Students, Colleagues, and Coworkers Turn to Social Media to Remember Former Monmouth College Professor Gary Willhardt

**Photo courtesy of monmouthcollege.edu

Emeritus Monmouth College professor of English Gary Willhardt slipped into the “Realms of Light” on November 27^th in Clarksville, Iowa. In addition to teaching English at Monmouth for 33 years, Willhardt was a 1959 Monmouth graduate. Since the news of Willhardt’s passing, Monmouth College faculty, former students, colleagues, and friends turned to social media to leave tributes, making the College’s posts one of the top ten most popular in 2021, says Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing Duane Bonifer:

“When we posted about Gary, it has been probably one of the ten most popular posts of this entire 2021 year. The comments that his former students and colleagues and coworkers and friends have been putting on the Monmouth College Facebook page have been really touching and more than anything to me, it is a reminder of what makes Monmouth College special. It is those relationships between a faculty member and a student that are formed not just during the semester, and not just during the four years, but throughout someone’s lifetime.”

Willhardt was 84 at the time of his passing and is remembered for helping build Monmouth College’s English Department with an 18^th-century elegance.