Bob Brenning was an influential teacher of religious studies and ethics, known as a mentor to many students and community members. He began teaching full-time at the College in 1972, and in 1991 won the Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award sponsored by the Sears-Roebuck Foundation. He described his teaching philosophy as "a commitment to helping students build frameworks of meaning for themselves that help them stay human in a sometimes inhuman world." He was co-author with Scott Moore of "Walking Upstream: Men in Pain and How We Heal," and was one of the founders of Men as Peacemakers, an organization working to end men's violence.