After a childhood in California, followed by school and several jobs in the Northeast, Gretchen is now in my Midwestern phase. She teaches humanities and American studies in Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University (Indiana) and she writes mostly about architecture and religion. Her work has also taken her into many museums, as both employee and visitor, and she is currently on the advisory board of our local historical society. She loves to think about the buildings and objects people make and use, and she tries to figure out what these material things reveal about values and beliefs.

With her husband, John, they have two children. She and John were here once before, for a few days in October of 1993 while on their honeymoon. Their “first dance” was at Holden -— to “Blueberry Hill” on the jukebox.