No Ivory Tower for CMU Professor

Tim Rogalsky Prefers a Snow Castle

Academics are sometimes accused of living in an ivory tower. But that isn’t true of CMU math professor Tim Rogalsky. Throughout the school year he travels to various churches to talk about how people can encounter God through science and mathematics. And in the winter, he spends time in a different kind of tower—a snow castle.

Children play on Tim Rogalsky's snow castle at his home in Landmark.

Every winter since 2004, Rogalsky has made a towering castle out of snow—complete with rooms, towers, battlements, tunnels and slides—at his home in Landmark, just outside of Winnipeg.

The snow castles can be as high as five metres (15 feet). It takes about three months to build each one.

“I start it in December, using a tractor with a snow blower to clear almost an acre, blowing the snow into a huge pile,” he says.

Rogalsky uses the tractor’s bucket to rough out the shape, and then does just about everything else with a spade. “I add the battlements last,” he says. “I carve blocks of snow, and ‘ice’ them in place on the wall, using fresh snow.”

The castle is in prime shape by the end of February, but it’s never actually finished, he notes. “I just keep carving until it starts to collapse in the warmer weather.”

He got started building snow castles because he wanted a fun, outdoor, adventure play-space for his three children, now ages six to ten. “At first, I did all the work, but now it is a fun family project,” he says.

Of his first snow castle, he says that “once I realized how easy it was, how spectacular it looked, and how much everyone enjoyed it, I was hooked.”

Plus, he adds, it’s a great stress reliever to be outside for a couple of hours “with snow, tractor, and shovel.” But the best part is “seeing my kids and their friends all congregating at our place after school, enjoying the castle.”

Click here to arrange a visit by Tim to your church to talk about math, science and faith—and maybe snow castles, too!

Posted January 17, 2008.

For more information contact CMU Communications Director, 500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 2N2, telephone: 204-487-3300 ext. 630, fax: 204-889-1694, (www.cmu.ca)