Q & A with Bill Ashcraft

Background

Degrees & Certificates

• Bachelor of Science - Liberal Arts | University of the State of New York, Regents College
• Master or Arts – History | Vermont College of Norwich University
• (Enrolled) Ph.D. Community College Leadership | Old Dominion University

Professional Organizations

• American Historical Association
• Center for the Study for the Presidency and the Congress
• State Discipline Chair for History

Q & A

What do you do at CCD?

Teach history, chair three departments, co-advisor for Phi Theta Kappa; Chair, Enrollment and Retention

What awards have you received?

Faculty of the Year, 2011

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I absolutely adore my students and my faculty. I love working with both groups. I appreciate deeply both groups, their struggles are mine, their accomplishments I feel as well. Isn’t it tremendous to watch people grow and develop? Isn’t it great to see people accomplish something worthwhile, develop a skill, or a confidence?

You can’t beat this work in terms of providing meaning, whether it is with my students or with my faculty. I love them both.

When you’re not working, what do you do?

Read, run, watch Law & Order re-runs

What moment at CCD stands out as the most memorable?

• Taking students to London in 2012 was pretty amazing and taking students to PTK conventions (many of whom have never been out of Denver!!!).
• Not being busy, but being busy and doing good.
• Something / anything that lifted someone else’s burden, made their path on this planet a little less difficult.
• Those times that I have been able to feel as if I did good, are the most memorable, the most meaningful for me. 

Who had the greatest influence on your education and/or career path?

1. John Wooden (former men’s basketball coach at UCLA) who taught me through his writings the importance of education and doing the right things for the right reasons.
2. Abraham Lincoln, for his uncanny ability to understand and evaluate human nature.
3. My mother, who would regularly sing a hymn when I was a child, “Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?”

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

If you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. (I live the truthfulness of that statement daily).

Which people (living or dead) would you invite to dinner, and why?

1. Abraham Lincoln. I have never had a time in my life (even as a young child) that I didn’t have an admiration / affection for him;
2. Robert F. Kennedy. I love the integrity of his heart (the post-1963, RFK) when he began to champion the causes of the poor, the young, the minorities.
3. Duke Ellington. As close to a musical genius as we have ever produced in this country.
4. Charlie Chaplin. Another genius. Surround yourself with genius and who knows? Maybe some will rub off!

What or who can’t you live without?

Music, books, running, my wife, my kids, my grandkids, the beach / ocean.