Five Mentors, Five Friends
Reflecting on the people who taught us what's important
Dear Friends,
Ready to move from my hometown of Washington D.C. after graduating from Boston University, and leaving behind three parents and two grandparents, I came to California looking for new mentors. At UC Davis, where I earned my PhD and have been teaching for 34 years, I found a number of people to look up to.
Sandra Gilbert was as confident and ingenious as my favorite BU professors, including Howard Zinn, Elie Wiesel, Derek Walcott, or Sir Christopher Ricks. Offering feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to reading poems, Gilbert opened my eyes to new authors, new discoveries, and new insights that inspired the several sections of my doctoral dissertation (for which she was the first reader on my committee). She was also a richly imaginative poet who explored form and personal reflection in her creative works, each of which had an honored spot on my bookshelf. I enjoyed long conversations about literature and other topics in the two classes Sandra Gilbert taught me, in Washington DC when she hosted the 2000 MLA conference there (as MLA president), at her home in Berkeley, and at a 1996 poetry conference in Stirling, Scotland.
Sandra McPherson, who all of us called “Sandy,” invited me to participate in a directed study of contemporary American poets who differed from the confessional and formal poets that I studied most closely. A Davis poet, fine art and folk art collector, and independent press founder, as well as a favorite professor of many, McPherson also invited her students to occasional class meetings in her richly-decorated home. One of the most prolific poets I’ve known, McPherson had a poem in the 1973 collection titled No More Masks! An Anthology of Poems by Women that my mom had on her bedroom bookshelf and which first introduced me to contemporary poetry. McPherson and I kept in touch frequently via Facebook in the years after her retirement.
John Boe was the most accomplished, most dynamic, and most multi-talented of my colleagues in the University Writing Program. He had a great sense of humor that he brought to the classroom, to faculty meetings, and to my radio show. Boe co-founded Writing on the Edge and Prized Writing, two important journals of writing that are still being published today. A past Picnic Day Parade Marshal and an accomplished pianist, Boe participated in a faculty speaker series that I ran (called “Faculty Mentoring Faculty”) and at the Poetry Night Reading Series where he performed storytelling and blue comedic bits. I saw Boe’s perpetual energy and irreverence as qualities worth emulating.
As I explored instructional technology and pedagogical excellence at UC Davis, I soon found myself on committees with Physics professor Joe Kiskis. Kiskis cared so deeply about undergraduate education that he would drop in on faculty leadership meetings to learn about the university’s vision for teaching and learning, and to pepper campus leaders with seemingly impertinent questions that always elevated the needs of undergraduates over campus bureaucracy. Because of these concerns, Kiskis took a lead in helping the UC Davis University Writing Program amiably separate from the Department of English so that it could become one of the best such programs in California. I turned to him so many times for wisdom that reflected concerns outside of the humanities, and thus he helped me widen my perspective on the support that I offer faculty across the disciplines as Academic Director of Academic Technology Services.
After I completed my PhD and started supporting English Department and University Writing Program faculty on the use of emerging technologies in the classroom (and later with remote teaching), one of my favorite and most steadfast attendees at my early workshops was Beth Freeman. Via Facebook, we discovered that she was an Oberlin College classmate of a friend from high school, so even though we were in different programs, Freeman always treated me as a peer. I would informally report to her when our mutual students would rave about her teaching (which was always), and she supported me when she became a dean in Letters and Science, adding personal notes to my official review letters. It feels like just yesterday when Beth lunched with me at the Yeti restaurant downtown, so full of questions for me and affection expressed for my family.
I dined with all these colleagues, interviewed them all in different forums (on video or on the radio), and welcomed them all to Poetry Night, as performers or as attendees. I looked up to them, admired them, and laughed with them. When I reflect back on my years at UC Davis, I see how all five of these friends made my life richer and more meaningful. Their love and support helped my transition from a time of constant mentorship from my parents back East to a time of discovery of new mentors and friends in Davis.
As you can discover by investigating them online, all five of these friends and mentors passed away this year. I will miss them profoundly and will always cherish their influence on me.
I run a live pub quiz at the Sudwerk Brewery every Wednesday evening at 7. If you are a local, you should come join the fun. If it’s not actively raining, I perform the show outdoors on the patio, though in the winer months, an equal number of people compete in the quiz from indoors. The speaker system at Sudwerk is robust, and the jollity is continuous.
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Thanks to all the new players joining us at the live quizzes and to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks especially to new subscribers Michael, Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions and bakers of marvelous and healthy treats, The Mavens, who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the dropping temperatures and the cost of avocado. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this bonus pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Three questions from last week:
Mottos and Slogans. Starting with the letter O, the most disappointingly-popular breakfast cereal in 13 U.S. states uses the slogan "It's Not a Dream - You're Next."
Internet Culture. Social media visibility is fleeting, so some people online use the acronym ICYMI. What does that refer to?
Newspaper Headlines. According to a recent article in the New York Times, in 2024, The United States was the sixth largest exporter of automobiles in the world. With 5.7 million cars exported, what country is first?