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Gil Rose
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I dropped out of Princeton shortly before they would have kicked me out for dereliction of (academic) duty. Next, after failing to sell enough life insurance to avoid falling into arrears with my employer, The Equitable, and seeing myself as a lousy candidate for the military, I bit a different bullet and went back to school. I also got married about then (1961). Nancy and I headed for Berkeley, the Berkeley of the 60s (which we watched from the sidelines, not jail), and after a bit we managed to get a B.A. and Ph.D. (hers in English, mine in classics) without too much damage from grad school.
My first and only academic job turned out to be at the one place I had turned down when I made the bone-headed decision to attend Princeton – namely, Swarthmore. This is just the kind of place that I was suited for: it's small, it values its faculty for their undergrad teaching at least as much as for their publication record, and almost all the students are deeply committed to their education and willing to work hard at it. I got to know my students well and have had lifelong friendships with countless numbers of them.
As a classicist my chief interests have been in the languages themselves and in Greek literature, Homer and Greek tragedy above all. I trace my love of foreign languages back as far as Madame Spahr, my eighth-grade French teacher on whom I had a major crush, though I probably would have told you that it was her French accent that I was mad about.
Five years ago, feeling that a stint of 35 years was enough, I took early retirement from undergraduate teaching. At that time I founded and I now direct Lifelong Learning at Swarthmore, a small adult learning program in the liberal arts. The program employs only senior Swarthmore faculty (including myself at times) and operates both on the campus and in Manhattan (where it is open to Swarthmore alumni and their families). We say in our ads, “No grades, no credit, just learning for learning's sake.”
In addition, I play (singles) tennis, which I began a lifetime ago with Karl at Arrandale School and Memorial field, but foolishly suspended from about age 19 to 35. I also gave up baritone horn; I remember the powerful baritone section with Dohn and Nobelist/Swarthmorean David Baltimore '56. At age 42, though, I started trumpet and have done a lot of trumpeting since then in wind ensemble, orchestra, and smaller groups, including klezmer. I recommend retirement, assuming you have lots of things you like to do.
I'm waiting for a Jewish atheist liberal democrat as president, gender irrelevant. Will I live to 150?
My wife, Nancy, brilliant student of English though she was, hit the academic job market when it was still inhospitable to women, especially the married variety. So instead of becoming a teacher, she eventually became a professional quilter.
We have two daughters and a bunch of grandkids. For those who knew my parents, my father, who practiced dentistry above the pharmacy at Hicks and Middle Neck, died many years ago, but my mother still lives, alone, on Bellingham Lane in what was quaintly called the Old Village.
I've been lucky in family, career, and health.
I look forward to seeing a bunch of old guy friends, girl friends, just friends. Please come.
Gil
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I
hope to be at the reunion, together with Nancy (Gortz '59), my wife
for 46 years.