Dr. Nancy Lind wasn’t expecting a homecoming, but when her parents fell ill at the beginning of 2020 and her classes shifted online due to the pandemic, she returned to the childhood home her father built using quarried stones in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, for what she thought would be a temporary stay. 

Four years later, the professor emeritus of Politics and Government remains in Stevens Point, spending her days with her shih tzu, Snoopy, and her mother; making friends; and finding historical landmarks in the hometown she’d left 40 years before. 

“I love walking my dog and visiting cemeteries to find the oldest stone, and then going onto Newspapers.com to read about that person,” said Lind. 

She enjoys her new life, but Illinois State wasn’t easy to leave behind.  

“I really loved working at Illinois State University. It was a large department with a hometown feel,” said Lind, who retired in 2021. “The faculty took interest in their students and worked hard to see them all succeed.”

Lind misses her students the most. 

“I still miss teaching and interacting with students, though the transition was a bit easier since COVID had me teaching online for a year-and-a-half before retiring,” she said. “I keep track of my former students. You know you made an impact when they’re your friends 30 years later.

“One of the most remarkable things was, when I moved, children of alumni packed my house and drove vanloads of furniture, books—the entire contents of a three-bedroom house—to me.”  

Though she never anticipated a full-time return to her hometown, Lind enjoys learning about her heritage through Portage County Historical Society programs, going on bike rides with her friends, and traveling to her summer cottage to watch the glowing sky of “Sunset Valley” fade into night. 

“I love to kayak on Green Bay and walk along the shoreline to find beach glass,” she said. 

With her mom, Snoopy, and friends for company, she is at home. 

Lind can be reached at nslind@IllinoisState.edu.