Charlotte Pipes, associate professor of music at Nicholls, will be retiring this school year after teaching her last Music 107 course this spring. She has been a member of the faculty since 1980 and has acquired a collection of memories along the way, including when the University organized productions of full-length operas during the 1980s and ’90s.
“We used to do opera here,” Pipes says. “I taught the voice majors all of the music.”
She said she was “the voice” when she was the mistress of ceremonies.
“I liked being the sort of voice in the darkness,” she said.
Pipes applied for her position immediately after graduating from Louisiana State University at the age of 26.
She had several relatives living in the Thibodaux area, and her brother attended Nicholls.
She only had good things to say about the faculty she has worked with for so many year, and she lists them as one of the things she will miss most about the University.
“My faculty is a hoot! I’ve been here since 1980, and these are some of my best buds,” Pipes says. “We’ve just been through some life changing events with each other – births, deaths, marriages, divorces, hurricanes. I admire all of them. They’re wonderful people.”
Pipes also knows for certain what she’ll miss the least.
“The paperwork! I’m not going to miss any of that, it just makes teaching not fun,” Pipes says.
Pipes played a major part in Nicholls’ 60th Anniversary celebration as the role of emcee.
“I was the voice!” Pipes says. “I sat up in a booth and they would hear this disembodied voice. I liked being the sort of voice in the darkness, like you’d get in a professional show.”
Pipes said she hopes to be remembered through her lessons. Her many former students became choir directors, and she enjoys the chance to see them each year.
“I really enjoy District 7 choir festivals because I get to see all my old students again,” Pipes says. “They’re teaching their students vocal techniques that I taught them and sending their students to be choir majors.”
Pipes’ plans for retirement include one of her passions – traveling.
“I want to travel, I love traveling,” Pipes says. “I love to visit Neolithic sites. That’s the beginning of modern culture as we know it. I’ve done it for the past 20 years. I’ve been to sites all over Europe.”
Pipes said she feels very fortunate to have been a part of the Nicholls family and had more good things to say about her experience here.
“I felt lucky every day that I came here, that I worked in this department with these people,” Pipes says. “I have a gratitude that I landed in this program. It makes teaching a pleasure.
