Lawrence’s longest serving professor, former Professor Emeritus of Government and Mary Mortimer Chair of Liberal Studies Minoo Adenwalla, retired fully from teaching in June 2023. Adenwalla taught for 66 years, 64 of them at Lawrence.
On Oct. 21, 1927, Adenwalla was born in Pune, an educational and manufacturing hub in the Indian state of Maharashtra on India’s West Coast. When he was born, India was part of the British Empire, and he lived through the Partition, wars with Pakistan and China, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the rise of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Although Indian politics today is dominated by the BJP and Hindi is prioritized as the national language, Adenwalla pointed out India’s political, linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity. For example, India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, Gandhi, were both members of the more liberal Congress Party. Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP dominate Indian politics, he said that regional and state parties remain powerful, with large socialist and communist parties in many states, such as Kerala. He is a member of the Parsi community, a minority group in India which fled religious persecution in Persia around 800. He commented that, even as India has changed, the constitution, democracy and civil liberties largely remain intact.
Adenwalla got his B.A. in English Literature at Mumbai University. He recalled studying nothing but English Literature in the last two years of his undergraduate studies, and since he was in the honors program, was assigned ten English papers. He passed his exam and graduated in 1948. Due to the timing of his exam, he was unable to apply to study at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, so he ended up applying to universities in the United States.
Adenwalla was accepted to Northwestern University in Chicago, where he earned a Master of Science in 1952 and a PhD in 1956. In 1957, he was a visiting professor at Kenyon College in Ohio for one year and then was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1958-1959. In 1959, Lawrence University called, asking him to interview for a job. It was a difficult decision, but Adenwalla took the opportunity.
64 years ago, Adenwalla remembers a very different looking campus. For example, instead of Steitz and Youngchild Halls of Science, Lawrence had Stevenson Hall and the observatory, since demolished. Instead of the large Seeley Mudd Library, Lawrence had the small Carnegie Library. There was also no Wriston Arts Center or Briggs Hall. When Briggs Hall was built, Adenwalla had to move from Main Hall, which he wasn’t happy about at the time, but he grew to enjoy his office in Briggs.
At the beginning of his tenure, Adenwalla taught Asian History and Politics, specializing in Chinese and Indo-Pakistani politics, but former Professor of Government Chong-do Hah came to Lawrence and took over Chinese studies and Adenwalla focused on India and Pakistan. In the 1980s, Adenwalla began teaching Constitutional Law and Political Philosophy.
In 2002, Adenwalla retired from being a full-time professor but wanted to continue teaching part time. Before 2002, he focused on Constitutional Law, and until 2023, Adenwalla switched yearly between teaching Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties & the Supreme Court.
Throughout his 64 years at Lawrence, Adenwalla made many friends, some of whom are his former students. He mentioned Professor of History Bill Chaney, Professor of English Bertrand Goldgar, Professor of Government William Riker and Professor of Government Mojmír Povolný, all of whom have since passed away.
“One of the greatest joys has been a very large number of current and former trustees who were former students of mine and are now close friends of mine,” Adenwalla said.
Although he’s not a trustee, one of those former students is University Counsel Eric Schacht — who also wrote for The Lawrentian — who spent much of last year helping the 95-year-old professor with his class, driving him from his home to Briggs Hall when he could and staying for class once or twice per week. He credits Adenwalla as one of the professors who gave him a home at Lawrence.
“Minoo was one of the first professors I met at Lawrence,” said Associate Professor of Government Arnold Shober. “He was a warm-hearted presence then…He was deeply caring and always ready to convey his many years of wisdom.”
“I’ve always been astounded by Minoo’s ability to recall & stay connected to his students,” said Associate Professor of Government Jason Brozek. “He’s had multiple generations of Lawrentians in his classroom and…I swear he knows what every one of them is doing now. Building those sorts of personal bonds is something I aspire to as a professor.”
“Lawrence University has given me so much, and the primary reason I have returned is so that I can be part of making the Lawrence Experience as special and illuminating for today’s students as it was for me,” Schacht said. “Minoo Adenwalla dedicated his life to this very thing – for thousands of students in hundreds of classes in eight different decades. For that, every Lawrentian past, present and future should be grateful for and inspired by.”
“Minoo has led a long and distinguished career and has touched the lives of so many Lawrentians,” said President Laurie Carter. “He is an iconic and treasured member of this community.”
As for myself, it was a joy to interview Professor Adenwalla. I hope to see him again.