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If John Langan ever asked you to walk with him across UNO’s campus, you quickly learned the following lesson.
This was going to be a long walk.
The longtime University of Nebraska at Omaha professor and administrator would chat up the backpack-wearing students who called him Dr. Langan, said friends and colleagues.
He’d shake hands with the staff members mowing the grass or scooping snow, who called him John.
He’d stop to discuss a problem with a professor, stop to confirm a meeting time with a colleague — he was on countless committees — and stop to shoot the bull about the next Mavs football game.
The stroll across campus would take half an hour, said Chancellor John Christensen. Everyone who bumped into Langan got a sentence, a wave, a smile.
“I always used to kid him that it was my goal, once during my life, to meet one person that John Langan did not know,” Christensen said. “He was just magnetic.”
“Everyone on this campus is better for having known John Langan. He made a difference on our campus. He made a difference in our community. Now he’s going to be deeply missed.”
Langan, 68, died Tuesday after a yearlong fight with cancer.
He had spent nearly a half-century devoted to UNO, first as a student, then as a professor and finally as dean of the education college.
He’s credited with unifying the once-acrimonious Omaha school board while serving as that board’s president.
As an education professor, he designed a teacher mentoring program that has prepared thousands of new teachers for the classroom.
And he spent his 39-year career, often behind the scenes, helping UNO grow from the University of Omaha — the small commuter campus he graduated from in 1968 — into the sprawling University of Nebraska-affiliated campus that now boasts state-of-the-art buildings and residence halls.
His funeral is planned for 10:30 a.m. Friday at UNO’s Sapp Fieldhouse. One of his sons said the location is fitting.
“It was as simple as picking his favorite place to be,” said Michael Langan. “This was that place.”
Langan enrolled at the campus in the mid-1960s after a stint in the Air Force.
He graduated in 1968, earned his master’s degree the next year and immediately started his teaching career.
He fought to improve the quality of teacher training in the college, boosting the quality of teaching at Omaha K-12 schools in the process, said David Conway, associate dean of the education college.
“He wasn’t very satisfied with mediocrity here,” said Conway, a colleague and friend. “He firmly believed all children could learn, and it was our responsibility as teachers to do whatever we could to make it happen.”
Langan volunteered to be an assistant coach on UNO’s softball team, the first varsity women’s sport in the college’s history. He cheered on every Mavericks team. He served a stint as president of the faculty senate and eventually rose to dean of UNO’s college of education before retiring at the end of 2008.
After he retired, Langan continued to come into the office, chairing committees and helping to plan the remodeling of Roskens Hall, the home of UNO’s education college.
The New Jersey native thought about leaving UNO once or twice, said his wife, Carole Langan, a retired assistant principal. He quickly discarded that thought.
“He would tell people he had the best job in the world,” she said. “He just found his niche. It was just right.”
Among his lasting contributions are his 14 years on the Omaha Public Schools board, including eight as board president, said OPS Superintendent John Mackiel.
He fought for the passage of a successful $254 million bond issue in 1999, which was used to help build and renovate OPS schools. As board president, he spent nights and weekends working to bring together the once-divisive board.
Langan’s colleagues and friends say his largest contribution to UNO might have been his constant presence on campus.
They described him as a pillar. A campus staple. One of the most influential figures in the college’s history.
“It’s just not going to be the same without John Langan around,” said Connie Clausen, UNO’s first woman associate athletic director. “This university is going to miss him so much. I’m going to miss him so much.”
Contact the writer:
444-1064, matthew.hansen@owh.com
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