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Michael Treadwell 1942-1999 -
Professor Michael Treadwell died of a heart attack on Saturday, April 24, 1999 - he was 56. He was married to Florence (Cochez), in 1969, and father to Julie, Christopher, Clarissa and Aurelie. He came to Trent after graduating from Trinity College, University of Toronto when Trent opened in 1964. Throughout his 35 years at Trent, Michael filled many roles - all with distinction. He is mourned by the entire Trent Community. Thomas H.B. Symons, founding president of Trent University, said Michael Treadwell made an immense contribution to the university. "He was a gifted teacher and talented researcher. He cared greatly about his students. He was also one of the founders of Trent, here from the start, actively involved in the planning and Michael helped to create the special spirit which continues today, so important a part of Trent." Paul Wilson, Director of Athletics, shared the same first year class with Michael Treadwell at Trinity College, University of Toronto. "A lot of people didn't know that Michael was a tremendous athlete and a huge supporter of our athletics program. We were in the same first-year class at the University of Toronto. He was a wonderful athlete back then. You name it - football, rugby, soccer, tennis - he played it and excelled. He played the way sport was meant to be played ... for the love of the game. He epitomized what I believe was true sportsmanship. He was very instrumental in my coming to Trent - it was, in fact, he who helped hire me. He did a lot of things for this university. He was a very, very capable and competent person who cared very deeply for Trent." Michael's family received many notes of sympathy and shared some with the TrenT Magazine: they are excerpted below. As a student of his, I quickly came to realize that Professor Treadwell
exemplified all that is best about the educational process. He shared his
knowledge and understanding of English Literature with such pleasure and
enthusiasm that we as students could not help but respond in kind. He
challenged us to work hard and always encouraged our best efforts. And he
was accessible. Often when I walked by, he would be in his office working
with the door open. It wasn't enough just to poke my head in to say hello.
He always wanted to know how I was and what I was working on. This kind of
interest, which continued long after my course with him was over, went a
long way toward keeping my academic spirits up when they were threatening
to flag. And I will always appreciate his caring enough to question my
thesis proposal so that in the end, I had a much more clearly defined idea
of what it was that I was actually proposing to do. It is a deep personal
sadness for me that he will not read the end result. The loss of this good
and decent man is profound for all whose lives he touched.
I knew Michael best and admired him most as an erudite scholar of books and
the book trade. We would break for coffee in the days when we shared a
basement at Peter Robinson, and he would report on his current detective
work. I never knew that there was such knowledge. And his excitement was
contagious. He was the youngest of the Trent bedrock faculty, and he should
not have been taken so soon.
Professor Treadwell had a great influence on me while I was at Trent and I still think of him frequently to this day. As I sit here in Budapest and I look out of my window towards Gellert Hill and the rolling Buda hills, a small sign posted above my desk keeps watch over my essay writing: Eschew Obfuscation. I think of Michael Treadwell every time I read it. I first saw this sign in his oce at Trent where I was enrolled in a third year Literature of Augustan England course. It was a sign that begged to be decoded with the help of a dictionary and I loved the message (once I could understand it!). Professor Treadwell was a great teacher for this reason. He always pushed his students to their limit and never failed to take the extra time to ensure that everyone really 'got it'; he used dictionaries and historical lectures and maps to reconstruct the places and time periods for each piece and author we were studying. These two words, 'eschew obfuscation', are more than just good advice for classroom discussion and essay writing, they are good advice for living life as well. I am glad to have known Michael Treadwell. He was a person who always took the time to actually speak with people. I never felt that I was intruding on his space. Indeed, he extended his space to others. I worked with Michael when I was an assistant for the English Department. He was always cheerful and kind, stopping to say a few works before rushing back to his office. I was very say to learn today of Michael Treadwell's death. I am
sorry that I never had the chance to tell him what an influence he had on me
and how very much I appreciated him.
I was shocked and devastated to hear of the sudden death of Professor
Treadwell and I believe Trent will never find another such devoted teacher
and scholar.
One of the things I loved about Professor Treadwell was that he seemed interested in everybody's background and interests. In class, he was radically egalitarian in that he took everybody so seriously. He would say, 'Who are our historians here?' Or 'Who are our philosophers?' I remember in one of his postcards to me from France he wrote that he had just finished rereading The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric and that as "a highly literate historian" I would love it. I remember that he was appalled that none of us had read Clarissa and called us the lost generation. I am now reading Clarissa to remember him and some other Trent English graduates that I know are reading it too. He was a sweet, lively, interesting man, and I am lucky to have had
him as a professor and to have known him well enough to chat with him. I am
so sorry that he is gone.
Malgre le fait que j'ai seulement eu Prof. Treadwell pour quatre mais cette
annee, il a laisse une marque dans ma vie et a ete une grande influence dans
mes etudes cette annee. Je garde de tres bons souvenirs.
Michael was a brilliant professor and had a profound effect on my own career
goals in becoming an English major and deciding to teach. His legacy of
academic and personal excellence will live on through the Trent University
community.
Michael and I were at Tent when it first opened its doors - I as senior don and he as junior don at Robinson House, and during that first year I developed a sincere liking and respect for him that lasted these 35 years. I was new to academic life in 1964, and I do believe I'd have failed in my task without Michael's active help and support, as one who had just been a student himself. Between us, and after many crises but also many good times, we helped get what is now Robinson College off to a good start. Of course Michael made further important contributions to Trent's
development, but that first year is what most lingers in my memory.
Louis remembers Michael as a dedicated, intelligent and enthusiastic
teacher: "I worked harder than I'd ever worked before in that Shakespeare
class he taught, and Michael worked right along with me. We read everything
Shakespeare wrote."
I think of all his small acts of kindness that added up to so much.
Meeting him in the Traill Senior Common Room never failed to brighten and
enliven me. He always seemed to be looking forward to something - a
meeting, a vacation, his working day - and that energy inspired us."
Michael was a wonderful friend and supporter to me for almost twenty years - I met him Žrst as a high school student thinking of coming to Trent; he helped me come back to Trent to work; and he talked me into being Principal at Traill. Every major decision I have made, I have talked over with him - either in person or in my mind. The wonderful thing about Michael was that he could disagree with you utterly, tell you so, and still support the decision you made, even if they were against his wishes. He was intellectually open in a way very few people are. Michael lived his life for his family: no one spoke with greater ażection
about his wife and children. For a man like him not to live to enjoy his
grandchildren seems an unbearable injustice.
Because of Michael, I attended Trent. He had agreed to do some recruiting in the Ottawa Valley high schools - mine was one of them. He cared so passionately about Trent that I knew it must be the right place for me to go. That decision changed my life because at Tent I met my husband and the rest, as they say, is history. Along the way I was also fortunate enough to have had Michael teach
me 19th Century American Lit. He brought the same passion to teaching Henry
James as he had brought to telling me about Trent.
Michael was very kind to me when I was a foolish and confused young
student. I'm sure that he never knew how important he was to me at that
time in my life - it was simply a part of his calling. He was a good man
and a fine teacher and he will be greatly mourned by hundreds of students
and former students who took his kind and helpful presence as one of life's
constants.
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