Paul Moreno, associate professor of history, sits behind a desk full of papers in the Delp Hall office he’s called his for more than 10 years and looks as though he never moved away from Hillsdale. At-ease and surrounded by shelves stuffed with books on labor union history, Moreno describes the transition into his new role and his family’s journey from rural Hillsdale, Mich., to urban Olney, Md.
“It’s an adventure. Or really more of a venture,” Moreno said. Moreno visited campus last week for a student informational meeting promoting Hillsdale’s semester in D.C. programs.
In August, the former dean of faculty relocated to the Washington, D.C., area to work at Hillsdale’s Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, teaching Hillsdale students participating in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program or Semester in D.C.
He lives outside of D.C. in Olney, Md. He already had a fondness for the area, for it is where he met his wife, Lisa, in 1989 during graduate school at the University of Maryland. Georgetown alumna Lisa Moreno met her husband in class, and the couple married and spent the next five years in the D.C. After four years at St. Thomas Aquinas College and a year serving as the editor-in-chief of The Massachusetts News, Moreno came to Hillsdale College in 1999.
Moreno taught Western and American Heritage, as well as Constitutional History and post-WWII history. In 2010, he became dean of faculty, a promotion that required to him to get a smartphone, to his initial dismay. In that capacity, he was involved in many aspects of faculty life, including the hiring of new faculty and the nerve-wracking task of reading the names of graduates at commencement. He also served as the advisor to the campus Bridge Club.
When the move was finalized last summer, the Moreno family purchased a home and enrolled their children in Maryland’s public schools, a significant change from their homeschooling in Hillsdale. His sons, Mark and Greg, are well-ahead of their class in math, and one of his daughters, Judy, is thriving in public high school, an environment Moreno describes as “very competitive. Everyone is on the fast-track to Harvard.”
“They miss their old friends, including the Pestritto kids,” Moreno said, referring to his colleague Ronald Pestritto, Dean of the Graduate School of Statesmanship. He expects all of his children to return to Hillsdale for college.
Day-to-day life is different for Hillsdale’s biggest New York Yankees fan: he now has an hour-long train commute to work. But it’s not been without its upsides.
“I got a much better phone when I moved out here,” Moreno said with a cheerful laugh, “and the weather is quite a bit nicer.”
On Tuesday evenings, Moreno teaches a three-credit course on Constitutional History. Most of his students this semester are George Washington Fellows, a program he was instrumental in founding; he remains actively involved in the program’s continuation, sitting on its selection committee. Current WHIP student and George Washington Fellow junior Melika Willoughby describes Moreno’s class as “like drinking out of a firehose.”
“The man is brilliant,” Willoughby said.
When he isn’t teaching, Moreno works with the college to foster growth in its D.C. semester programs. Moreno believes Hillsdale students can benefit from a semester in D.C., noting “the way in which you have proximity to so many sources in American politics and history.”
Assistant Director of the Kirby Center Craig Kreinbihl said Moreno is “a welcome addition to the Kirby Center,” and added, “Now we have a little more Hillsdale in Washington, which is always a good thing.”
There are things Moreno misses about being on campus full-time, including the involved role of dean of faculty. Always curious to immerse himself in new fields, Moreno mentioned, “The math department is hiring someone new, and I would have been interested in searching for a mathematician. I might have learned something from that.”
And campus has changed in his absence. The Bridge Club no longer meets.
“It’s moribund, and that’s tragic,” Moreno said, chuckling.
When asked if he plans ever to move back to Hillsdale, Moreno said “no” with a smile. Despite the newness of his office on the fourth floor of the Kirby Center, he intends to fill it with books and make it his familiar place for years to come.