Professor Emeritus Dr. Daniel Thurber ‘68 continues to serve Concordia Nebraska

Dr. Daniel Thurber ’68 is professor emeritus of English at Concordia University, Nebraska. Following retirement several years ago, he has continued to teach about three classes each semester at the university. 

“Prior to retirement, I served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for many years. In addition to my teaching, I have led 27 study tours to Europe each year for Concordia students, and I have taken student study tour groups four times to Asia.” 

Dr. Thurber established the university’s London and Europe Study Tour in December 1993. 

“In addition to London, over the years I have taken study tour participants to numerous other destinations,” he said. “These have included Cambridge, Canterbury, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon in England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Dublin, Ireland; Amsterdam and Delft, Netherlands; Brussels and Bruges, Belgium; Copenhagen and Helsingor, Denmark; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; Berlin and Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany; and Budapest, Hungary.” 

He has also led four study tours to east Asia including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei. The total number of participants on his trips – students, faculty, staff and others – is well over 500. 

Thurber and his wife, Carol (Haar) Thurber ’68 are alumni of the university, all three of their children are graduates and they have one grandchild who currently attends the university. Dr. Thurber has a bachelor of science in education with emphasis in English as well as a master of arts in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a doctorate in English from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. 

He served at Concordia Nebraska from 1971 to 1977 and continuously since 1987. He received the university’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997. 

“Literature can illuminate the needs, behavior and consequences of decisions and actions. It can highlight our frailties, our aspirations, the limitations of human potential and our need for deliverance.”

Dr. Thurber and Carol have been married for 58 years and have three children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. When he’s not teaching, Daniel enjoys traveling, watching sports and reading.  

He said he often repeats an idea that was expressed in a literature course from his undergraduate days to his own students: “Every writer who would be significant must eventually get around to the concept of original sin.” He said he ponders this idea often and shares it again and again with his students.  

“In the fifty-seven years since graduating from Concordia Seward, I have had the privilege of introducing students at the high school and college levels to the delights of literary study. Along with that privilege has come the challenge or ‘tension’ that perhaps every teacher of literature in our Lutheran schools faces: how to represent fully and faithfully the literary work of art for the fullest aesthetic enjoyment by the student — and, at the same time, assist the students as they encounter world views, philosophies of life and religious attitudes that seem to be in stark contrast to the Christian values we desire our students to embrace and live,” he said. “From my experiences, I offer some thoughts regarding how a serious study of literature can lead students to thoughtful consideration of the realities of our human condition in a fallen world and our need for a Savior. Literature can illuminate the needs, behavior and consequences of decisions and actions. It can highlight our frailties, our aspirations, the limitations of human potential and our need for deliverance.” 

Concordia University, Nebraska believes the starting point for all studies in English is the development of the individual student’s voice. Both in and out of the classroom, students find space to examine who they are, what they believe and how they can impact others. As a Christian institution, we promote rigorous inquiry and charitable engagement with the world around us. Together with English professors, students learn to exercise their voices in prose, poetry, research and relationships. Although students discuss challenging ideas and explore diverse viewpoints, English professors will maintain a focus on students as individuals and how they best learn.