By Annabelle Blair | Echo
"At heart, I'm a sports psychologist, providing consultation in youth sports, coaching training and helping develop the person rather than the athlete."
In 1973, Joe Lund's became a professor of social psychology when he was 21 years old.
After growing up in southern California, Lund received his master's degree at Ball State and was offered a job at Taylor. He felt his training meshed with Taylor's environment and, in hindsight, that God led him with good intent.
Lund was awarded his doctorate in 1981, has published multiple research articles, and has written 13 chapters in his in-progress book about what it means to be made in the image of God. This project will likely continue into retirement, Lund said, although his immediate retirement plan is to relax.
Junior Taylor Tertocha sees Lund as the father of Taylor's psychology department-partly because he's been there so long and and partly because he wants students to recognize the impact of what he teaches.
"He sets the pace that psychology is a field that needs to be taken seriously," said Tertocha, "But, he's really funny and sweet."
Lund's years as the head coach of both men's soccer and women's softball overlapped with part of the time two of his daughters attended Taylor, which Lund remembers as some of his favorite years. While teaching full time, he was heavily involved in the process of turning Taylor's then soccer club into an intercollegiate sport, and, until recently, he coached men's soccer for 19 years.
During retirement, Lund will pursue his interests in building or remodeling things that give him satisfaction when finished.
"I really do love psychology," Lund said, "but I don't feel like it's the only thing I can do . . . I want to see what God has for me to (do to) make a difference in the kingdom."
Lund is one of several faculty members retiring from Taylor in 2016.
