Gannon's 'Mr. E' delighted in his students, his collections and his 'Prep Lunch Bunch'

When Gannon University Professor David Eichelsdorfer's wife enrolled in two of his classes, she got no special treatment.

"A group of us met Saturday mornings at our house and would sit on the floor working out solutions to the problems for one of the classes," said Nancy Eichelsdorfer, who taught at Mercyhurst University at that time. "I’d say, 'Dave, we're having trouble with No. 19.'

"He'd say, 'Raise your hand in class on Monday morning.'"

Mr. E., as his students called him, taught business courses at Gannon for 35 years, from 1966 until his retirement. He was honored as a Gannon "Distinguished Faculty Member" in 1989 and was longtime advisor to the school's Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity.

Dave Eichelsdorfer died at age 82 on Aug. 28.

Obituary:David Eichelsdorfer, 82

Teacher, friend, confidant

"I was always amazed at how engaged he was with his students," said Scott Miller, senior vice president of academic affairs and provost at PennWest University at Edinboro. Miller was a student of Eichelsdorfer's and later was hired by Eichelsdorfer at Gannon.

"Dave and Nancy always had students at their house, and if students weren't going home for a holiday, would invite them over. He had the business fraternity over all the time and was at all of our events. He was a really great friend and mentor," Miller said.

Eichelsdorfer loved getting to know his students and gloried in their successes but never took any credit for them, Miller said.

"He didn't talk about himself; he always wanted to know about you," Miller said. "What he talked about were his students, his friends and his family and how proud he was of them and what they accomplished. He never said, 'It's because I taught them.' It was always, 'This is how special they are.'"

Eichelsdorfer also gloried in his Cathedral Preparatory School classmates. He graduated from Prep in 1958 and years later organized monthly "Prep Lunch Bunch" get-togethers for more than 30 years.

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"Dave and a couple folks bumped into each other, went out to lunch, and said, 'You know, we ought to do this more often,'" said Lunch Bunch regular Bob Allshouse, a retired Gannon University history professor who knew Eichelsdorfer since they were 14-year-old Prep freshmen. "That was about 1990, and it's still going."

Eichelsdorfer, Allshouse said, never divulged anything told to him in confidence.

"He always kept his word. He never violated anyone's privacy," Allshouse said. "Some of us have had illnesses, things like that, as we got along in life. Dave would keep people's confidences confidential."

In his spare time, Eichelsdorfer read and collected books — lots of books. Nancy Eichelsdorfer recently donated 250 of them to the Erie County Public Library.

"That didn't even make a dent in the collection," the couple's daughter, Susan Demenik, said.

An unusual hobby

David Eichelsdorfer also collected signed Time magazine covers. He'd read the magazine for years and while in graduate school at the University of Buffalo began sending each new issue to the person pictured on the magazine cover. He enclosed a folded, self-addressed, stamped envelope with each autograph request.

"He would hand-write each letter to make it personal," Susan Demenik said. "He believed very strongly in that. He also would ask who (that person) felt was the most influential person of the century."

The first request was to a member of the five U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff pictured on the magazine's Feb. 5, 1965, cover.

"It came back signed by all five," Nancy Eichelsdorfer said. "They'd passed it around between them before a meeting."

Dave Eichelsdorfer collected more than 500 signed Time covers that in recent years have been housed in a safe-deposit box. Among his favorites, Nancy Eichelsdorfer said: Big Bird, from the Nov. 23, 1970, issue.

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The story of David and Nancy

David and Nancy Eichelsdorfer were married for 58 years. They met in 1963, when Nancy wanted new shoes for a Gannon dance that she and her Villa Maria College roommate planned to attend.

The manager of the West Erie Plaza store where she shopped told her that she and her friend wouldn't have to take a bus to the dance; two of his employees were going and could give them a ride. One of those employees was then-Gannon student Dave Eichelsdorfer.

"We talked in the car on the way and found that we had mutual friends," Nancy Eichelsdorfer said.

They married in 1964.

David Eichelsdorfer died at Sarah Reed Senior Living, just a stone's throw from where he grew up on West 23rd Street.

"He's come full circle," a friend told the family.

Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gannon's 'Mr. E' delighted in his students, friends and collections