Veteran Engineering Teacher May Retire

At the age of 87, Bill Shallenberger still loves to teach.

So much so that he does it for free.

His one bit of compensation: The adjunct professor of mechanical engineering at Cal State Northridge gets free parking, which usually costs $63 per semester.

“The way I look at it, I’ve got this experience and it would be a waste if I didn’t pass on this experience and knowledge to the students,” said Shallenberger, who taught senior design on Tuesdays and Thursdays last semester.

He has been teaching senior design courses at CSUN since 1986, no easy feat considering that he drives 110 miles round trip from his home in Oxnard.

“He brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience. He’s like a walking encyclopedia,” said Shoeleh di Julio, associate professor of mechanical engineering at CSUN.

“What impresses me about Bill is that he still wants to learn something new by reading, experimenting, collecting data, analyzing and plotting graphs and discussing it,” said Di Julio. “I like to tell my students that one day I want to grow up and be like Bill.”

“You mean, baldheaded?” Shallenberger quipped.

During his 11-year tenure, Shallenberger has watched thousands of former students and two of his granddaughters graduate from the Northridge campus.

But his days as an adjunct professor may be coming to an end. The CSUN engineering program canceled senior design in the spring semester, prompting Shallenberger to take the term off.

If the course is not reinstated in the fall, Shallenberger hinted that he might finally call it quits.

“If [winter was] indeed his last semester, he will be sorely missed,” Di Julio said.

But sitting around and watching the grass grow is not Shallenberger’s style.

In addition to teaching, he works at a library near his home on Mondays and volunteers his time at a hospital on Wednesdays, activities that he said he plans to continue as long as he is able.

As for the void left on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Shallenberger, with a sly smile, said: “I’ll manage to keep busy somehow.”