December 26, 2004

Pittsfield, MA

 

 

 

Professor Robert H. Bell stands in the Stetson Hall faculty lounge at Williams College. Bell was named college undergraduate teacher of the year. Photo: Carolline Bonnivier

 

 

 

College Professor of the Year

 

 

By Julius Rosenwald

Special to The Eagle

 

 

WILLIAMSTOWN

 

Robert Bell never goes to work. Perhaps that is one reason the Williams College English professor was named "Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year" by the Carnegie Foundation last month.

 

For Bell, preparing a lecture on Jane Austen's heroines or leading a discussion about William Faulkner's "Light in August" is not a job. He looks forward to teaching the way the average person anticipates a vacation.

 

He was one of four professors at different levels of college teaching who were selected nationwide for their teaching commitment to undergraduate students and their influence on teaching in general. The awards were presented in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18.

 

It was Bell's second such award. In 1994, he was named an Exemplary Teacher by the American Association of Higher Education

 

In a recent conversation at his Williamstown home, he shed light on what makes him tick with such distinct resonance.

 

By all counts, Bell got off to an early start. Even before he entered kindergarten, he taught himself to read.

 

"That was the first indication to my parents they had a weird little boy who loved books on their hands," he said chuckling.

 

As an adolescent growing up in Belmont, he had every intention of becoming a doctor like his father. In his senior year of high school, he worked as an orderly at Mass. General and would often accompany his father on rounds.

 

Yet his intellectual barometer was not pointing to a life in medicine.

 

"In my spare time I'd sneak away to this little room and read Jung and Freud and T. S. Eliot," he said. "I also loved talking about plays, books, films. I've always liked people and am very sociable."

 

Much of the foundation for his adroitness in teaching was established during high school, he said.

 

"I had two especially inspiring teachers at Belmont Hill. Fred Calder taught history. He was tall, handsome and an unabashed liberal. Calder was given to histrionics. I remember his theatrical reenactments of Jimmy Doolittle's bombing missions. He had just the right measure of skeptical irony. He definitely helped me develop a sense of scrutiny."

 

"Then there was David Aloian, an English teacher who was from the class of '49 at Harvard. He got me to think about and appreciate the uses of language and its multiple tones.

 

"I began to sense I was wired for verbal elation. I was the editor of the school newspaper, writing poetry, reading all the time."

 

Still intending to go to medical school, Bell enrolled at Dartmouth College in the fall of 1963. There he encountered someone who would play a pivotal role in his life.

 

"My junior year I met Professor Peter Bien. He gave a lecture course in 20th-century European fiction. It was very popular and oversubscribed.

 

"Peter was in his early thirties at the time and not what you would call an imposing figure -- bald, little, wore thick glasses. But he had a magisterial presence, intellectual charisma and moral energy."

 

In Bien, Bell found a teacher who was both riveting and compelling.

 

"Peter exhibited both passion and lucidity. He was interested in the history of ideas and philosophy and he saw literature in both social and ethical dimensions."

 

"One day [we] were going out for lunch," continued Bell. "We were discussing D.H. Lawrence and Nietzsche and he stopped, turned to me and said, 'You know I actually get paid for doing this?'

 

"I feel the same way. They pay me for reading and talking to very bright and capable Williams students."

 

One of those students, senior Nicole A. Decesare, says she is lucky to have had three semesters with Bell.

 

"His true love of literature is infectious," said Decesare. "I never thought that I'd be able to get pumped over Shakespearean comedy!

 

"He also knows how to push students out of their comfort zones, both in discussion and in papers, and encouraged me to take risks and challenge myself with every assignment."

 

After graduating from Dartmouth, Bell went on to earn his Ph.D. at Harvard and came to Williams in 1972, where taught introductory English -- as he still does today.

 

He also offers courses on Jane Austen, George Eliot, Shakespeare, James Joyce and Milton.

 

"If I had gone to the University of Michigan, I would have been the '18th-century guy' in a sprawling English department," said Bell. "At Williams, I have a much wider latitude."

 

Freshman Matthew Roach said he has gained from Bell's free-ranging academic interests.

 

"I never thought I could love modern poetry before this semester," said Roach, "but Professor Bell made world famous poems by Eliot, Frost, and Yeats apply to my life. You just feed off of his intensity, energy, and humor.

 

"I think the best thing about Professor Bell is that he knows most of the theories and claims about the works that we read -- he's come up with many of them -- but he still allows you to figure things out on your own."

 

Bell sees teaching as a craft in which skills can always be honed and polished.

 

"I'm working on two new courses," he said. "One is on David Foster Wallace and John Barth. The other is a lecture course on Bob Dylan and the Beatles I'm co-teaching with Anthony Sheppard from the music department. Now that's fun."

 

Bell's approach is always evolving.

 

"I want to try tactics that are more efficacious," he continued. "My old Faulkner lectures now include much more about gender and race than years ago.

 

"I am always reassessing what is in the literature. For example, the examination of feminism is a relatively new development."

 

When one of his daughters -- Kaitlin -- was at the Williamstown Elementary School, he taught a group of fast readers in third grade.

 

"I used to walk out of there drenched in sweat, " he said. "I worked so hard to keep those kids focussed, concentrating and staying with it. That was more exhausting than the rest of the week."

 

When his other daughter, Amanda, was assigned to read 'Moby Dick" in junior high, he reread it too, thinking he might gain through this shared literary experience.

 

When Amanda found him engrossed with Melville's masterpiece at seven one morning, she said: "Dad, it's much too early to be reading Moby Dick."

 

"That's what your father does," replied her mother, Illona, also an English professor at Williams, who had watched the scene unfold.

 

Despite his passion for reading, Bell says his true satisfaction is in seeing a class excited over the material they are exploring.

 

"His genius lies in his ability to ask and to captivate with questions," said senior Heather Lindemann. "He asks passionately, and with grace. His students, then, answer (and ask more) in turn: thoughtfully, carefully, and confidently. It is this genuine questioning that sets Bob apart: his curiosity and caring -- about both literature and students' lives -- enables his students to take themselves seriously as scholars."

 

"I try to connect with students," said Bell. "The more formal ways to talk about papers and ideas are during conferences and office hours.

 

Said Magali Rowan, a sophomore. "There was never an expert in the classroom. Rather, every student contributed equally and even Professor Bell was exploring and learning along with us."

 

Nicole Decesare, another student, said. "He takes the time to get to know his students, even in his larger classes, not only by learning everyone's name, but by making a point to arrange lunches and dinners every semester."

 

One Sunday night during the semester, for example, he invited the entire class to his house for snacks and then showed one of the Bard's plays in film form.

 

"By connecting with students," said Bell, "I can demand more."

 

Bell once said in an essay titled "A Teacher For All Seasons" that "like an athlete, a teacher must adapt, refine his craft, compensate for attributes that diminish or disappear.

 

"My boyhood hero, Ted Williams, wanted to be the greatest hitter who ever lived,"he wrote. "If he wasn't, he came damn close, second only to Babe Ruth.

 

"But without a doubt. Ted Williams was the greatest old hitter in baseball history. Batting .388 in 1957 was even more amazing than hitting .406 in 1941.

 

"I would love to become one of Williams College's great old teachers. It's something to shoot for."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Copyright ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc.,

a member of MediaNews Group, Inc.

Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP Materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.