POMMERICH, Robert

POMMERICH, Robert. (Fon du Lac, Wisconsin--1936 ). While Pommerich was still in high school, LORAS COLLEGE basketball coach Vince DOWD sent him a letter offering him a chance to attend Loras and play basketball.

Upon graduating from Loras with a degree in accounting, Pommerich left Dubuque in 1959 to serve in the Unites States Army at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. He then took a job with Arthur Andersen, one of the largest accounting firms in the world at the time, where he worked for two and a half years.

In July of 1962, Pommerich signed on as a professor of accounting at Loras. His specialties were auditing and income tax.

Pommerich proved instrumental in bringing computer technology to the college. In 1968 with Jerry Weeg from the Computer Science Department at the University of Iowa, the two wrote a grant application to the National Science Foundation to obtain a computer. When the grant was accepted, Monsiegnor Francis FRIEDL, Loras’ president, asked Pommerich to spend the summer of 1968 at the University of Iowa to receive more instruction. Upon returning to Loras, Pommerich introduced a class in FORTRAN, a computer programming language.

In the 1994 academic year, Pommerich was awarded a sabbatical to teach in the accounting department at the University of Kentucky. When he returned to Loras, Pommerich was offered the position of Chair of the Arts and Lecture Series. As the Chair, his main responsibilities were bringing entertainment to the campus including the Milwaukee Symphony and other popular acts.

Following retirement from Loras in 1999, Pommerich remained an active member of the Dubuque community. He volunteered during tax season helping elderly and low-income citizens file their taxes. (1)

Pommerich was one of seven hundred educators nationally in 1991 to receive the Sears Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership. (2) In 2002 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Loras. (3)

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Source:

1. Keys to the City. Online: http://keystothecity.co/2013/03/25/bob-pommerich/

2. "Loras Professor Receives Award," Telegraph Herald, Sept. 4, 1991, p. 13. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=taZFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=e7wMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5724,632708&dq=robert+pommerich+dubuque&hl=en

3. Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients. Online: http://alumni.loras.edu/page.aspx?pid=480