Longview professor starting her 100th semester of teaching

LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) - It takes roughly nine semesters to earn a degree, but someone at LeTourneau University is just beginning her one-hundredth.

No, she’s not a student having a tough time, she’s a teacher. On Monday, LeTourneau employees showed their appreciation at the start of her class.

One hundred semesters is fifty years if you do the math, and you can bet Lois Knouse has. Math is what she’s been teaching all that time.

“Did you ever think you’d make it a hundred semesters?” I asked Lois.

“No, I really didn’t. I didn’t know because I’ve been pretending to retire for about the last seven years,” Knouse said with a laugh.

She loves it so much the semesters just got away from her, but LeTourneau did notice. TLarry Frazier, the dean of arts and sciences, led a group of over a dozen appreciative staff members to her classroom.

“This is the one-hundredth semester of teaching,” Frazier said as students and staff applauded.

Not all of that time was at LeTourneau, however.

“I did my internship. I taught high school for 13 years,” Knause said to everyone while she held her balloons and flowers.

But why math?

“Oh, honey I’ve been teaching math since third grade,” Knause revealed.

Of course that was tutoring, really, and doesn’t count as part of her 100 semesters.

“[Math is] the basis of all the sciences, because it’s what we use to prove the sciences,” Knause explained.

Frazier said she seems to get better every year.

“She’s one of our most engaged faculty members in terms of technology. She’s one of our early adopters, always looking for new ways to teach, new ways to reach students. Really remarkable that towards the end of her career that she does not appear to be slowing down at all,” Frazier said.

And as far as the surprise party ...

“You didn’t put two and two together on that one?” I asked her.

“No, because I didn’t know we did stuff like this,” Knause said with a laugh.

And as for the future, she says she has at least two more semesters in her after this one, but I have a feeling she’s been saying that a while now.

When Knause was hired at LeTourneau University 37 years ago, she was already familiar with the campus. She graduated from the school in 1967. She said she was in the third graduating class that had women in it.

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