Fond Farewell: English Professor Emerita Lois Bueler

Professor Emerita Lois Bueler, who taught English for 29 years, passed away July 28. She was 80.

Born July 16, 1940 in Ithaca, New York, she developed a deep curiosity and love for the outdoors as a child, exploring her neighborhoods, gathering salamanders in the mountains of North Carolina, and exploring the prairies around Lawrence, Kansas. She began her collegiate studies at Colorado State University, and enjoyed a sojourn in Paris before she graduated from the University of Kansas.

In graduate school at Cornell University, she met William M. Bueler, and they were married from 1963 until his death in 2004. His work took them to Taiwan for several years, where their two children were born. Upon returning to the United States, Bueler completed a PhD in English at the University of Colorado in Boulder and then taught at Louisiana State University and at Winona State University in Minnesota.

In 1982, she was hired at Chico State, where she became a beloved and attentive teacher of writing and related arts. She expected and modelled excellence, assuming that others would use their compassion, common sense, and diligence to think, investigate, and describe.

Retired professor Ernst Schoen-Rene described Bueler as “the richest and probably best-read teacher in the Chico English department.” He and other former colleagues noted she not only had a fine sense of irony and humor, but a talent for translating materials in a fun and engaging way.

“Like everyone who knew her well, I always appreciated and admired her wit, candor, tireless work ethics, and unremitting willingness to put the needs of students above everything else,” said Professor Emeritus Aiping Zhang.

Bueler chaired a committee of faculty from each college on campus that met several times a year to formulate and implement the University’s literacy program. She also supervised the English Department’s composition-teaching teaching assistants, which, she said in 1993, “may be the kind of teaching I like most of all.” She was named CSU Chico’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 1998.

Current English department staff member Sharon DeMeyer (English, ’96; MFA, English, ’11) is grateful to have had Bueler as a faculty member for both her undergraduate and graduate studies. When crafting the acknowledgements for her thesis, she listed Bueler near the top.

“To Lois Bueler, the first teacher I had at Chico State, I learned more from you in that one class than I had in every other class combined,” she wrote. “I thank you for teaching me skills I use every day. You restored my faith in my discipline and rekindled my interest in English. I hold the deepest admiration for you.”

Alumna Heather Vaughan (English, ’00) expressed similar gratitude when interviewed by the Chico Enterprise-Record about her professional success, crediting Bueler as a longstanding inspiration.

“She made me realize that if I really wanted to do something, all I had to do was try as hard as I could, and I could find a way,” she said. “Lois made me want to try harder, because she had been so dedicated to teaching despite the difficulties in her life.”

Professor Emerita Ellen Eggers fondly remembers many long conversations about the history of grammar with Bueler.

“She had a way of showing joy and delight whenever she found someone with a similar interest, and she would approach these conversations with her unique brilliance and intensity,” Eggers said. “Of course, she had so many interests, she always found such people!”

Professor Emerita Lynn H. Elliott had the greatest respect for Bueler, describing her as “a teacher’s teacher and an esteemed colleague.”

“I still see her surrounded by students carefully and systematically answering their questions. She sat patiently with each student, the student’s paper before them, pointing out, constructively, how to correct and strengthen their writing,” he said. “When I became chair, she was the faculty member to whom I turned most regularly.”

After authoring her first book, Wild Dogs of the World, Bueler wrote four others, especially enjoying the exploration of literary portrayals of women’s roles in 18th century Europe. In 1993, her manuscript Clarissa’s Plots won a nationwide competition in the area of 18th century studies.

Bueler retired in 2006 but stayed active teaching in the Faculty Early Retirement Program, finally leaving the classroom in 2011.

Travel was one of her most beloved hobbies. In her younger days, she bicycled in England, spent a summer working at a zoo in Mali, and did an astonishing 12,000-mile motor scooter circumnavigation of the Mediterranean with her brother George. Her husband was a fellow adventurer, and together, they explored locales around the world. In retirement, she enjoyed planning and leading family trips that included boating in northern Germany, crossing Europe in the Danube and Rhine Rivers, and traversing rural England by canal boat, where her knowledge of English literature and history and her study and translation of 18th century German enriched the trips for everyone. She also continued exploring the western United States during her many visits to her children.

She is survived by her daughter Katherine Bueler; son Ed Bueler; grandchildren Abigail, Daniel, Thomas, and Vera; brother George Eaton and family; and her sister Margaret Eaton and family.

The University flag will be lowered in her honor Tuesday, August 25. An online memorial is planned for late September. Please email elbueler@alaska.edu for details. Her family says donations may be made in her name to Habitat for Humanity of Butte County to continue her support for the organization.