Returning to Milwaukee in 1950, Robert Pitman began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He taught English and dramatic literature at UWM until 1961. A 1954-1955 sabbatical took him to New York to teach at Columbia University and the New York College of Music.
Pitman also attended Northwestern University from 1961 to 1962 for additional studies in English Literature of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
In June 1963 when Alverno College was in need of a drama instructor and director of the Alverno Masquers theater group, Sister M. Poverello (Celeste Raspanti), a faculty member in the English Department, wrote to Robert Pitman asking him for some suggestions.
Sister Poverello's Letter
Here is a printable copy of the letter.
Many years later when Robert Pitman was interviewed and asked about coming to teach at Alverno, he described being asked to recommend someone for the open speech instructor position and shared that he had simply recommended himself.
Here's an excerpt from that 1972 Pitman interview:
In 1963, Mr. Pitman obtained a position here at Alverno. "I was looking for a position. There was a vacancy here. I was called in as a consultant to recommend someone--so I recommended myself.... I find the people here--the girls, the size of the school very conducive to communal spirit and that is the only way theatre is done... The men from the outside, and I can quote any amount of them, thoroughly enjoy working here. It is the spirit. The spirit seems to come every year."
Robert Pitman's career at Alverno College began as an Associate Professor of Dramatic Literature and Theatre Arts in 1963. His multi-faceted education and training in Journalism, Latin, Philosophy, English and Theater Arts, as well as his accomplishments as an actor, writer, director, and lecturer allowed the college to explore and refine its approach to theater arts.
Robert Pitman outside the recently created Kellogg Conference Center
Robert Pitman was a formidable presence on the Alverno College campus from 1963 to 1978. First, as Director of the Alverno Masquers and then Theatre Alverno, he not only advised and taught students but produced, directed, and occasionally acted in thirty-three plays on the Alverno stage.
Pitman also was an integral part of Alverno College’s curriculum transformation in the early 1970s. He helped in the framing of the Ability-Based Curriculum which launched in 1973, and in the formation of Alverno’s Weekend College Program which launched in 1977.
Examining Robert Pitman's model of the Globe Theatre in the library are Nancy Raman,
Karen Scherkenbach, and Sister Maria Vincente. (Alverno Campus News Photo)
The Globe Theatre was an Elizabethan Theatre for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. It was located in the London Borough of Southwerk, on the south bank of the River Thames. Robert Pitman began making his model of the Globe Theatre in 1961 and completed it in 1967. It was based on the Globe Theatre reconstruction made in 1942 by John Cranford Adams and was constructed of balsa wood, cardboard, glue, and straw. He donated his model to the Alverno College Library in 1967. It can now be found under plexiglass in the balcony lobby of the Pitman Theatre.
This article from the February 19, 1967 edition of the Milwaukee Journal describes Robert Pitman's Globe Theatre project in greater detail.
Below is a printable copy of the Milwaukee Journal article.
Robert Pitman was appointed Acting Academic Dean effective December 2, 1974 as discussed in this all-campus memo from President Joel Read dated November 25, 1974.
Below is a printable copy of the memo from Sister Joel Read.
The word "Acting" was removed from Robert Pitman's title when he was appointed Alverno's fourth Academic Dean on June 4, 1975. This letter from Sister Joel Read to the Alverno community announces that fact.
Here's a printable copy of Sister Joel Read's appointment letter.
Alverno also issued a press release about the appointment of Robert Pitman as Academic Dean dated June 6, 1975.
Here is a printable copy of the press release.
Robert Pitman was Academic Dean during a time of great change at Alverno. During his tenure the Center for Instructional Communication (now the Media Hub) was established and the Business and Management Department (now the School of Professional Studies (Business Division)) was created in 1976; Weekend College was instituted and the Communication Discipline Department was created in 1977. Also in 1977, no longer running in parallel with the older credit-based curriculum, the competence-based learning (CBL) curriculum (now known as Alverno's ability-based curriculum) became the sole curriculum offered at Alverno.
During Robert Pitman's fifteen years at Alverno, he maintained memberships in numerous learned societies and professional organizations: the American Theatre Association, the American Association of University Professors, the Shakespeare Society of America, the Shaw Society of America, Actor’s Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the American Guild of Musical Artists.
