I don't know why and how I remembered these two. They obviously made an impression......Peter Viereck, the history professor and Charlotte Haywood, the physiology professor. Mr.Viereck often would unknowingly wear two ties. I can't recall Miss Haywood's idiosyncrasies.

It's been a long time. I'm proud of myself that I came up with those!

Keep cool,  Ada Ball Liggett


The man who started the art museum knew so much and shared it so well. I spent countless hours in the NY Museum of art and then at MHC.
Also, my history teacher influenced me to go back in Egyption history to see what made them so well tightened in basics year after year.

Ellen Dobbie Full

Prof. Leslie Gale Burgevin taught a course about American women writers and poets of about the 18th century. His eyes twinkled: he smiled a lot and laughed easily at his own jokes. I wish now that I had thanked him. I should have taken all his courses. What an inspired subject, especially in a women’s college. Way, way ahead of its time.

Meribeth Cameron, 14th President of MHC, 1968-1969, and acting president in 1956 and 1966, was my advisor. She had a lot of finger-waving lotion in her hair: if she were behind a running jet, her hair would not have moved. She and I did a terrible job together. The classes I took were mostly all wrong for me. I should have spoken up.

One who could have influenced me, although I never met him, was Prof. Valentine Giamatti. Classmates rave over how he and his wife, Mary- class of ‘34, Smith- changed their lives. I needed a warm, welcoming soul to encourage and support me. His very presence produced an atmosphere of creativity and expanded thinking. He donated his beloved Dante Collection to us. He was the father of Bart Giamatti, Yale President and Major League Baseball Commissioner. Bart and his wife, Toni, an English teacher/actor, had a daughter, Elena, a designer of jewelry with historical significance and two sons, Paul and Marcus, both brilliant and accomplished actors.

Alice Czyz


WHAT TEACHER OR TEACHERS INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST AND WHY?

Although this prompt may have been meant to focus upon our teachers at MHC, earlier teachers came to mind. I had one in particular who significantly influenced me not only as a student but also as a parent and teacher. I attended P. S.7, now known as the Milton Fein Public School, in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx. During my fifth and sixth grades, I was in an experimental class with students identified as “special.” It was a multi grade setup with about fifteen students, both boys and girls; Milton Fein was one of my classmates. (He later became the principal, and we reconnected as adults during one of my trips to my old neighborhood). We were taught by Miss Clarke, described by Milton in his retirement speech as a “Scottish spinster” who taught her students skills that she deemed to be essential for academic success. They included learning to use the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, locating information by careful research, identifying information relevant to a specific topic, taking preliminary notes, creating outlines using correct format, and finally writing with clarity using the rules of proper English. As eager students we devoured her expertise and knowledge. What I learned during these primary grades carried me through high school, college, grad school, and professional life. We were Miss Clarke’s children. I contacted her when I was teaching gifted students; Milton had kept in touch with her and gave me her contact information. She responded in a six page beautifully written letter with the same interest and passion that she showed as my teacher, eager to hear how I had made out in the world and further informing me of classmates who had kept in touch. What teacher influenced me the most? Without a doubt, it was Miss Clarke.  

Diana Alexanian Jalelian


Ok, My Captain, My Captain...here goes.
Mr. Rox and his splendid art course had a major influence on me.
Whenever I go to the Met and view the paintings of the little Dutch painters,     particularly, Vermeer, I remember Mr. Rox pointing out that the light always comes from the left, and illuminates the clothing, face, hands, etc. of the subject. I look at Titian, and the hues of red, rose, rusty red in the cloaks and 
drapes of the subject and remember Mr. Rox. I could go on and on.
Whenever I hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony I think of Mr. Leedy.

Judy Vernon


 I loved music classes with Dino Leroy, because I knew a lot about music at the time, and I also loved Mr. Leedy’’s Opera reenactments. When he came to our dorm at Christmas time and played Christmas carols on the piano in different styles of composers it was a real treat. Probably I would say that my most influential teacher was Mr.Loeb who led me in the direction of anthropology and archaeology. I ultimately ended up at the University of Arizona, went on a dig, and studied the Indian tribes in the Tucson Area. And my life proceeded from there. I hope this is helpful to you. 

Joan Vincus


Hi JR, have a free moment so thought I would try and get off a couple of answers to you (have all my family here for part of the summer). 
On the first question, the teachers whose courses meant the most for me were Holmes in Philosophy, and the people who taught the intro to Art, neither having anything to do with the two fields I actually studied, but it was the material not the person that opened windows for me. 

On the book group query… I run the book group for our library and do four books (one a month) in the fall, ditto in the spring. I only do fiction and choose a topic, then go through my reading log to find appropriate novels. I’m attaching a list I’ve kept of topics/books since 2005. This past year it was on Zoom and the group grew as people from even greater distances joined. Many people here also attend other book groups where they tend to read more discursive books. I've probably given you more than you asked for… now on to dinner prep.

Betty Krasne


DEFINITELY DR. VITTORIOI GIAMATTI!  HE AND HIS GRACIOUS WIFE ACTUALLY INVITED OUR CLASS TO THEIR HOME FOR TEA AND COOKIES. TOO BAD MORE OF THE FACULTY DID NOT DO THINGS LIKE THIS! HE WAS CHARMING, LOVED DANTE AND TAUGHT US SONGS IN ITALIAN. IT TURNED OUT HIS SON BART WAS AT PREP SCHOOL AT THE TIME, AND LATER BECAME PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE. BART'S SON PAUL HAS BECOME A FAMOUS ACTOR!

 MY PHILOSOPY TEACHER, A MALE, WAS ALSO MEMORABLE BUT I CANNOT NOW REMEMBER HIS NAME.

Wendy Loyd Hall



I had not liked History in high school and managed to avoid it during my first two years at Mount Holyoke. Then I went to Europe with Mr. Cramer’s group between sophomore and junior years. It was a life changing experience! He made history come alive with his fascinating accounts of places we visited. When we returned to South Hadley, I changed my schedule to include several of his classes. Unfortunately, he died in an accident the following summer, but by then I was able to find the exciting in even the dullest of classes (think Miss Benson) as I majored in history.

I also have to mention Miss Lawson, whose International Relations classes were favorites of my poli sci minor. She was also SGA advisor, so,I got to know and admire her on a personal level. After college, she arranged an internship for me with an international organization in London, which led to a fascinating four months in England and France. When I returned to the US, I was a guide at the United Nations for a few months before getting a job with the American Friends of the Middle East, where I worked before and after marriage.

 Dee Lamb Barstow



I know she would love to join the Zoom if she could, especially since you are all talking about books, but she will not be able to do so. 
I know one teacher who had an enormous influence on Mom, and that was her Political Science professor and advisor, Donald Morgan, and his wife Margot Morgan.
I also can tell you that Mom was that person for many students from Upland Country Day School, where she taught while we were all
going through school there. I run into many of her former students who tell me how Mom influenced them so much in their love of writing. 

From Wendy, Nancy Leech Mohr’s daughter



Miss Green influenced me the most. She lived with my advisor Miss Horner. Together they influenced my up-and-down writing. Miss Green got me into the news bureau and my senior year I was able to turn my paid job into daily writing for The Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. She even arranged for help with that job when I was doing my student teaching

 Later in life when I became aware of same-sex unions, I realized how she dealt with her grief over Joyce Horner’s death by publishing her poems about the nursing home staff. My final visit with her, during reunion, she could no longer speak clearly but I sensed that same love and passion that I had known when she was helping me learn to write more consistently.

Win Pettus Llosa
​WHAT TEACHER OR TEACHERS INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST AND WHY?
PROMPT # 4
 PROMPT #5
​WHAT WERE YOUR FRIENDS LIKE IN COLLEGE?
Influencing me? Hmmm

 Well, I remember the ones that I really liked…Miss Sherrill and Miss Carr from the Chem department. Two eminent scientists… when everyone knew women couldn’t be scientist… and they were so patient with these youngsters who were rank amateurs! I wonder now how they could have kept their good humor?

Mr. Holmes was great. He would an open house on Sunday nights and play classical music on his state-of-the-art phonograph while we studied or read. I loved his philosophy courses and logic.

Mr. Cramer who taught the very first History of Science course. It took me at least two weeks to understand half of what he was saying with his accent, but Ruth Gundry helped me translate.

One or our Chem professors, Miss Harrison, scared the living daylights out of me. Physical Chemistry was hard enough by itself, but she added another dimension to it! Twenty-five years later at the Annual Meeting of the American Publisher’s Society I found myself on a panel about books. Much to my amazement to my left was Jane Harrison representing textbooks while I spoke about trade books. She remembered me and I certainly remembered her, and it was a jaw-dropping experience for me.

Wink

​I hadn't thought about one of my Mount Holyoke professors in decades until, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Times expanded its puzzle page. As a devoted crossword puzzler I was intrigued. And when Cryptograms appeared on Tuesdays and Thursdays I immediately became an enthusiastic decoder.

  That's when I thought of Professor Holmes, the philosophy professor who taught the cryptogram course. I was a math major who remembers almost no math except how to solve cryptograms. It was by far the best “math” course I took.



Sue Nutter Keller
​Diana Alexanian suggested the following to help stir your memories:
 Special incident with a friend? Friend who was special because of similarities? Differences? Travel with? Continued relationship with?  
I think my favorite classes were English Literature and Creative Writing, both with Sydney McLean, who was an exciting and hilarious professor. Loved all my classes with her.

My other favorite was, of course, Mr. Cramer's English History class. Especially the lecture for which he became famous -- his Billy The Bastard lecture, about William the Conqueror. Even students who were not enrolled in his history class would sneak in to hear this one. Can never think or hear about William without whispering to myself "Billy the Bastard".


Sallie Barr Palmer
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