Sunlight streamed through the windows of McNamara Rehearsal Hall as one hundred choral voices blended to one. At the President’s Ball, a roaring pop band enchanted crowds of spiffily-dressed students, moving them to rock to the beat. The crooning of a spicy saxophone cast a spell on swing dancers, another night, jiving in celebration of orchestral success.
McNamara Hall brings students together. Many have spent hours of their college career in the room. Few know the story of the man whose name it holds.
Joe McNamara was executive director of Public Relations —now known as External Affairs— until his death on Feb. 12, 2002. An employee of the college since 1994, McNamara passed away shortly before Howard Music Hall was built, and an anonymous friend donated the money to have the hall named after him.
“Joe was a character,” said Angela Lashaway, art director for External Affairs. “They named the room after him after he passed away. So he didn’t even know. And he would be so proud that he had a name on something. He would just be overwhelmed by it.”
McNamara was a Detroit Red Wings fan, and often attended their games at Joe Louis Arena. Every year, Director of Music James Holleman lists the rehearsal hall as “The Joe” on Choir and Orchestra syllabi.
“He used to go to Joe Louis, which was known as ‘the Joe,’ so the donor asked that we refer to this as ‘The Joe,’” Holleman said. “That just never caught on.”
“Probably the highest price tag in this building was the naming of that rehearsal hall because it is the largest room,” he added. “I think it was $1 million. This person thought that highly of Joe McNamara.”
A native of Iowa, McNamara attended Regis College, and received a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He served as director of the Free Enterprise Institute before coming to Hillsdale.
“Basically he was the editor for everything printed that the college does,” said Director of Publications Monica VanderWeide.
While in Public Relations, McNamara hired employees to work in graphics, bringing a new face to the college’s publications.
“This was back when graphics was just becoming a thing,” said Lashaway. “Computers were just being used in that way. We hadn’t even had a graphics program at the college at the time. And Joe was instrumental in hiring me to do graphics because he saw the potential.”
He also brought production of Hillsdale Magazine, Update, and the college’s newsletters in-house, making turnaround for publications staff quicker and easier.
“At the time all that stuff was off-campus,” Lashaway said. “And he saw the potential. He saw that we could do that here. It helped with controlling content so we could back and forth on a layout and content right here in house.”
Beyond his accomplishments on behalf of the college, McNamara was a hearty co-worker and a faithful friend.
“He was an interesting dude,” Lashaway said. “He was big on nicknames —everybody had a nickname, no one had a real name. Brett Falkey, who now teaches at the Academy, he was ‘Wheat Boy’ because he was from Nebraska. Dan Bisher, who used to work up here, he used to use a pen name ‘Bob Dish,’ so we used to call him ‘Bob Dish.’”
He called Ted Makto, now the director of the Audio Visual Department, “Captain Video.”
“And of course there’s ‘The Coonmeister,’” Lashaway remembers, speaking of Douglas Coon, photographer and professor of art.
McNamara’s antics ensured an entertaining and fulfilling camaraderie among his staff, and those who knew him still tell “Joe stories” on a regular basis.
“Whether he was throwing a hardened loaf of stale bread into an unsuspecting office, racing one of us down the parking lot at the end of the day, or walking into a meeting wearing Harry Potter glasses, smiling that mischievous grin, we laughed, and he made others laugh,” VanderWeide wrote in her memoriam piece on McNamara for Hillsdale Magazine in 2002.
Lashaway has kept mementos of the the times they shared together – mock CCA posters featuring Public Relations staff, a mock National Review cover, and even cardboard cutouts of McNamara’s face on sticks, created for a group photo that he couldn’t be there for.
“He never really brought in his own lunch,” Lashaway remembers. “So if something was in the fridge for awhile and no one was eating it, he’d eat it. And then he’d leave a note or money. And he’d be like ‘Oh, that sandwich? I just went in and ate it.’ And we were like, ‘Joe! That’s disgusting!’”
McNamara’s wife, Colby, played violin in Hillsdale’s Orchestra, and McNamara always enjoyed attending musical performances. The four McNamara sons attended Hillsdale Academy, and their oldest, Paul, was a senior at Hillsdale when his father passed away.
“He came in and he said he wasn’t feeling very well,” Lashaway said, of the February morning. “He didn’t look good, and we were all saying, ‘Joe, you don’t look good.’ He finally said that ‘I’m going to call Paul and I’m going to go home.’ And he left. We believe he had a heart attack on the way home.”
McNamara’s love for the students at Hillsdale College drove his work.
“I know he loved to go to the fine arts performances here,” VanderWeide said. “He loved the students. He loved the college and he loved the students, and he was very supportive of the students. He really liked to be in a mentoring position.”
Joe McNamara is no longer with us, but McNamara Rehearsal Hall, “The Joe,” stands as a fitting monument to his dedication to excellent, diligent work, and camaraderie among friends.
“He just sticks with you, you know?” Lashaway said. “He could be quirky and sometimes annoying, you know, stealing sandwiches and stuff like that. But all in all, he just really cared. He just really had a passion for the work that he did.”
