Four Bid Adieu to CC

By SETH BROWN '95

 

pon retirement, English Professor Joan Stone went out and "bought the farm" - one with a 40-acre forest of hemlock and spruce, barns and farmhouses, 12 French breed cattle, a 350-acre view and the Wynoochee River running through it.

As she arranges her herb garden with loving toil, amidst the emerald flashes of hummingbirds, she recognizes the continuity of her endeavor as it relates to writing and teaching.

"There's lots of physical labor on the farm, but I feel that putting in a herb bed is really the same as making a poem - making order out of disparate parts. And I continue to teach; I would teach a tree if I had nothing else to teach and love it."

Stone, who taught modern English and American literature, the immensely popular "Spiritual Quests" senior seminar and creative writing still hears from students who graduated 20 years ago, often stumbling joyfully upon their works in literary magazines.

Outside of teaching, Stone has published numerous poems and co-founded, with Sally Hegarty in 1993, JonesAlley Fine Press. The press has published several handmade letterpress books and broadsides, including Stone's collection of poetry, "A Letter to Myself to Water." She is currently working on compiling a book from her poetry of the last five years.

"Teachers have inordinate power," says Stone. "It's kind of awesome when the responsibility of that first hits. I realized that I was peddling morality. There's nothing so scary and nothing so rewarding."

All four of the this year's faculty retirees - Stone, Bill Barton of economics, Doug Fox of religion, and Jerrel Lear of athletics - agree on the satisfaction afforded by lives spent teaching.

"I cannot imagine anyone in the world having a better job than I had," says Barton '57. "To teach and interact with young people of such high caliber on a daily basis and get paid for it is something so wonderful I still have trouble believing it."

He especially values the informal relationships he has had with students over the years.

After teaching financial accounting, managerial accounting and business finance for 39 years at Colorado College, Barton has retired to Paonia, Colo., where he and his wife grow hay on the 20-acre farm and have an apple orchard.

Like Stone, Barton finds running a farm challenging work. "There's lots of work and I feel more like a farmhand than a retiree right now," he says. "But my goal is to some day wake up every morning and have to decide between riding my horses, fishing, working in the garden or mountain biking."

His advice to the graduating class of '97: "Recent graduates need to relax and not be overly concerned with what they do in their first three years after college. The pressures on them to find gainful employment and decide on a career are too high. In practice, our graduates of past decades are doing very well, regardless of what they did those first three years. So just relax and follow your heart."

Fox, though not technically a graduate of the class of '97, is heeding the advice to relax. He and his wife, Margaret, plan to drive wherever the road takes them after attending a California wedding this summer.

"It feels like our whole lives have been scheduled and regimented," says Fox. "Now we want to live without scheduling or planning anything. We're going to drive wherever impulse takes us, which will probably be in Canada somewhere."

Fox has taught courses on Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Asian religions and ancient religions since coming to the college in 1963.

"I started right at the end of the Benezet term and he had really turned the college around. There were several of us who came at that time and we felt like young Turks ready to revolutionize education," remembers Fox.

A successful if not revolutionary teacher, Fox won the Carnegie Foundation's prestigious Colorado Professor of the Year award in 1995. Author of nine books, his scholarly work is equally impressive.

"My scholarly interest in Sanskrit forms of Buddhism enriched my teaching and, reciprocally, my teaching illuminated new ideas for me in my scholarly work. There is no impression without expression," explains Fox.

"I delight most in actual classroom discussion with students and informal chats in my office, and admit that I have learned as much as I have contributed."

Lear, who also joined the faculty in 1963, shares Fox's aspiration to take an extended drive with his wife.

"I have always wanted to see the autumn colors in New England," says Lear. "We're going to visit New Hampshire, Maine and the major cities along the Northeastern seaboard."

A familiar smiling face at the pool, Lear has taught sports science, physical education, life guarding, water safety instruction, directed Schlessman pool and coached the swim team since coming to CC 34 years ago. He also was assistant football coach for 25 years.

Lear also founded the immensely popular summer "Learn to Swim" program for children of faculty and staff.

"I loved watching those kids grow up over the years. Many whom I had taught to swim as children returned for lifeguard and water safety instructor training," recalls Lear.

As a coach, Lear finished with an exceptional record of 199-99, having coached one undefeated team (1970-71) and several all-conference and all-Americans. He was awarded the Intermountain Swim Coach of the Year award in 1983, 1987 and 1993.

Lear's advice for the class of '97 stems from his own work ethic: "Work hard, earn your way and don't take anything for granted."

Seth Brown '95 served as the media relations paraprofessional in College Relations from 1995 until this summer.

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