"HELLO!," Dr. Galen W. Dodge would bark. He loved shocking the target individual, to whom he'd then ease in with a quieter and calmer approach.

It was the mid-Eighties. There was no widespread Internet or personal computer usage, so administrators connected with one another over the landline and students didn't connect with teachers at all. But a lucky few of us made our way to The Basement often.

Tucked away from traditional (boring) academia, in the basement of the 501 Building at 501 10th Street, barely on-campus (physically and theoretically), were the offices of the Nebraska Human Resources Research Foundation. "Foundations."

A well-kept secret that wouldn't be kept secret for long. Drs. Clifton & Hall had started a movement acknowledging the psychology of success and strengths and positivity. Dr. Galen Dodge, NHRI director for over 25 years, brought that then-unacceptable movement to life with a one-of-a-kind personality and deep caring and enthusiasm and antics. One of the first in the long-line of NHRI "difference-makers," Dodge was the driving force for years behind the organization, its student-led counseling program, its innovative Thursday-night class (soon the hottest class on campus - reminiscent, but decades ahead, of that trendy present-day Happiness course at Yale), and Dodge's companion booklet, "Priceless People." The book, while flimsy in size, was giant - unique and more memorable than my stack of other texts. And a singular sensation, as there were not nearly as many self-help & motivational books available, and acceptable, as today.

His curiosity was superhuman, and he spoke with you one-on-one like you were the most important person in the world and that your opinion and gifts truly mattered. For hundreds of us, this was our first feelings of being seen and valued by an adult non-parent role model.

His laugh was contagious. His laugh was also cough-riddled, born of the thousands of Merit cigarettes that would ultimately claim him in 1994. 11/1/94 - thirty years ago. What delight he would take in his legacy three decades later, thanks to countless students and parents and administrators and donors.

He never talked about Korea. He always bragged about Shickley, his hometown of just a few hundred, east of Hastings. Loved his family, but acknowledged the toll his dawn-to-dusk service to the University and the Lincoln community took on his blood relations.

Not sure if he loved the poem, "A Bag of Tools" by R.L. Sharpe, or whether he just loved showing off to us that he had memorized it. But he recited it often, and it anchored his life-altering Thursday-night class.

Isn't it strange

That princes and kings,

And clowns that caper

In sawdust rings,

And common people

Like you and me

Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass,

A book of rules;

And each must make—

Ere life is flown—

A stumbling block

Or a steppingstone.

Galen Dodge created, in the countless people he encountered and impacted, builders for eternity. And he ensured that each and every one he met made steppingstones out of our own priceless personal Great Plains sandstone.

Priceless People has been used by many university, community organizations and businesses over the years. The book offers exercises in Communication, Self-Concept, Values, Conflict, Stress, Potentiality, Relationship, Time Management, Motivation and Leadership.

For some alumni, it was the one book they kept from their college days. Other alumni share what a fun surprise it is to notice Priceless People on a colleague’s desk or in a teacher’s classroom. There is an instant connection once you discover someone else has Priceless People. 

Join us November 8, 2024 for the NHRI Alumni Class - this is a first of its kind experience! Priceless People is available for purchase online!

Aly Troudt - East Project, 2023 and her mother, Kim Troudt, 1992 and a student of Dr. Dodge both with their copies of Priceless People.