Editorial |
TRENT CONTENTS Michael Treadwell: A Man for All Trent Seasons Season of the Wolff - Gary Wolff '67 heads Trent's Board So Who Says You Can't Go Home Again |
by Liz Fleming '77 The day I checked my email and discovered a message from the Alumni office notifying me of the death of Michael Treadwell, I sat at my keyboard and cried. Although it has been many years since I was a student in the American literature class Michael shared with Mike Peterman, he will always represent for me the very essence of Trent. Michael Treadwell was a professor whose enthusiasm for his subject was so infectious that even the most reluctant students in his seminars quickly began to share his aýection for Henry James and Willa Cather. We laughed, we argued and we learned. No question posed by a student was ever too shallow or simplistic; Michael always answered so well and so graciously that you were left feeling that you had somehow pinpointed an important issue. He was truly a gifted teacher. Michael was a young father with a station wagon filled with car seats and teething rings when he taught our evening seminars in the bowels of the Bata Library. Nevertheless, concerned that young women shouldn't be traveling the bus and then walking in the dark, he would wrestle those car seats into the back ("Don't watch while I scoop out these peanut butter sandwich crusts," he'd laugh) so that he could drive the four of us home after class - ("Girls, put your seat belts on, please.") Years later, when I had car seats of my own to wrestle, I realized what a pain in the neck it was to sling them around - and I remembered his generosity. It was Michael who wrote a letter of recommendation for me when I applied to do my Masters, and another to help me find a spot in the graduate residence at the University of Toronto. It was Michael who warned me that life at U of T would be a far cry from what I had experienced at Trent - and Michael who consoled me when I returned for Head of the Trent that Þrst year to tell him that he'd been absolutely right. It was also Michael who encouraged me to stick it out and Þnish that degree - and as usual, he was right. There are so many instances I could relate of Michael's kindness, his dedication to his students, and his love of learning and teaching that I could easily fill this entire magazine. You'll certainly find that others shared my admiration for him when you read our tributes to Michael in coming pages. Trent has lost a valuable friend, a generous supporter and a charismatic leader. We will long remember Michael Treadwell. | |
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