A lunchtime conversation with Spanish professor Kate Regan was all it took to convince Kimberlee Turner to enroll at UP.
Then a high school senior, Turner was debating which college to attend when UP’s admissions office arranged her campus visit and lunch.
Intimated by the idea of meeting a professor, Turner waited at the Pilot House, nervously biting her nails. Through the windows she saw a woman striding across the street, her red hair bouncing in time to a vigorous stride.
“That must be her,” Turner thought.
Regan’s down-to-earth personality swiftly put Turner at ease. When she admitted she was considering becoming a teacher, Regan told her, “Think it over. Make sure it’s what you want, and then make it your life’s work.”
“That’s stayed with me ever since,” said Turner, now a senior Spanish and education major. “She was the kind of teacher I’d want to be.”
Regan, who passed away in her sleep on July 23 at the age of 55 from a heart complication, was honored and beloved for that ability to inspire and encourage her students and colleagues.
A global network of friends, the UP community, her six siblings and her life partner, Mary Simon, mourned the loss of Regan’s passion, wisdom and warmth.
“She’s irreplaceable,” Spanish professor Matthew Warshawsky said. “She did the work of so many people.”
One of Regan’s memorable traits, he said, was her insatiable love of Spanish language and culture, which her students found infectious.
In the 19 years Regan taught on The Bluff, she launched study abroad programs in Morelia, Mexico and Granada, Spain and helped build the number of Spanish majors from two to 119.
“She always wanted people to grow,” Warshawsky said. “And she was incredibly supportive as both a colleague and a friend.”
It was a testament to her thoughtfulness, he said, that every year without fail, Regan and her partner would give him cards on Jewish holidays and his birthday.
That same inexhaustible compassion was offered to the many students she mentored.
“She was around anytime I needed her for anything,” said Biology and Spanish major Maribel Barajas, who met Regan on her first day of school.
“I spent so many hours in her office,” Barajas said. “I always felt so comfortable sharing anything. She was always so sincere, so genuine.”
In the classroom, Regan channeled her vitality into creative lectures and projects. She encouraged sleepy students at her 8:10 a.m. classes to stand up and exercise, invited vigorous discussion and urged students to take a hands-on approach to learning.
“There was not a day that she didn’t come to class energized,” Turner said. “She was so full of life.”
Nastacia Voisin is the copy editor of The Beacon. You can reach her at voisin15@up.edu and on Twitter @nastaciavoisin.
