“I was one of those kids who knew at the age of five what I was going to do. I was five-years-old, I was in kindergarten, I knew I was going to be a teacher.”
Gabriele Mayer-Hunke first stepped onto the Mesa College campus in 1986; before it was Colorado Mesa University, before it was Mesa State College. Before the university center, the college center, the quad, the Maverick Center or even Escalante Hall, the building she now occupies in her final year at CMU.
After 31 years, 62 semesters, countless classes, finals and students, Mayer will step off the CMU campus as an instructor for the last time this semester. She has watched as students, professors and even college presidents come and go. She has seen the campus when it housed no more than 3,000 students.
“Now, people are walking by, they don’t know who I am, I don’t know who they are,” Mayer said. “But when we were small, you’d be saying “Hi” to everyone, it was intimate.”
Mayer has spent “half her life” at this institution, as she puts it, but she will leave behind a legacy as everyone’s favorite English/German instructor.
Today, Mayer continues to put away her things from her office, one with a breathtaking view of campus from the second story of Escalante. Her old office did not have windows, but this one does, and it’s decorated with plants, awards and the German flag.
The day after her last final as a CMU instructor, Mayer will travel to her home, Rothenburg, a community with a population of just 10,000. Of all the things she has missed most about Germany, it is her family.
“I’m very close to my family, we email every day, and skype, and Whatsapp and so on,” Mayer said. She isn’t leaving forever, however, she’s only visiting for three weeks to celebrate her retirement.
“We’re not giving up our home, we’ve made a very nice home,” Mayer said. “We’re not going to move away forever, but we’re going to travel, Kyle and I.”
Kyle is Kyle Hunke, her husband and the very reason Mayer came to CMU in the first place. Kyle, a veteran of the United States Army and Colorado Springs native, met Gabriele Mayer when he was stationed in Germany.
“He was sent to Germany, although, his mother said ‘Kyle, I want you to have a good time, but, whatever you do, don’t come back with some German fraulein,” Mayer said and smiled. “We’ve been married 37 years.”
Mayer came back to Colorado Springs with Hunke, and his name, as well as degrees in English Linguistics and Literature, and a degree in Sports Science.
“I think some students are surprised by it, but I’m very passionate about sports,” Mayer said.
Mayer spent a couple years in Colorado Springs teaching English and German before Hunke found another job, this time it was in Grand Junction, a city that Mayer had never heard of, like many others, she jokes.
Though some time passed and Mayer found her place in the Grand Valley, and eventually found her place with a growing international community on the Mesa campus. Mayer began teaching English as a second language (ESL) full time for the college’s program.
“Those were my happiest memories. International. That’s my world,” Mayer said.
During that time, Mayer would connect with students coming to Mesa from all over the world and take care of them and make them feel at home. Whether that was by going on trips to Arches National Park or cooking food from their cultures in her home. While Mayer does not maintain this same time of connection with the international students, CMU knows who to call on.
“All the people who need help registering, they send them to me, because they know I like the international atmosphere, I’ll take good care of them,” Mayer said. “For a long time I was called ‘International Mama,’ even President Foster called me that.”
Mayer’s ‘international world’ can still be found in her office as well, in decorations, tapestries and a framed gift with all of her well-wishers saying goodbye in different languages.
After her time with the ESL program, the college brought her on as an instructor of English, a subject she feels passionate about and a subject she felt was “much-needed” for some students of the college. Following that, it was not long until the previous instructor of German retired, and Mayer took his place.
Mayer settled in, made the classes her own and provided a classroom culture the students could never forget. But, this could not last, Mayer was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the spring of 2008.
“I was whisked away to Denver, right away. I was in the middle of the semester, six weeks into the semester,” Mayer said. After more than six months of battling cancer through chemotherapy, and thanks to early detection, Mayer began to feel like herself again, and was eventually cancer-free.
Mayer’s close call led her to fundraise for awareness in the following years, selling handmade bags for any and all, her friends, coworkers and students. A farewell concert for Mayer will be performed on Tuesday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Love Recital Hall and all funds will be donated to the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance.
However, they will be donated in the name of Mayela Vallejos-Ramirez, a professor of Spanish and friend of Mayer’s whose ovarian cancer has returned.
Finally, return to the present, with Mayer, or Frau Mayer to her students, spending time in her office, looking back on a full career, and half her life. CMU will feel a void as Mayer exits the campus, exemplified by the awards she has on her windowsill.
“2014 Maverick Award, Faculty Member of the Year. That means more to me because it’s from the students,” Mayer said. “And now, I’ve been nominated again by students.”
Mayer would prefer that someone else win, “I’ve already got one,” she says. Nonetheless, whoever wins the award, CMU and its students will continue to be grateful for their time with Mayer.
Thank you for this feature article about my life partner. I can assure you that her retirement is bittersweet. She will terribly miss the students, but we are also looking forward to this next stage of our lives. I once read the following: “I touch the future. I teach.” I know that Gabriele has touched many lives and leaves a legacy that will live on in through the many students she has influenced.