Elzinga opens doors

After living in Pavilion IV for a decade, economics professor Ken Elzinga moved off-Grounds in January — just in time for one of Charlottesville’s snowiest winters ever. “Now I’m shoveling snow and driving to work,” joked Elzinga, clearly being a good sport as he looked back upon the cherished Pavilion experience, a highlight of his 30 years at U.Va.

“Living in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors were young people was very special,” said Elzinga. “I was part of a community that was alive almost 24 hours a day.”

Elzinga and his wife, Terry, opened their Pavilion home to thousands of U.Va. students, letting them use the first floor for meetings, practice sessions and Bible studies. “I would come home to hear students upstairs. I usually had to check the calendar on our refrigerator to see who was scheduled to be there,” he said.

Student groups were instructed to use the ground-level kitchen door, which was left unlocked when the Elzingas were not in. “We learned early on that if we kept the front door unlocked for students, tourists would just walk in.” Elzinga once found tourists coming downstairs from the bedrooms. “I just passed them by hoping that eventually they would make their way out.”

Elzinga’s open household was not out of character for this popular professor, who has what he describes as “a servant’s heart” for his students. And despite many recognitions and awards from students, academicians and the administration, Elzinga was surprised by the invitation to live in the Pavilion.

One beautiful spring day, Elzinga hosted a fabulously wealthy man at his home on the Lawn. “He looked around the Pavilion and out at the gardens then turned to me and said, ‘I couldn't afford this, could I?’ And I thought to myself, ‘Wow. Here I am, merely a professor, living in this beautiful Jeffersonian home. What a blessing this has been.’”