Among Colorado Springs’ crown jewels are, of course, Pikes Peak (America’s Mountain), Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, The Broadmoor, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, Pioneers Museum and Fine Arts Center.

A book extolling the numerous strengths of the Springs would require a substantial collection of the community’s many facets. Such a volume would be incomplete without mentioning Thomas E. Cronin, retired Colorado College McHugh Professor of American Institutions and Leadership, bestselling author, nationally recognized political scientist and frequent contributor to these pages.

Cronin began at CC in January 1979. He was appointed the school’s interim president in 1991. Two years later, he became the twelfth president of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., where he served for 12 years.

Cronin then returned to CC, where he continued to teach and write until his retirement in 2018, completing a 33-year career. He received the Teacher of the Year and Advisor of the Year awards at CC. In 2009, Cronin was honored with the Gresham Riley Award (in honor of Gresham Riley, the 10th president of CC) by the Colorado College Alumni Association, which is given to a member of the school “who has made a significant difference to the Colorado College community through outstanding service, commitment, and accomplishment.”

“I loved teaching at Colorado College,” Cronin reflects fondly. “I have taught at large public and private universities, yet I found the seminar-sized classes on the Block Plan to be the most rewarding and productive format for teaching.”

My son, Hascy, is one of many CC students who hold Cronin in high regard. “I happily navigated two blocks under the guidance of Professor Cronin during the 1992-93 academic year. He made new and trusted ideas dance thanks to his contagious enthusiasm for one of the country’s most central ideas: that we can always do better and strive for constitutionally constructive consensus to build healthier communities and politics that benefit us all.”

Cronin has written, collaborated on, or edited over 12 books. His published works include titles such as the best-selling American politics book “Government by the People,” co-authored with James MacGregor Burns and Jim Peltason. Additionally, he is the author of the award-winning books “Leadership Matters” and “Imagining a Great Republic.”

In his most recent book, published this year, “Fireside Chats of a Retired College President,” he gathers 12 wide-ranging, uplifting, insightful and engaging essays. His welcoming fireside “chats” reflect on life inside and outside the school — topics that have long been dear to Cronin’s head and heart.

In his opening chat, “The Case for Liberal Education,” Cronin writes, “The liberal arts are the liberating arts and freeing arts — freeing us from prejudice, dogmatism, and parochialism, from complacency, sentimentality, and hypocrisy, from sloppy reasoning, careless writing and ethnocentrism.”

In “To a Grandchild Going off to College” — addressing his granddaughter, Allegra, and all grandchildren — he offers 33 “ideas to consider.” The first is, “Set high expectations for yourself, yet reward yourself for reasonable achievements. Take what you do seriously yet try not to take yourself too seriously. Make room in your life for sunrises, sunsets, beautiful music, art, humor, fun, joy, and love.”

In “To Parents Navigating the ‘Letting Go’ Process,” Cronin writes, “Letting go is hard to do. Keep your heart forever open to your child. Being available is invaluable.”

In “Making the Most of College,” Cronin wisely suggests, “One of your goals is to prepare for a lifetime of continuous learning. One of your goals is to make a living, yet the larger goal is to prepare for a life worth living.”

“Letter to a New College President” is a litany of advice that applies to college presidents and leaders of every stripe. “Surround yourself with smart, caring people; leadership is always a team activity,” he counsels.

Cronin contends in “Leadership as a Performing Art” that “most of what we know about leadership we have learned from great storytellers like Homer and Shakespeare, noted generals like Sun Tzu and Thucydides. We learn from them and others that leadership means different things to different people. It is a process of getting people to work collaboratively to achieve common purposes.”

In “Celebrating Teaching Excellence,” Cronin declares, “Great teachers teach us not what to think, but how to think. They have a motive, a passion for their subject, a spontaneity of character, and fun doing what they do. Teaching, like leadership, is a performing art.”

“Encountering Community and Free Speech” is a particularly timely chat in which Cronin comments, “Those of us who lead colleges regularly champion freedom of inquiry, thought, and speech.

Yet, just as strongly and passionately, we want to promote community and encourage tolerance and civility.” The First Amendment, he insists, “does not give hecklers the right to shout down speakers so they cannot be heard. Freedom of speech is not an absolute. There is no First Amendment right to disrupt campus speaker events or a college classroom.”

“A nation without storytellers and historians would be like a person with amnesia,” Cronin affirms in “American Novelists Who Mattered,” “confused about who they are and unsure of where they are going. Novelists remind us that America is as much an idea as a place.”

Addressing “Why Politics Matters,” Cronin asserts, “Politics is necessarily the preoccupation of a free people, and its robust existence, with all its noise, messiness, and ‘meshiness,’ is a test of our freedom.”

“Celebrating Graduating Seniors” is partly based on Cronin’s 2005 commencement speech at Whitman College, the year he “graduated” as the school’s president. “Graduating seniors: We hope each of you will leave here with an enduring commitment to liberal arts learning — that your courage and ambition will be appropriately balanced by reflectiveness, humility, and an openness to other points of view.”

“Learning from Machiavelli,” Cronin clarifies, “Our destiny is determined not only by chance (‘fortuna’), Machiavelli instructs, but also by prudent, disciplined leadership. The choices that leaders make, especially how they adapt to changing times and take advantage of opportunities, are critical to a state’s survival and success. The premise of ‘The Prince’ is that appropriate leadership can defeat disorder, corruption and other forces that lead to a state’s demise.”

In Cronin’s concluding chat, “Leadership and Stagecraft,” he reminds us of Shakespeare’s prescient passage in “As You Like It” — “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players.” “So, too, political leaders are on center stage and yearn to project strength, courage, good judgment, and a reassuring optimism that problems will be solved, crises transcended, and things will get better.”

Experts often speak in a dull, ex cathedra style about their specialties; however, Cronin stands apart. His “Fireside Chats” offer a refreshing approach. In his writing, he maintains a warm, illuminating tone, reminiscent of the comforting glow of the fire beside him.

After completing his latest chat, the sole disappointment is the lack of more conversations.