Richard D. Heggen, distinguished professor in design, will retire at the end of this semester, after 30 years of service to ISU.

“I think [Heggen’s retirement] will be a loss for the university,” said Dean Biechler, a graduate student who has known Heggen since 1969. “But I think it also opens up new horizons for him and the things he can do and share with his grandchildren.”

Heggen said that when he came to ISU he didn’t plan to stay very long.

“I planned to stay a few years,” he said. “I used to get a lot of job offers from different places around the country. At a certain age, they quit coming. I guess they figured out I wasn’t serious to take those jobs, so they quit offering them. I am 65 plus, and [retirement] just seems like the thing to do.”

Heggen said the thing he will miss most about Iowa State is the students.

“Students are my favorite people,” he said. “I’d like for them to like what they do. And I think most of all I like to have them have more success than they thought they were going to have.”

He uses stories in his teaching to motivate students. He said it is a very effective approach.

“He has got an interesting way of teaching,” Biechler said. “He teaches with life experiences. It’s kind of like Aesop’s Fables. He tells stories about his life and growing up. There is always a moral that relates back to what you are doing as an individual student. You have to listen to what he is saying. He gives you a parable and you had better be listening for it, because the answer is always there. It is a unique way of teaching.”

“I think that makes students feel at home, and feel secure in being able to do their work without intimidation or fear from the instructor,” Heggen said. “Students like me, there is no doubt about that. I think they know that I like them.”

Heggen has taught drawing and painting at ISU, as well as an occasional illustration class. He hopes that he will be remembered as a good teacher.

“I think he is very student-oriented,” Biechler said. “He’s always willing to help students take on special projects.”

Heggen focuses his artwork on landscapes, using drawing and watercolors as his media. He spends his summers traveling and drawing.

“I do my drawing and painting on the spot,” he said. “I travel in the summertime. Some of the drawings I make in the summertime I turn into paintings in the wintertime.”

Heggen and his art have traveled all over the country.

“I’ve painted pictures in probably every state,” he said. “I like Iowa as much as any of them, but I’ve painted out west in the mountains and up in Canada.”

Heggen’s work was displayed in 24 galleries across the country during a tour with the Smithsonian Institution Show, and an article on his work was printed in a magazine in Paris, France.

After retirement, Heggen said, he will continue to paint. He will also travel and watch his eight grandsons play sports.

“I have two granddaughters also,” he said. “One of them is just little and the other one is getting married next month.”

“[Heggen] will be fondly remembered by faculty and staff, as well as all the students he has touched,” Biechler said. “I wish him well.”