Linda Cronquist was a full-time member of the Mesa Community College Business Faculty for 20 years.
For the past two years, she has been a 49% “active retiree”, teaching classes in Computer Information
Systems several days a week. Prior to her Maricopa career, Linda also taught briefly at UCLA and ASU.
A Pennsylvania native, Linda graduated from Pennsylvania State University as a math major. She initially worked for NCR in Dayton, OH as a programmer and instructor. She was soon promoted to the NCR West Coast Regional Training Supervisor working out of Torrance, CA. That gig involved scheduling and teaching classes all over the country, including Hawaii, as well as in Puerto Rico, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Linda later earned her MBA from ASU in Tempe.
Linda has long been a respected and favorite teacher in the flagship CIS105 course. She was an early advocate of using WebCT in her classes. Linda’s professional memberships include the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Cwens, Mortar Board, Phi Mu Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa. She enjoys community work and has been an active member of the support group PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians, Gays, and Transgendered) for many years. She sometimes volunteers for the PFLAG Phoenix Speaker’s Group.
When she fully retires, Linda hopes to become more involved in community activities, to become “somewhat fluent” in Spanish, and to do a lot more art work, especially working with clay and painting. Linda is very interested in addressing diversity issues and recently added “Bullying in the Schools” to her list of concerns. In her words, “I feel the whole of society benefits when we respect each other’s differences and strive to promote everyone’s self esteem, including the bullies who probably need it the most.”
As her friends and colleagues know, Linda doesn’t take herself too seriously. She finds life somewhat amusing and likes to joke about it. During her years at MCC, Linda has been a friend to many. When asked what she likes most about MCC, Linda says, “I find every individual to be complex and fascinating and so I truly enjoy the many people I get to meet at MCC. I am fond of the people in our department and my students. Each semester I look forward to getting to know the special aspects of each of my students.”
Linda’s husband, Richard, is a retired engineering manager. Last year, they took on and successfully completed a remodeling project on their home in Tempe. The Cronquists have two grown children: Diana is fluent in Spanish and is a Reading Recovery teacher with the San Diego elementary schools. Darren has a doctorate in Computer Science and is a co-founder of a high-tech company in the San Francisco area.
The most interesting place Linda has ever been is Hong Kong where she spent a month teaching a computer class. Both Hong Kong and the entire experience were “extremely interesting”.
