You never know where a history degree will take you. In this edition of History's Life Lessons, Jeffrey Lehn '05 shares with us his letter to Professor Emeritus Dick Kaeuper about how his history education shaped his life and career.
Professor,
It has been a very long time. My name is Jeffrey Lehn and I graduated from University of Rochester in the spring of 2005. You were my advisor while working towards my history major.
If you told me as I was graduating what I would be doing with my degree today, I would have either stared blankly or laughed and kept moving. It’s almost the punchline of a joke. Absent graduate degree, a fancy startup, or a family business to inherit, what is a history major to do for work?
On March 20, 2005, during spring break, I traveled home to Long Island, New York, far from the typical island tropics many seniors choose to visit on their spring break. I had arrived to take an entrance exam.
The exam I took was the NYPD entrance exam, and these 16 years since that day have been unbelievably challenging and rewarding. A college graduate from U of R, joining the NYPD, I heard plenty; from family and from friends. How could you? What are you doing? You are capable of more.
I took this criticism to heart. I did not have a criminal justice background. I did not have family on the force. I was entering a new world, impossibly distant from the academic world I was leaving behind.
I was sworn in on July 11, 2005.
Almost 17 years later, the time passing in an instant, I have the luxury to look back at how it all transpired:
Your seminar course on chivalry, where I had to read and process an incredible amount of source material as well as contemporary analysis.
Your course in research, combing through the English record for Stephan Fulborne.
These and the discussions that followed prepared me better than any other life experience I can imagine.
Years later, I have earned the rank of detective and have been blessed with an incredible career thus far. Luck and hard work aside, I feel that I was better prepared for casework than many of my peers. A history paper is remarkably similar to a detective’s case. Both utilize times, places, quotations, and outcomes in order to prove a thesis. Today, my thesis statements are all the same: ______ person is guilty of ______. From arrest paperwork through courtroom testimony, I have been able to help countless victims move forward, achieve vindication, and regain a sense of security. This is founded solidly on my education at University of Rochester and within your classes.
Because of skills you taught me 15-20 years ago, I have been offered and accepted positions at the forefront of my job. I have been embedded in district attorney's offices and a leader on major long term investigations into organized crime, drug cartels, and auto theft rings. I have even instructed in a course on auto crime, assisting hundreds of officers, detectives, and supervisors in helping to keep innumerable New York City residents safe.
I think about your courses often. You are the only college reference that my wife knows by name, and I still have several of my old papers, with your grades and comments, in a folder in my basement.
Thank you, and thank you for how your teachings have guided my career and life. I would not have made it this far without you. I'm supposed to retire in a little over three years, and the first thing on my to-do list is to spend a little time at home reading Le Morte D'Arthur as it was intended: out loud, while enjoying a little bit of red wine.
-Jeff