At the news of Dr. David Vanderwerken’s death on Jan. 25, the TCU community gathered to share his legacy.

The English professor spent his 43-year career teaching 20th century American literature to graduates and undergraduates.

To his colleagues, Vanderwerken’s passion for teaching was obvious.

“I think the absolute most important thing to say is that David absolutely loved what he did, no matter which course,” Dr. Linda Hughes, a fellow TCU English professor, said.

Many of the topics Vanderwerken taught — before his retirement in spring 2014 — included William Faulkner, the Jazz Age and sports literature.

“He simply loved teaching,” said Dr. Karen Steele, English department chair. “He loved working with students.”

Students had to compete to get into his classes.

“The Roaring Twenties and the American Dream (classes) were the first classes to fill,” Steele said. “I was just talking to one of my students the other day. He said, ‘I was so lucky to finally get the Roaring Twenties before he retired. We all knew this was our last chance.’”

Among his colleagues, Vanderwerken was known to help lighten the mood when things would grow sour.

“He loved to evoke a response,” Steele said. “He loved to send jokes. I do Irish literature, and he loved to send bad, and often funny, Irish jokes.”

Some TCU faculty members took classes with Vanderwerken as undergraduates. Dr. Harry Parker, theatre department chair, was one of his students in the 1970s.

In the fall of 2013, Parker received the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Creative Scholar and Teacher, an award he was nominated for along with Vanderwerken.

When Parker received the award, he personally thanked Vanderwerken as a professor who inspired him as an undergraduate.

“It was humbling for me to be on a dais with him,” Parker said. “He’s one of my mentors.”

But even after missing out on the award, Vanderwerken still managed to crack a joke.

“When it was all over, he said to me, ‘Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. But how about a cut of the money?’” Parker said.

Despite the loss of Vanderwerken, his legacy will remain as well as the classes he was most well known for.

“He anchored one of the most popular areas of students who want to study English,” Steele said. “They come in because they want to study Faulkner, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald. Students who might have pursued strategic communication or journalism, they came into English because they followed their heart.”

“The classes that he offered [were] the way for that to happen.”

Photos courtesy of Shari Green, Vanderwerken’s daughter.