Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
The creaking staircases were just part of the charm.
Alumni who spent a lot of time in the oldest building on Creighton’s campus often came away with memories they’ll never forget. Creighton Hall is special to so many.
For the first time in more than 90 years, Creighton’s iconic building is undergoing an extensive renovation. The upgrade focuses mostly on the south wing (the northern, and older, wing is slated for enhancements in the future)
So, as the construction nears completion, we decided to take a tour through history — by reminiscing with the Bluejays who once walked the halls themselves.
Reminder: The building name changed from the Administration Building to Creighton Hall in 2007.
Note: Do you have a favorite memory from Creighton Hall? Send an email to Jon Nyatawa at jonnyatawa@creighton.edu and you may be featured in an upcoming article.
The staircases
Just inside the building’s east entrance are a pair of old, carpeted stairs. The stairs were so crowded between classes that one side was designated for traveling up, and the other for traveling down.
You can hear the building’s history with every step.
William Vodvarka, BA’06, always appreciated that.
“What I’ve always loved about the Administration Building is the visible wear on the stairs,” he said. “It’s a physical record of all the students, staff, and faculty who came before me. You know Creighton has been around for almost 150 years, but something as simple as worn stairs lets you actually feel the University’s age.”
Said Brian Jensen, BSBA’87: “The creaking staircases were just part of the charm.”
Jesuit elevator
The elevator behind the gold door was the first thing you saw when you entered the building from the Mall. It required a key for access — and a Jesuit invitation to enter.
It was a crammed space and a rickety ride to the private Jesuit quarters atop Creighton Hall. Even nerve-wracking. You had to close the elevator gate to activate the electrical system.
In recent years, riding the Jesuit elevator became a bucket-list item for students, faculty and staff. But how to ride it?
Many who received an invite considered themselves fortunate — they had a bit of bragging rights with friends and colleagues.
(We’ll have more on this Creighton tradition in a future story soon).
Here's what Kelly Tadeo Orbik, BA'06, MS'08, MA'24, remembers about her Jesuit elevator experiences:
"Whatever the invitation to meet at the golden door, watch my host turn the key, hope the buttons and machinery worked, and watch the gate and the doors close was a bit of an adventure. I am grateful to have had more invitations than I can count. It is a beautiful thing to share life and mission with the Jesuit community. I am grateful for their hospitable spirit with students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.”
The other (even older) elevator
Another elevator in the north wing became notorious in its own way.
Here’s an excerpt from a 1985 alumni newsletter about the elevator, nicknamed “Otis” and/or "Dark Vater":
This elevator was rumored to have come from the St. Louis World’s Fair or the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha. No proof of either origin could be found in a search of Creighton documents. Workers tearing out the elevator recently found metal castings that carried the legend “Pat. Dec. ’88.” Creighton University was founded in 1878, of course, but the “old elevator” probably was first installed in 1906 and later replaced after a fire in 1911.
What Jeffery Johnson, BA’84, remembers the most is the elevator’s cage door. It wouldn’t operate unless you closed the door when you entered and exited.
Said Johnson: “There was the sublime moment of waiting at the ground floor for the admin building elevator to come. You’re about to miss your class start time. But you know exactly why the elevator wasn’t there. Someone on the top floor exited the elevator without thoughtfully closing the cage door. So there the elevator car sits high in the darkened shaft, silent and surplus, untouched by anyone except maybe a passing Samaritan on the fourth floor who might walk by and knowingly pull the cage door closed and allow the elevator to resume its service to the lower floor.”
The temperature
Creighton Hall didn’t install central air conditioning until 1986. Even Ellen Poole, BSN’73, who was from Arizona, remembers struggling to suffer through her nursing classes on the warmest days.
“One spring, it was hot and muggy for Omaha, and the classroom had only a round room fan in the front of the class plus having the windows open,” she said. “I became quite faint during class. I was not used to the humidity.”
But the temperature swings weren’t limited to the summer-like days. Johnny Torres, BSW’08, now the Creighton men’s soccer coach, remembers how warm classrooms could get when the heat turned on.
Back in the ‘90s, during his Bluejay soccer playing career, Torres and his team had study hall from 7-9 p.m. almost every night on the third floor.
“There were times when they couldn’t regulate those heaters, and you’d hear the cracking, and it would get so hot,” Torres said. “We were sweating in there, trying to stay awake.”
The Jesuit kitchen
Phil Garland, BA'68, JD'73, said many of his favorite Creighton memories came as a student working in the Jesuit kitchen during his undergraduate years.
His job was to prepare meals for Jesuits. He worked alongside students studying to become doctors and lawyers.
They would actually deliver trays with plates of food to each Jesuit seated at tables in the dining room. Inevitably, there would be meaningful conversations. The most popular menu item: Ice cream.
“You got to know the Jesuits really well — they were wonderful men, and I stayed in contact with a lot of them,” Garland said.
Jerry Sera, BSBA’61, from Hawaii, remembers being invited to work in the kitchen during the holiday breaks. Several other students from Hawaii joined him. Thanksgiving dinners for international students eventually became a holiday campus tradition in the Jesuit dining room and kitchen.
“We served and cleaned up the dining room where all of the priests ate their dinners,” Sera said. “But by working in the kitchen, we got free meals. We were so thankful for the Jesuits and their kindness to us students who could not go home during the holidays. What great memories.”
The Jesuit chapel
Because Jesuits lived in the building, it made sense to have a private chapel inside for Mass, prayer, reflection and … confirmations?
Well, at least one confirmation.
James Laumond, MD’64, said he returned to campus in 2014 to accept an Alumni Merit Award and celebrate his class’s 50th reunion. He had never received a Sacrament of Confirmation and wondered if he could while at Creighton.
The answer: Yes.
Well, with God’s blessing and permission granted by Omaha’s Archbishop, Laumond said. Fr. Tom Shanahan, SJ, presided.
“My patron saint is Saint Anthony, and my confirmation sponsor, niece and goddaughter, Valerie, was with me,” Laumond said. “Never in my life have I experienced a surreal moment such as I did while being confirmed, feeling my mother’s presence over my right shoulder, which supported her loving hand.”
The ticker tape (and the day JFK was assassinated)
It was one of those moments in history when everyone remembers where they were.
Two alums were walking through Creighton Hall on Nov. 22, 1963. That’s when they heard about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Back then, one way to distribute news alerts came via a teletype machine, which interpreted electrical pulses sent over phone or telegraph wires and then printed reports. Ticker tape, many called it. Creighton Hall had a machine printing news alerts for years.
Carol Leichtnam Faust, BA’67, was leaving history class just before 1 p.m. on the third floor. Once down the stairs, she was surprised to see a crowd.
“Everyone had an intense interest in the (Associated Press) teletype located near the two sets of stairs,” she said. “As I neared the crowd, I learned that our President had been shot.”
Jack Balousek, BA’67, remembers it was a cold and blustery day. He’d just finished a metaphysics class on the second floor.
“The AP teletype machine was in the space adjacent to where the first-floor stairs landed, and it was loudly clack-clacking away, as students crowded around it,” he said. “I could hear screams of ‘Oh, no. I can’t believe it!’ I remember students were frantic and several were weeping.
“I squeezed into the crowd to see for myself, and it was true. The teletype was printing over and over that John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, had been shot and pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.”
More Creighton Hall memories
Security kicked him out at midnight
Lawrence Necheles, BA’86, JD’90, was a political science major who took most of his classes inside Creighton Hall. He knew the professors so well that they set up a space with comfy couches for him and several of his peers. The group would hang out, do homework, and interact with students and professors.
Necheles worked for Professor Thomas Mans, operating new computer technology. He taught himself by reading the printed manuals word for word.
“In 1984, computers were not ‘plug and play.’ Far from it,” he said. “I had to learn how to operate the computers and the word processing software well enough to teach other students and faculty members.”
But he enjoyed every minute. So much so that he and friends often stayed until public safety officers cleared the building.
Hallways full of students
When Michael Kagan, BA’78, was a freshman, he said there was a rumor that not all first-year students would get the second-semester classes they wanted unless they were first in line to turn in their pre-registration forms.
Students started camping out.
The Creightonian reported in 1974 that some students who lined up outside the building on a cold November night were ushered away by campus security before midnight. More arrived at 1 a.m. The Creightonian estimated 150 students were waiting in line by the time Creighton Hall opened its doors just after 5 a.m. And more than 300 students packed the halls until the registrar’s office opened at 8 a.m.
Kagan remembers this well.
“As things turned out, it was only a rumor, and most students got the classes they wanted without having to show up hours early,” he said. “However, it ended up being a bonding experience for a lot of young Bluejays.”
(Almost) sleeping through a final
Stephen Gorton, BA’86, was the only freshman in a philosophy class in Creighton Hall. It was a tough course and he stayed up nearly all night to study for the final.
He overslept.
“I got to the class with about 10 minutes to go in the exam, not showered, hair a mess, with the same clothes that I slept in,” Gorton said. “The professor had me wait until time was up and gave me a scolding.”
But Gorton did get to take his final.
“My professor escorted me to one of the two tiny round rooms next to the main entrance, handed me the exam and a pencil, locked the door and informed me that he would return in one hour,” Gorton said. “He did. I got a fair grade. And I will never forget the tiny round room or his benevolence.
Their 'home away from home'
Jeanne Lininger, BSN’63, was a self-labeled “townie.” She remembers knowing about three others from Omaha. They didn’t live in residence halls and didn’t have many hangout spots on campus.
But they found a spot in Creighton Hall. More women joined them as the semester unfolded. Liniger said it became their “home away from home.”
“There was a lounge on the first floor, near the door to St. John’s,” Liniger said. “It had a restroom, a cot, a table and chairs. Nothing fancy. Older furniture, but serviceable. For us, it was a place to eat our brown bag lunch, study before class and relax between classes.”
Finding your calling
Ben Merrill, BA’18, called Creighton Hall his “intellectual home” and the backdrop for the “rigor and care that defined my academic trajectory.” Because of all the time he spent studying and researching on the fourth floor as a medical anthropology major.
The medical anthropology major had so many impactful conversations with mentors and faculty members during the time he spent on the fourth floor, studying and researching.
“The department of cultural and social studies' conference room had an open door/use policy — as if the free coffee wasn't enough to entice me,” he said. “It is where I gained so much insight and guidance from the department's faculty and staff as I discerned my path to grad school.”
Merrill also tutored men’s basketball players. He said Jim Dorsey and associate professor Dawn Irlbeck often made the connections. One player in particular needed guidance in social and cultural theory.
“My trial run (as a tutor) ignited my passion for teaching and gave me the confidence to stand on my laurels,” Merrill said.
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A new Creighton Hall tradition
Rocking chairs
In 2022, Creighton dedicated Keough Plaza, which extended Creighton Hall’s footprint to create a new signature space on the campus Mall.
The plaza including rocking chairs.
And wow, are those rocking chairs popular.
If the sun is shining, it's likely that you'll have a hard time finding an open seat outside Creighton Hall. Whether they're studying, meeting with friends or just passing the time between classes, today's students are regularly finding a reason to hang out near the oldest building on campus.
Keough Plaza was made possible by a gift from Gilbert, BA’72, and Kathy Soto, BSN’75, in memory of Kathy’s parents, Marilyn and Donald Keough, BS’49, HON’82.
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Do you have a favorite memory from Creighton Hall? Send an email to Jon Nyatawa at jonnyatawa@creighton.edu and you may be featured in an upcoming article.
