For 37 years, this 1993 Hall of Fame inductee enriched the character of Fenwick and its students with intelligence, kindness, talent and wit.
Mathematics teacher, department head, Assistant Principal and Dean of Students, and perennial Blackfriars Guild director and moderator, Mr. Edward E. Ludwig (shown above in 1988) was exemplary of the Catholic layperson involved in the Church’s mission to teach at Fenwick High School.
Born and raised in Chicago, Mr. Ludwig was educated at Loyola University. He did extensive graduate-level work at both DePaul and Michigan State universities. At age 26, Mr. Ludwig joined the Fenwick faculty as a teacher in the Mathematics Department. For the next 37 years until his retirement in 1990, he participated in the Christian apostolate of teaching. He held students to the Fenwick standard of discipline as well as academic and personal achievement and growth. In many ways, he was responsible for establishing these standards during his long tenure as teacher and administrator.
When Mr. Ludwig was asked to be Chair of the Mathematics Department in 1967, he revised the mathematics curriculum to include courses in pre-calculus and then calculus to better prepare Fenwick students for college and university and an increasingly technological society.
Mr. Ludwig was acknowledged as an outstanding teacher of mathematics by all who came into contact with him – students, parents and faculty. His knowledge of the subject matter was exceptional. His ability to communicate it to his students was phenomenal. He was empathetic and precise; his method of delivery was unique.
When he wanted to be heard, he spoke sensibly in quiet, well-modulated tones. When he enunciated “gentlemen!”, students whose minds might have started to go elsewhere were brought back to attention. “Come here, child,” brought to his desk boys who needed individual tutoring or counseling.
At times Mr. Ludwig allowed irony to enter into his sense of humor, and sometimes it took the students some time to understand and appreciate him. Once he told a cafeteria full of students that a few Fenwick boys at the bus stop had hindered the progress of an ambulance. He told them if they ever did that again, the ambulance would have to make an unscheduled stop to pick them up. All of this was done in his best basso voice – nervous laughter, point well made.
Students always felt he cared about them, and, indeed, he did. During freshmen orientation in his classroom, students were encouraged to talk about themselves – their hobbies, their abilities. Many students would then discover they had common interests and develop close friendships that lasted lifetimes.
Math & the Arts
Mr. Ludwig’s work with Blackfriars Guild reflected his own varied aesthetic interests in opera and other music, drama, art, dance and literature. He produced and directed musicals, drama and the annual variety performance. Under him, this organization flourished adding a needed dimension in the arts to the Fenwick curriculum. A number of former members of the Guild are now involved in professional theatre.
Mr. Ludwig served as Assistant Principal and Dean of Students for fourteen years – longer than anyone in the history of Fenwick. The Director of Happiness, an expression for this office originating with one of the priests on the faculty, was one that Mr. Ludwig relished.
Students came first. He never allowed paperwork to take priority over people. Mr. Ludwig could be seen in his office at all hours tutoring students in mathematics or other subjects. He always saw himself as a teacher first and only then an administrator.
Mr. Ludwig had a fierce pride in the school. As Dean, he personally saw to many of the details in the school – health needs, pep rallies and, of course, conferences with students who found adjustment to school difficult. He was always in the halls and cafeteria greeting students with a smile (or a sterner look when necessary). He knew most by name, and they generally responded favorably to him. He was present at almost all student events outside school hours – many times the first to arrive and the last to leave. He was always one of those staff members former students wished to see when they returned to school during college vacation periods.
In addition, he was always interested in promoting the religious heritage of the school. He made this his primary goal. He was one of those faculty members who formed and then preserved the Fenwick tradition of a strong, structured, disciplined Christian environment.
A student who might speak out of turn was asked if he “had a license to broadcast.” Mr. Ludwig would tell the offender that if he did not, the “federal government would have to smash his transmitter.”
In 1976 when vandals broke into the building and turned on the fire hoses, Mr. Ludwig was called about 11:00 p.m. The water had already done a good deal of damage, and school might have to be cancelled the next day. However, he telephoned students and organized a clean-up detail, working all night. He was at the main entrance of the school as usual the next morning to greet the students and faculty at 8:00 a.m.
Mr. Ludwig was admired by all members of the faculty, personally and professionally. His pedagogical expertise, kindness and sense of justice were impressive. His devotion to his mother and aunt in their old age and sickness was inspirational. The faculty awarded him the Father Conway, O.P. Award for Excellence.
His time at Fenwick was devoted to thousands of students and many duties, some great, some small, some beautiful, some sad. His time here enriched the entire Fenwick community then and now.
(The original of this historic recollection (from 1993?) can be found in the Fenwick archives; author unknown.)
