James and Delrose Eigel
Many Musketeers are all too familiar with managing a balance between rigorous academic life and maintaining a job, finding and paying for adequate housing, and, of course, attempting to cope with tuition and student loans. In fact, it is shared struggles such as these which Xavier University’s Eigel Center for Community-Engaged Learning is built to challenge. The center is named for James C. Eigel, a Xavier alum and Cincinnati native, and his wife Delrose. While at Xavier Jim was just like many present-day students, juggling the trials and tribulations of college life.
Jim Eigel began his full-time career as a Xavier student in 1952, but to afford the ability to do so he also began working full-time at the Ford Motor Plant in Cincinnati. In addition to his schoolwork, he worked on an assembly line making automatic transmissions from 3:30 pm to 11:30 pm. After his freshman year, Jim left Ford and took up a job with a local construction company which allowed him much more flexibility; however, after his sophomore year, he joined Tool Steel with a position in heat treatment. This proved to be even more demanding than his situation at Ford – he worked from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am, just enough time to grab breakfast before his 8:30 class. He would head home from school and sleep from 3:00 pm until 8:00 pm, when he would wake up, get some homework done, and ready himself for his overnight shift.
Despite this Herculean schedule, Jim graduated in four years, receiving his degree in Economics in 1956. Jim’s work ethic was born not only from a determined personality and an innate aptitude for rigor, but also from necessity – Jim and his family were not able to pay for his education without such dedication on his part, and because of his diligent work he was able to attend Xavier without receiving any financial aid.
This strong work ethic continued through Jim’s professional life and rewarded him with copious success in both the realms of career and family; however, Jim never lost sight of his humble beginnings. As a Cincinnati native, he knows that there are many in his community whose experiences and circumstances are similar to his own origin. He loves his home, but as he writes in his autobiography, The Journey is the Reward, “to be a really great city, Cincinnati has to deal fairly with each sector of the community,” which “requires everyone working together.”
To help combat the economic disparity among some Xavier students and the larger Cincinnati community, Jim Eigel turned his attention towards his alma mater. In 1999 Jim graciously endowed a scholarship for Musketeers in financial need, and a decade later, committed the funding for a community outreach program which “serves as a catalyst for the efforts of faculty, students, and administrators to promote student learning and community wellbeing.” The James and Delrose Eigel Center for Community-Engaged Learning was born.
The Eigel Center for Community-Engaged Learning brings the classroom to the community by establishing partnerships with organizations throughout the Cincinnati area and supporting curriculum which integrates service and immersion learning into Xavier’s pedagogical profile. Because of the dedication and generosity Jim and Delrose Eigel have shown both Xavier and Cincinnati at large, students today are able to engage in the Jesuit values of service and solidarity with others and live out Eigel’s philosophy – “Everyone should have the chance for a good life.”
