Augustana College celebrated 11 retirees from the 2026-2027 school year at a retirement ceremony on May 7. 

Jon Hurty, Henry Veld Professor of Music and director of choral activities, have been at Augustana for 30 years. Hurty said that what he will miss most from Augustana is being able to work with the students. One memory he shared was being fascinated by students’ interpretations of the music they sang. 

“I have felt that part of my professional development has been nurtured in a way that I might not have had at some other kind of institution. At Augustana, music is taken seriously,” Jon said.

Jensen Stoneking, a singer in the Augustana choir, has worked with both Hurty and his spouse, voice lesson professor Sonja Hurty since her first year at Augustana.

Sonja has also been at Augustana for 30 years and works with around 20 students per semester through one-on-one voice lessons. She says the most meaningful part of her job has been her relationship with students as she watches them grow. 

“I am concerned that I am really going to miss students. I’m going to miss working with this age group because I’ll never be able to do that again. It’s an interesting time in people’s lives. You just have left home trying to figure out who you are and who you want to be and what you’re going to do to influence the world,” Sonja said. 

Stoneking says that she came in with a voice that had been put in a box in high school, but Sonja helped her expand the kinds of music she could sing.

However, Sonja did not just help Stoneking with improving her voice. Stoneking credits Sonja for being the reason why she did not transfer from Augustana. 

“I would sometimes come to my voice lessons in tears and she would just kind of listen to whatever was going on,” Stoneking said. “She would give me a bit of advice and we would move into the music and we were able to get a lot done, but she was also able to be there and listen to me as a human too.”

Other faculty on campus have helped students find their way. 

Professor Diane Mueller taught introductory computer science courses to First-Years and sophomores. Mueller has seen students take required classes with her and realize that computer science is something they not only have the ability to do, but also like doing. 

“We just had our math computer science honor banquet, so these are, of course, some of our best students, and three of them came up to me and said, ‘I would’ve never been a major had I not had you for class because you convinced me to do that,’ along with whatever else they were doing,” Mueller said. 

Audiology Clinic Coordinator Dori Garro takes care of billing, scheduling and talking to clients for the Barbara Roseman Center for Speech, Language and Hearing. 

During her time, Garro helped bring equipment to an older man whom she described as crabby, which has been one of her favorite memories from the job. 

“I’ve gotten to be pretty good friends with some of them, even though we’ve never met face-to-face, and that’s been very nice, and they get to know me by name, and I get to know them by name, and when I do actually meet them, we get big hugs,” Garro said. 

When looking at sports, defensive coordinator Dick Maloney retired this past February after the conclusion of the 2025 football season. He coached at Augustana for seven seasons.

Toby Splitt ‘22 was one of the players he coached, and some of his favorite memories with Maloney were when they would work and talk together about the game plan and how to map it out. 

“Everything that I did, he had my back, and every time he would tell me to do something, I knew I should trust it, so we just had a really deep relationship [where] we just trusted each other,” Splitt said.

According to Splitt, Maloney impacted him and the team by always looking for the best in his players. He would promote the player’s successes while also helping to fix their mistakes. 

However, the players were not the only people impacted. 

“I think I made an impact on them, and I tell them all the time, you made a bigger impact on me,” Maloney said. “I mean, think of it this way, how many people continue to do what they love to do and have the ability to do it in a highly successful and personal manner for over five decades?”

The other retirees from the 2025-2026 academic year are Julie Oliger, administrative assistant for the education department; Judy Balandran, custodial zone leader; Roman Bonzon, professor of philosophy; Deborah Freese, custodial manager; Sarah Rangel, catering manager; and Wendy Wood, bookstore manager.