Sept. 30, 2026
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
Photo by Gretta Cohoon
The University of Missouri has a way of feeling like home, even after life takes you thousands of miles and decades away.
Recently, a group of longtime friends proved it.
They came from across the country, some returning to campus for the first time in many years, to be together in the place where their lifelong friendship began.
The former resident assistants met more than five decades ago, when Hudson and Gillett halls brought them together. In the years since, they’ve built careers, raised families, traveled the world and celebrated countless milestones together.
For 44 years, they’ve reunited across the country and beyond, gathering in Virginia, Colorado, Yosemite, along the California coast and even in Iceland.
But this reunion was different. Five of the 10 friends came back to Mizzou.
They walked familiar paths, revisited the places that shaped them and remembered the young people they were when they first arrived. And after all those years and miles, Mizzou still felt like home.
“We’ve remained friends for all these years because we share common values,” said Tim Long, BS ’75, MD ’78, who was an RA on the first floor of Hudson Hall. “Even if we all went on to live very different lives, we enjoyed serving others and that created a bond between us.”
Long, who recently retired after more than 40 years of practicing family medicine in Marthasville, Missouri, returned for the gathering with his wife, Jan Long, BA ’75. She was an RA on the first floor of Gillett Hall. The couple, who raised three children, met at Mizzou. He proposed to her on campus, across the street from The Heidelberg, one of the friends’ favorite hangouts.
Long spent his undergraduate years, graduate studies and medical residency in Columbia.
“It’s amazing to think that I started when I was 17 years old and finished when I was 29,” he said.
Where it began
The friends came to Mizzou in the early 1970s. For many of them, discounted room and board were the initial draws to become resident assistants. But the experience quickly became something more. They discovered they enjoyed helping other students.
Jim Allgaier, BS ’74, was an RA on the sixth floor of Hudson Hall. The retired trucking executive, who now serves as a deacon at his church in Covina, California, remembers how the group would gather in someone’s room for late-night conversations about their day and whatever was happening on the floors. Then they’d head to one of their favorite breakfast spots to keep the conversation going.
“Those are some of my favorite memories,” said Allgaier, who has six children with his wife, Karen.
William Casey, BS ’71, MPH ’76, credits Mizzou with shaping the career that followed graduation. After graduating, he became a health care executive and spent decades leading hospitals and health systems as a CEO. His Mizzou experience also played a role in his personal life. He was an RA on the second floor of Hudson Hall, later served as Hudson Hall’s head resident — a new position for students at the time, replacing adult women who had traditionally served in the role — while earning his master’s degree. He also met his wife, Phyllis Casey, BS Ed ’75, when she was an RA in Gillett Hall. The couple live in Wilmington, North Carolina, and raised three children.
One conversation with a Mizzou faculty member still stands out for Casey.
As he considered a career in human resources, the faculty member encouraged him to pursue leadership instead.
“He told me I’d be terribly unhappy,” Casey said. “I was stunned. He told me that I couldn’t not lead and encouraged me to set my sights on becoming a CEO.”
He did.
Mizzou impacted more than his professional knowledge. It influenced how he carried himself, his character and his ability to compromise and listen.
“This was a special place for me,” Casey said.
Coming home
When the former RAs returned to campus, the memories came rushing back.
And there was plenty to remember.
One RA kept a jukebox in his room, providing the soundtrack for impromptu dance parties. They also packed plenty of memorable concerts into their Mizzou years, from Linda Ronstadt and The Beach Boys to The Turtles and Brewer & Shipley, who played in the student union.
Every year, the RAs dressed up for a yearbook photograph. The Hudson and Gillette group decided to add a little pizzazz, posing as characters from “The Great Gatsby,” which had just been released in theaters.
“I think that picture of us is the essence of our group,” Casey said. “We did our jobs well as RAs, but we also had a whole lot of fun.”
Decades later, the friendships forged in those residence halls remain.
Jan Long cherishes having longtime friends who have been there through every season of life — celebrating the highs, helping each other through the lows and simply showing up when it matters.
This time, showing up meant coming home.
“Not everyone has something like that,” she said. “We found it at Mizzou.”
