Riegle, Rosalie G. 1937–

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Riegle, Rosalie G. 1937–

(Rosalie Riegle Troester)

PERSONAL: Born February 19, 1937, in Flint, MI; daughter of John L. (a printer) and Eleanor (a volunteer; maiden name, Hines) Riegle; married Edmund M. Troester (divorced); children: Kathryn Marie, Maura Clare, Ann Elizabeth Troester Lennon, Margaret Meagher Troester Murphy. Ethnicity: "White." Education: St. Mary's College, B.A., 1959; Wayne State University, M.A., 1971; University of Michigan, D.A., 1983. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Home—1585 Ridge Ave., Ste. 410, Evanston, IL 60201. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer. Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI, professor of English, 1969–2001, Hilda Rush distinguished lecturer, 2000. Member, Catholic Worker Movement.

MEMBER: Oral History Association, Michigan Women's Studies Association (member, board of directors, 1970–85).

AWARDS, HONORS: Landee Award for excellence in teaching, 1993, Ishahara Award for mentoring, 1994, and Daniels Award, 2003, both from Saginaw Valley State University.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, as Rosalie Riegle Troester) Historic Women of Michigan: A Sesquicentennial Celebration, Michigan Women's Studies Association (Lansing, MI), 1987.

(Editor, as Rosalie Riegle Troester) Voices from the Catholic Worker, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1993.

Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Oral History Review, Fellowship, Feminist Theology, Michigan Voice, and Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women. Contributor to books, including Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement: Centenary Essays, edited by William J. Thorn, Phillip M. Runkel, and Susan Mountin, Marquette University Press (Milwaukee, WI), 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Doin' Time: The Prison Reflections of Nonviolent Activists for Peace, an oral history.

SIDELIGHTS: Rosalie G. Riegle, who has also written as Rosalie Riegle Troester, told CA: "I came to oral history by the back door, with no front-door history training, but led by my admiration of Studs Terkel, my interest in the Catholic Worker movement, and some beginning interviewing experience. I'll never forget that summer afternoon when I realized I could combine these influences and write an oral history of the Catholic Worker. I called Mr. Terkel that very day and asked if I could study with him. He said 'no' right away, of course, but it was the most cordial 'no' I ever received. His encouragement and 230 interviews produced my first oral history, Voices from the Catholic Worker.

Historian Donald Fleming of Harvard said, 'Research only counts if it's close to the bone.' Well, my research on the Catholic Worker cut deeply, so with two friends I opened a house of hospitality in Saginaw, Michigan. There we worked against the constant wars our country is embroiled in and also provided food, shelter, friendship, and support to homeless women and their children, trying to live the Sermon on the Mount in the way that Catholic Worker cofounder Dorothy Day modeled for us.

Day herself continued to fascinate me and I realized there was a dearth of honest and detailed writing about her life, so I conducted over one hundred more interviews with Catholic Workers, young and old, and wrote Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her. During these years of research, I opened a second Catholic Worker house, this time with two recent graduates of the university where I taught."