Taste of heaven

A decade had somehow slipped by since former and current staff from the University of Dayton’s admission office last got together. While catching up on a virtual call, the core group found themselves asking whether it was time for another reunion.

Myron Achbach ’58, emeritus director of admission, brightened at the suggestion. A former Marianist brother, he stepped into the director’s role in 1974 after Brother Ralph Mravintz, S.M. ’50, retired in 2001. The list of people Achbach hoped to see stretched as long as his 31-year tenure.

Rob Durkle ’78, former associate vice president of enrollment management and Achbach’s colleague for more than 25 years, took on the logistics. He began reaching out — texts, emails, social media messages — to 168 former admission staff scattered across the country. “Just about everyone responded, even if they couldn’t make it,” he said. 

“If you hear Myron or Rob are involved, you’re making an effort to be there,” said Kelly Doughtery Frank ’96, who served as senior associate director of admission for eight years. “Admission friends are friends for life. We share a bond that will never be broken.”

That bond began with Achbach but was sustained by the collective. He never saw staff as working for him, only with him.

“He had such a thoughtful presence about him and was truly interested in my college search. It was clear to us that students weren’t just numbers at UD. We felt like guests in his home.”

“We created something that I would call a dream team,” Durkle said. “Everyone was so loyal, they were committed, they were tied directly to the Marianist mission and the charism.”

Staff traveled and trained together, celebrated weddings and babies, supported one another through loss and built a culture so strong that even those who left remained in touch. The relationships outlasted job titles and years of service.

Frank still remembers meeting Achbach as a prospective student.

“He had such a thoughtful presence about him and was truly interested in my college search,” she said. “It was clear to us that students weren’t just numbers at UD. We felt like guests in his home.”

She later recognized that same warmth throughout the office. “Relationships were the cornerstone of the admission operation. Recruiting students who felt cared for created a special type of campus community as well.”

Amy Sandmann Ackerman ’89, who served as associate director of admission from 1989 to 1996, has a similar story about her first campus tour.

“Not everyone gets to represent something they love, but I did. They were like my second family.” 

“They made an impression and the pieces came together,” she said. “My first six years out of college were at UD, and I couldn’t have had a better start. Not everyone gets to represent something they love, but I did. They were like my second family.” 

That extended throughout the office’s work in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Achbach first visited in 1975 after a Marianist priest asked why UD wasn’t recruiting from the Marianist high schools there.

“It had never occurred to me,” he said.

That first year, four students from Puerto Rico enrolled. Over time, the numbers grew to 20 to 30 new students annually, with as many as 70 to 80 Puerto Rican students on campus at once.

“[Admission] prepared and trusted us to be independent. They just let us fly,” said Ackerman. Students there even gave her a nickname: hermana mayor, or “big sister,” while Achbach was hermano mayor, “big brother.” He and his wife, Jan, welcomed students and their families into their home for gatherings and a place to stay. In 2012, alumni established a scholarship in Achbach’s name supporting students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They continue to give.

The connections fostered in living rooms, on recruitment trips, across families and islands paved the way for the summer 2025 reunion, which kicked off on a Friday night at Kramers Tavern. Achbach, ready to greet the 60 people who trickled in and out of the weekend’s festivities, perched on the edge of the pool table and stayed there for three hours, reminiscing with attendees.

“I felt so much love here tonight,” he told his wife afterward, “not just for me, but everybody else.”

Saturday brought campus tours led by former tour guides who hadn’t been on campus in decades but managed the routes by memory. The group visited the Roger Glass Center for the Arts, attended Mass at the Bergamo Center and enjoyed dinner in Kennedy Union. One by one, former counselors and administrative staff stood to share memories. Some were funny, others tender, each with the same sentiment: the admission office was more than a workplace. It had been a family.

“This is a little of what heaven must feel like.”

Late Saturday, Achbach offered a simple reflection that became the emotional center of the weekend — a moment Durkle described as “magical; almost spiritual.”

“This,” Achbach began, surrounded by generations of colleagues he had hired, mentored, befriended and loved as they filled the room, smiling back at him — “is a little of what heaven must feel like.”

A version of this article appears in print in the Spring 2026 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 1. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE