At 88-years-old, professor emeritus Emanuel Gale is still fired up about social work.

Even after teaching at Sacramento State for 47 years, he said he plans to teach in the department until he is 100.

“As I tell my students, the reason I’m still teaching in addition to all the other stuff, I want to shatter their stereotypes about aging,” Gale said.

Coming out of World War II, Gale wanted to help save the world. He earned an international relations degree from the University of Wisconsin.

When the Cold War began, he saw that saving the world was not going to happen and switched to social work.

In 1953, Gale earned a masters degree in social work from Columbia University. After, he worked in the south at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

“I went to work in the South for eleven years, spending three [years] in Houston, directing a children youth program in a large service agency,” Gale said. “[Then I went to] Memphis, for four [years] as a program director and New Orleans for four [years] as an associate director.”

After working in the South, Gale worked in Chicago for United Way as a program and budget consultant before coming to Sac State.

Gale teaches three major areas of social welfare, health and aging policy and services and said these areas change constantly and tries to help students understand how current policies and legislation have dictated the programs of today so they can help people.

Brieana Higley-Anderson is in the Masters of Social Work program and took a policy class with Gale last Fall.

“Gale’s teaching method is very straight forward,” Highly-Anderson said. “He approaches learning where he asks students to go into the actual community to learn and then process the experience in class through writing.”

Gale said he believes there is a lack of political activism and encourages students to organize.

“I require every one of my classes [where] the students must participate in social action experience,” Gale said. “Organizing in that fashion is the only way change comes about.”

Sac State Field Director of social work Jill Kelly has noticed Gale’s dedication to the profession and his students.

“I think he’s one of the most committed to the profession faculty we have,” Kelly said. “He’s very high energy [and] he has a lot of commitment and passion and I think that’s inspirational to some students.”

As a social work student, Higley-Anderson has learned that small steps matter and has been inspired by Gale and his teaching methods.

“His dedication to the field and students can be seen through his endless efforts to organize and be heard,” Higley-Anderson said.

Gale said his passion for helping others is fueled by the outrage he has in the failings of the government and values.

“I understand the system well. I’m appalled by the corruption and crisis in values,” Gale said. “What gets to me is the hypocrisy of the policy makers.”

Gale has worked to show students what injustices are being done and how they affect people. He has a fighting spirit to profess social work and encourage activism in his students.

“I believe he will continue to teach until he is 100,” Higley-Anderson said.” He has so much to share [through] his life experiences and experiences within the field of social work must continue to be shared.”

In 1990, Gale became the first director of the gerontology department. He looked to spread the knowledge and importance of aging, as well as the need for several programs for the baby-boom generation.