Honorary Doctor of Kaunas University of Technology marketing professor and the chairwoman of the Department of Marketing at California State College at Fullerton is celebrating the 51st anniversary of her academic career. Lange, now 77, is Cal State Fullerton’s longest-serving faculty member.
When she became a faculty member in 1965 at what was then California State College at Fullerton, Irene Lange was a 25-year-old female trying to break into the male-dominated world of university teaching.
Lange – who has served as the chairwoman of the Department of Marketing for the past 41 years – was one of 49 female CSUF faculty members in the fall semester of 1965; there were 245 faculty members at that time.
Throughout her time at the university, she has seen generations of students graduate.
Lange’s goal on her first day as a professor and today remain the same – provide the best possible education and opportunities for business students, in partnership with her fellow CSUF faculty and staff, she said.
“I look for different opportunities or interests for students,” Lange said.“If you are not enjoying what you are doing, it is not going to work.”
Lange was born in 1939 in Lithuania. Growing up during World War II, she spent a portion of her childhood living in refugee camps. At age 11, she and her mother immigrated to Boston and settled in Chicago.
On the boat ride to the United States, Lange collected gratuity for her English translation services. It was her early exposure to a number of languages – Lithuanian, Russian, German and English – that would eventually spark her interest in international business and marketing.
When Lange joined what is now CSUF, there were 6,426 students enrolled. This semester, more than 40,000 students are enrolled.
Professor Irene Lange was awarded the title of the Honorary Doctor of KTU in 1998, but she has been collaborating with the University’s researchers since 1992.
“I am asking myself: did I give more to your university, or you gave more to me? And I answer: you enriched my experience, you gave me the opportunity to come back to my home land, to see my childhood roads, to get to know Lithuania’s economic, social and cultural processes. Although I do not have relatives in Lithuania, I met many wonderful people, who are like family to me”, said Lange during the Honorary Doctor Award ceremony.
KTU Honorary Doctor professor Irene Lange has contributed largely to the development and modernisation of research and studies of KTU’s social sciences field, with the main focus of business administration study programme. In 1999 she facilitated the agreement of collaboration between KTU and CSUF.
In 2010 the teaching room of the name of Professor Irene Lange was opened at the KTU Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. In the beginning of 2012, the Faculty held an exhibition of books, which were given as a present by Lange.
Since 2011 two USD 500 Professor Irene Lange Scholarships are being awarded to the talented and highly successful students. Professor Lange is regularly supporting Educational science major PhD students and is organising their internships at CSUF.
