, when he coordinated the Nebraska Semester Abroad program that spent about four months at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Leuven, Belgium.

In the summer of 1994, the roles were reversed when Shepherd and Dr. Jim Shaeffer, a political science professor at CSC for 38 years, took an extensive tour of China that was led by one of their former students, Tim Walz.

Although the Shepherds visited Ecuador, Peru and Chile during the holidays in 2002-03 and he’s been to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, more South American and African nations are on the itinerary for the next few years as he strives to reach the goal of seeing 100 nations in person.

He notes that the world has changed during his lifetime as several former enemies of the United States are now allies and some of those that were once allies are less friendly.

“I wish we were leaving the world a better place for the next generation, but I’m not sure we are,” he said. “It’s a more complex and lethal world rather than a kinder, gentler one.”

Besides his world travels, Shepherd has also been active in several organizations in Chadron. They include the Methodist Church, the Masonic Lodge, the Shriners and the Rotary Club. “Being involved with them also has been rewarding,” he said.

The Shepherds have two children, Phil, a financial consultant who lives in Omaha, and Lydia, a research chemist in Ohio. Phil has three children and Lydia five.