The Reagans of Hillsdale: A name to remember

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The Reagans of Hillsdale: A name to remember
Reagan Linde, Anna-Kate Ragan, Reagan Gensiejewski, Brianna Reagan, and Jeremiah Reagan Courtesy | Kalli Dalrymple

“When I was applying to Hillsdale, my tour guide said, ‘We have so many Reagans on campus, someone should write an article about that,’” said one of the five people on campus currently named Reagan.

Hillsdale’s campus is currently home to juniors Reagan Linde and Reagan Gensiejewski, seniors Regan Meyer and Reagan Wardie, and Admissions Counselor Reagan Dugan, ’20. There’s also the statue of President Ronald Reagan, after whom they all were named.

Meyer is the only one who doesn’t spell her name traditionally, however, which she said was her mom’s decision. 

“It’s kind of weird. My mom was a kindergarten teacher and trained in phonics, so to her, the E and A make the ‘eee’ sound, so she didn’t want it to be r-e-a-g-a-n,” she said. “So I’m kind of named after Ronald Reagan. They liked the name, but they didn’t like the spelling.” 

But Gensiejewski would argue that Meyer’s name isn’t the true Reagan way.

“You have to spell it right to be a true Reagan fan,” she said. “There’s only one way to spell it in my mind. My parents are definitely very conservative and so I was going to be named Reagan if I was a boy or a girl.”

From the names to home decor, the Gensiejewski family is dedicated to Reagan’s legacy. 

“I have a Ronald Reagan picture hanging outside my room,” she said. “We also have a room in my house called the library and we have like 10 to 20 books on Reagan, and we’ve all read them all. We don’t idolize him or anything, but we are true fans.”

Although she might not spell her name the “right” way, Meyer said she was obsessed with Reagan as a child and did plenty of her own reading on the subject.

“I was always checking out the books about him at the library, and when I think it was his 100th birthday “Time Magazine” came out with a feature on him and I read that,” she said. “In third grade when we had to dress up as a historical figure I dressed up as Maragret Thatcher because she was a friend of Reagan’s. I never was Ronald Reagan for Halloween though.” 

Perhaps Meyer’s research is enough to earn her “true Reagan fan” status in Gensiejewski’s mind since she also did a lot of Reagan research growing up. 

“When I was younger I would always do summer work with my mom to keep me busy and I’d get to pick the topics and oftentimes I would choose Reagan,” she said. “I can tell you he kept a jar of jellybeans on his desk during his presidency because that’s his favorite candy.” 

Dugan said his favorite thing about Reagan’s desk during his presidency was the ‘You can do it’ sign he had.

“When you’re in fourth grade, you’re not doing a book report about a president other than Ronald Reagan when your name is Reagan,” Dugan said. 

Through Dugan’s childhood reading about the president, he came to respect and appreciate his name even more.

“I admire the way he went from being an actor and being active in his political sphere as an actor and then deciding, ‘I want to go do something to help people in a different way,’” Dugan said. “Even as an actor he was doing quite a bit, like in World War II he was acting for the troops. I admired his idea that, ‘I was doing something important, but I can do something more important.”’ 

He said he tries to emulate that same eagerness and optimism in his own life, although he never did end up getting that same “You can do it sign.”

“Optimism is a good thing and we need more of it. I think I’m a generally optimistic kind of guy. I remember being in elementary school and thinking I should get that little sign because I thought it was cool, but I never actually got one,” he said. “But if the leader of the free world was optimistic, I can be optimistic today.”

Inspirational quotes like that are Gensiejewski’s favorite thing about the president. 

“I feel like that’s kind of lame to say, but I have a bunch of them in my room,” she said. “My favorite one is, ‘The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.’ I think he was super wise.”

While Linde might not have grown up reading Reagan biographies, she said she still respects him and the influence he’s had on her life. She is, fittingly, a politics major born on election day. Before she was born, however, her parents had a decision to make. 

“The backstory that my mom would deny but my dad always tells is that my mom wanted me to be named Kennedy, but my dad didn’t want me to be named after a democrat,” Linde said. “So they compromised on Reagan.” 

She said she wants to be a government teacher at the high school or college level in the future.

“I’ll be able to share my story with my future students and teach them all about Reagan,” she said. 

Linde said prior to coming to Hillsdale, her name wasn’t that common and didn’t raise many questions. The most common question she receives now is, “Were you named after Ronald Reagan?”

“I’ve been asked that so many times. It’s a very common question,” she said. “It was very odd at first and was like the immediate question my professors would ask. A lot of people have a strong admiration or opinions about it. I haven’t minded it though, it’s a name I’ve never been ashamed of.”

Dugan said he and Meyer actually went to the same high school for a few years, so they both had prior experience of sharing their name with someone else.

“We were ‘Breagan and Gregan’ for Boy Reagan and Girl Regan,” Dugan said. “It was rough because my graduating class was 12 so our small little high school had two Reagans for a while. It was prepping me for Hillsdale I guess.”

Gensiejewski, on the other hand, is from New York and said she had never met someone with the name before.

“A lot of people would just ask if it’s ‘Reegan’ but they never made the connection,” she said. “When I was touring Hillsdale and saw the statue of Reagan, my dad was like, ‘This is the place for you.’”

Her name was also a part of Softball Coach Kyle Gross’s recruiting strategy.

“When I was being recruited my coach said ‘I need to have you on my team. We’ve never had a Reagan athlete before,’” she said. “I hope he was recruiting me for more than my name.” 

More than just their names, President Rondald Reagan has had quite the influence on all of their lives. Whether it’s in their future careers or the way they’re choosing to live each day, Reagan plays a part in all of it.

For Dugan, it’s remaining optimistic. Gensiejewski and Meyer are both pursuing radio and journalism which is where Reagan got his start. And for Linde, it’s about passing down our nation’s political history to the next generation.

Reagan is a Hillsdale name, and it’s a name worth remembering.