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Memories of Former ACL Institutes |
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1948-2007 |
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Memories of ACL Institutes 1948-2007 compiled by ACL Vice-President Thomas J. Sienkewicz
on the occasion of the 60th Summer Institute at Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee
June 28-30, 2007
Virginia Barrett Cypress, California
Seven Reasons why the ACL is Flourishing Today
There are some very good reasons why the ACL is the strong and vital organization that it is today. First is the continued success of the National Junior Classical League which fosters clubs, activities, events and contests for students. Second are the ongoing contributions of the National Latin Exam and National Committee for Latin and Greek, which formed in 1978 when Gilbert Lawall was President in response to declining Latin enrollments in the schools. Third, this president had the idea to start moving ACL Institutes around the country, so that teachers from all regions could participate in meetings and committee work. Geri Dutra has helped select appropriate campuses for meetings and managed campus arrangements and registration. Fourth, the TMRC has provided useful materials and generates income that has supported the work of the ACL for decades. Jack Dutra made this happen. Fifth, Glenn Knudsvig, as president in the 1990s, organized many task force committees which meet at ACL Institutes to address various teaching and promotional needs within the Classics profession. These committees welcome participation of new and veteran teachers. Finally, the enthusiasm, expertise, and dedication of teachers who give papers and those who commit to the ongoing work of the organization and its various committees have made the ACL the vital and effective association that it is today.
On Mount Parnassus
At the 75th anniversary of the ACL in Oxford, Ohio, 1994 Charles Humphreys, ACL President Ed Phinny and I were discussing our recent travels. Charles, who always drives to Institute visiting friends along the way, told us that he had seen his old home inTiffin, Ohio. I mentioned that Conrad and I had visited the Cincinnati Zoo. Ed, who often travelled in Greece, recounted a hike that he had recently made up Mt. Parnassus. He said that a “god” led him all the way to the top. Charles and I looked at each other and smiled. With Ed you couldn’t be sure. He loved everything about Greece. Ed had taught Greek mythology for decades to overflow classes at the U. of So California and at U. Mass., Amherst. If anyone deserved such an honor, it was he. When Ed asked about the look on our faces, Charles repeated his words. “No, not a god,” he said. “A guide led me!”
An Ice Cream Social at ACL
At the Institute in Maryland in 1996 teachers were giving reports and discussing the agenda of the National Committee for Latin and Greek. As chair, I was moving the meeting along, since I had to leave early. We had progressed about halfway though the agenda when Christine Sleeper said that we should all take a break and go to the NJCL’s ice cream social. Everyone agreed, promising to return in half an hour. In the excitement I neglected to mention that I was scheduled to preside at another ACL session in thirty minutes.
After the break I convened a session. After fifteen minutes the scheduled speaker never showed up. Finally, a teacher who had come prepared for such an emergency offered to read a paper. Most of us stayed to listen. When I returned to the NCLG meeting I realized that I was also a no-show. The Exec.Secretary was conducting the meeting in my absence. When people asked where I had been, I told them that I had gotten lost on my way back from having ice cream.
Gambled and Won in Silver City
There was an excursion to the old western town of Silver City at the Boulder, Colorado Institute in 1983. Some of us had fun looking in shops, touring a silver mine and gambling in the casinos. Most of us returned hours later a few dollars poorer. However, when Ed Phinney boarded the bus, he smiled and jingled a pocket full of coins. Charles Humpheys announced that he had hit the jackpot and left while he was ahead. As Treasurer of the National Committee for Latin and Greek, he asked me what he should do with the “loot.” He decided to donate it to the NCLG. So Charles’ next report showed income of $75 from the Lucky Lady Saloon.
The Universe of ACL
When Harry Rutledge was President, I used to look forward to informal chats with him about the ACL and the welfare of Classics. As many of us remember him, Harry was a polished and dramatic speaker when it came to giving an address. I recall that in one of our conversations, Harry was discussing the relationship between the ACL and two of its largest committees, the NCLG and NLE. He said that the ACL was like the earth with two large satellites circling around it. Harry gestured grandly like Zeus, trying to hold the universe together. I appreciated the metaphor and his charming eccentricity
Memories from Cynthia King
Memories of people sorely missed: Georgia Haly, B. J. Ullman, Henry Montgomery, Maureen O’Donnell, Ed Phinney, Bill Gleason, Glenn Knudsvig, David Baumback, Harry Rutledge
They did die, but they are not dead: their excellence brings them praise and leads them up from below, out of the house of Hades. Simonides – D. L. Page, Epigrammata Graeca IX.
Most ACL members will also have fond memories of many of the above. Georgia Haley can still be found in the TMRC catalog as the inventor of L-A-T-I-N (item L4); she was my husband’s high school Latin teacher. In 1955 he went with her and her and his fellow Latin students from Lenoir, NC, to the second national JCL convention in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I had the good fortune to meet her and also B. L. Ullman. Graduate students at UNC were expected (commanded) to help out with the state JCL conventions. The others I knew after I finished graduate school and began teaching. (Henry Montgomery hired me and my husband.) I learned a lot from all of them!
My funniest and fondest memories are of the Institute and Workshops at Hope College in 1982. My friend Margaaret Weaver had not yet arrived by the time I went to bed the first night. We had been told about the very sensitive smoke detectors in the dorm and were sternly warned not to smoke. Someone, however, apparently smoked a cigar, and we all had to troop outside in our bathrobes—I was delighted to see Margaret then for the first time that Institute. We were both quite sleepy. The weather was lovely, the food excellent (except for the coffee, a problem at other institutes in earlier days before college students discovered the joys of really good coffee), the sessions first-rate without the problem of concurrent ones.
Memories from Kennneth F. Kitchell University of Massachusetts at Amherst kkitchel@classics.umass.edu
Year: 1985
This was my first institute. I drove over from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I had no experience with Institutes and did not know what to expect. We stayed in a dorm that had, beyond doubt, food that would have been ruled against the Geneva Conventions. The remarkable irony was that the wait staff consisted of some very nice Mexican Americans who had no idea how much we loathed their food. Each day they would come out and smile and ask us "More?"
Why did I come back? The people. Everyone took care of everyone else. Strangers dug into their pockets to give money to some young teachers who had also driven and who, thinking their meals were covered, had no extra money to purchase food outside of the dorm. And everywhere was the good natured humor that surrounds ACL.
People. It's always been about the people.
Year: 1994
Skipping out of a meeting to play frisbee with Greg Daugherty. It's all right, it was a classics frisbee.
Year: 2000
Not absolutely sure about the date. But it was the year that a Legion recreation group from England presented. It was wonderful.
But the memory is from when I cut out a back door and rounded a corner to see a Roman legionnaire, in full armor, sitting on the stairs, smoking a cigarette.
Year: 2004
Taking Per Rathsmussen, who had arrived from Denmark only to find they had lost his luggage, to his first Super Walmart.
Year: 2005
Watching Norma Goldman and her husband Bernard walking hand in hand across campus, in the golden rays of a New Mexican sunset, like two young kids.
Stan Farrow Scarborough, ON, Canada
My first Institute was at Fredericksburg, VA in 1983. Other Canadians had attended in Holland, MI the year before and were very impressed. I quickly discovered why. The camaraderie and enthusiasm of the ACL members was infectious. The session that still awes me, even in hindsight, was a presentation by Edith Kovach, who had us sounding off cardinal numbers in Latin, but keeping silent if the our turn involved a number containing a seven or a multiple thereof. The absolute mastery Edith had of the game and the group was something to behold.
The revived tradition of sing-alongs at the ACL had its beginning in Fredericksburg. We had just returned from a Thursday evening social outing to take in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Patience” at a dinner-theater near Richmond. (The cast were probably blown away by the fact that we ‘stuffy’ Classics types got every literary allusion and laughed our heads off.) The Cambridge University Press welcomed us back with a wine and cheese reception in Mary Ball Hall. Ed Phinney commented to a woman next to him that it was too bad someone couldn’t play the beautiful white grand piano at the foot of the sweeping ante-bellum staircase. The woman happened to be my wife, and she volunteered my services. When I added some Broadway tunes to the cocktail music mix, people began singing along. Charles Speck dashed up to his room and returned with some Latin song books, and we suddenly had a full-fledged Roman hootenany, ending with the three national anthems (England’s for the CUP; Canada’s for the pianist and his compatriots; and the United States’, of course) that we still close with today. Over the years the sing-along has taken various forms and has shown up at various places on the program, most successfully after the banquet in recent years, but the spontaneity of that first evening remains a cherished memory.
The Latin version of “O Canada” was also featured at a post-Institute outing to the Stratford Festival in Ontario in 1989, the year the Institute was held at Hamilton’s McMaster University. After a lunch in the Festival Theatre’s marquee and prior to a performance of Cole Poter’s “Kiss Me Kate”, we moved out to the balcony overlooking the Avon River and, with sparklers in hand to celebrate July 1, Canada Day, belted out the national anthem a capella.
One other memory involves a confession. Following an outdoor barbecue at Georgetown University, DC (1987), we were supposed to return indoors for a session on Classics in the Primary School. However, as a warm dusk descended and the fireflies flitted amongst the trees, a small group of us (including, as I remember, Sally Davis and Ed Phinney, plus a number of Canadians) decided we should linger and attempt to solve the world’s problems, pedagogical and otherwise. The guilty pleasure of this discussion in the dark remains a magic memory, and typical, I must admit, of how often the moments between official sessions become the most soul-satisfying of all.
On the occasion of our 60th Institute, I can only regret that I missed the first 37!
Paul Properzio Boston Latin School Boston, Massachusetts newsletter@aclclassics.org
Year: 2005
My fondest memory of the 2005 Institute at the University of New Mexico was meeting Monica Cyrino. Monica gave a wonderful power-point talk on "Troy" to welcome us at the opening plenary. From New Mexico, I invited Monica to be a speaker at the Professor John Rouman Lecture Series at the University of New Hampshire. Her talk on "Helen of Troy" in Durham, NH, more than a year later captivated the SRO crowd in Richards Auditorium at UNH. Monica and I have continued our friendship since Albuquerque, New Mexico. ACL Institutes bring classicists together every year where lasting friendships are made!
Alana Karalius Lukes latinamagistra@rocketmail.com
Year: 1996 Memory 1: It was my very first presentation at ACL. It was my first time speaking into a microphone from the stage. I had all these visuals and overheads that I had to bring up on stage. Several people had to rush up on stage to help me show off the "mural" my students had made. I found myself scheduled to present “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...or at Least a Few Lines of the Aeneid” in the largest auditorium I had been in in a long time. I counted roughly 300 people when the panel I was on began. I only brought handouts for 80! As it was, the number of handouts was 50 over the number I had been told to bring! Memory 2: I ended up being in the group that was bussed to hotel far away from the center where all the meetings were. My room was way up high and I had a grand view of the countryside. Memory 3: It was here that I went to a presentation by a group of teachers from central Virginia in which we were shown how to do things creatively in the classroom. One of the highlights of the presentation was the use of Magna Doodles. I was so inspired by that demonstration that I applied for and got a grant from The Washington Post for a classroom of Magna Doodles. I (along with my colleague and other Foreign Language Department teachers in my school) still use them today.
Year: 1987 Memory 1: My first ACL. I renewed contact with my graduate school advisor--Dr. Mark Morford. Memory 2: I was surprised to recently learn that over 200 people attended that Institute. I had thought all of us attendees had fit into one classroom and (for one session, into the chapel). I must not have had a program.
Memory 3: I recall a picnic on the lawn. One of the Latin teachers that I met there told me just to come along and enjoy the food. I was blown away by all the "big" names in Latin that this teacher kept introducing me to-- she knew everyone. Who was she? Jane Hall
Year: 2000 Memory 1: I recall choosing to stay at the dorms so I would be on campus and "close" to the action of the Institute. About 2 weeks before the Institute started, I sprained my ankle. That meant I hobbled to all the sessions. The dorm was at the other end of the campus from the location of the Institute sessions. Those who had stayed at nearby motels had transportation to the door. Memory 2: I was part of Barbara McManus' team for the Pre-Institute session “Classics in Cyberspace: How to Use VRoma in the Latin Classroom.”
Year: 2001 Memory 1: My presentation that year was “Latin IV for the Latin Drop-out.” Memory 2: Going to River Walk for dinner on the boat ride. It was great fun. Since we had been told to be careful when wandering beyond the River Walk area, a group of us walked en masse to the Alamo. I'll remember it well-- it was closed and there was a large police presence in the plaza. Memory 3: The art gallery with Karl Galinsky as the guide. How impressive that a place like San Antonio in the heart of the West had such an extensive classics collection. Memory 4: The fire drill in the middle of the night. Interesting what ACLers wear for sleeping...
Year: 2005 Memory 1: I got to present twice at ACL: 1. “Insulae et Tabernae in Ostia” as part of Sr. Therese's NEH Panel “Latin Literature in Its Physical Context" 2. “Traditional and Not-So-Traditional Projects for the Latin Classroom” Memory 2: I had heard a person on my flight talking to her seat mate about being a Latin teacher and going to a meeting at the University. After the flight landed, I introduced myself. It ended up that the seatmate was a local who ended up taking the two of us on a driving tour of the entire city of Albuquerque and delivering us right to the door of the dorm. To this day I am friends with the Latin teacher I met--Julie Zammit. Memory 3: I won the door prize from ETC--a gift certificate from ACL. I had already made my purchases, so I got to shop some more. Memory 4: Approximately 11 members of Sr. Therese's 2004 NEH program held a reunion. Memory 5: Linda Montross had all the teachers from Virginia pose with her at the banquet. Then we had the teachers from Fairfax County Latin Teachers Association pose for another pictures. To think--so many of us had traveled to Albuquerque for a picture of us together--the only one I know of.
Year: 2006 Memory 1: I was part of Marianthe Colakis' panel on “Multisensory Learning in the Advanced Latin Classroom.” It was so popular that the panel is a Pre-Institute workshop for 2007. Memory 2: When I arrived at the hotel, I literally got the last empty parking space in the entire hotel parking garage. Memory 3: We all got our exercise walking to and fro the cafeteria, the location of our sessions, and the hotel. Memory 4: I was hauling my visuals for my presentation out the hotel door when one of the older ACL participants was leaving the same time I was. When he saw me loaded down with a rolling canvas shopping bag, posters, and a huge plastic carryall, he insisted that we take a cab from one end of the campus to the other. It took him asking each of the 4 cabbies in line at the hotel before he found one who was willing to take us across campus. I never got the ACLers name, but I'll never forget my appreciation of the ride. Memory 5: I'll not easily forget the look on ACLers' faces when, as we alighted in front of the Art Museum, I uggested we "run up the steps like Rocky." We all slowly walked up that huge flight of steps. While we were catching our breath during the ensuing on-the-spot lecture of the topography of the city of Philadelphia, we had the opportunity to watch a young woman jog up and down those same steps numerous times. Memory 6: The rain.
Tina Moller tmoller@udsd.org Year: 2000
I attended the Institute in Bloomington with my colleague Mary Jane Koons from Upper Dublin, PA. Imagine my delight when I was able to reconnect with Jack Emmett from St X of Cincinnati, since my first job was his sabbatical year. I also met teachers who knew my godmother Teddy Kessis of Walnut Hills HS of Cincinnati, and became reacquainted with Sherwin Little, another Ohian. Dr. Janis Benario was there and through her I was able to send greetings to Dr. Herb Benario with whom I studied at Emory University.
Caroline Kelly Covenant Day School Charlotte, NC ckelly@covenantday.org Year: since 1995
As a 'nova magistra' it was remarkable and special to find such a warm welcome from many of the folks who had been coming to ACL for years, and from whom I had learned so much. In particular, I will never forget the encouragement from Jane Hall, Sally Davis and Christine Sleeper. They remembered me those first few years, and would stop on the walk between sessions to ask how my year had been.
Geri Dutra, and all those in the ACL office, also have an amazing knack for remembering names and faces, and for offering a personal welcome. That is one of the things that keeps me coming back, and challenges me to welcome other new teachers now. It is a major reason that I recommend ACL unreservedly to every new teacher. I firmly believe that ACL provides a level of support and training for the Latin teaching profession that is unparalleled in other subject areas.
Sheila K. Dickison sdickison@aa.ufl.edu Year: 1998
I remember the Institute in 1998 because I was not able to go and also for what happened after the Institute.
June of 1998 was remarkable in Florida for the fact that there had been little rain for months and just before the Institute there were fires in something like sixty-two of sixty-seven counties. My late husband was very ill and I did not feel I could safely leave him with a caretaker (we lived in the middle of a forest). Although I was the incoming president of ACL, I decided not to go. I was heart-broken.
But there was worse to come. After the Institute I sadly remember Geri Dutra calling to tell me about Glenn Knudsvig's untimely and tragic death. It was hard to accept that Glenn was no longer with us. As ACL president, I had looked forward to his wise counsel and advice.
I am reminded of Vergil's touching lines: Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Norma Goldman Wayne State University Detriot, MI
First memory: Most gratefully I thank the hosts (I think they were Al Baca and the both of the Barretts) at Northridge University in California for giving me the opportunity to show my Fashion Show of Ancient Roman Costumes. All of my friends and colleagues modeled the various styles from Etruscan times to Justinian and Theodora, and my good friends locally drove me to stores in the area to purchase artificial flowers for the lady models to carry. Oliver Phillips and his wife (they had a car) ferried the suitcases with the costumes from the dorm where we were billeted to the hall where we gave the show, and they both helped so much to carry all of the materials and props, set up the stage, and then step into costume. I vividly remember Ed Phinney in the role of the Flamen Dialis, wearing the costume that I made originally for Gerhard Koeppel, who modeled it in Rome on the front steps of the American Academy in Rome.
Second Memory About 15-18 years ago, Bob Wilhelm had held a workshop for elementary teachers in Washington, D. C. to orient them into the world of classical mythology. One of the teachers was Janeen Blank, who taught at Green Elementary School in the suburbs of Detroit, near where I live in Bloomfield Hills. Bob had set up “monitor volunteers” for the elementary teachers so that, as follow up, they could be helped by colleagues in the area in transmitting what they had learned into actuality. I agreed to monitor the program that Janeen Blank had begun at Green Elementary School, and I was amazed and delighted at the projects that she had undertaken to bring the characters from the myths into the art works produced by her students in grades 1-6. The work was most innovative and exciting, and I visited the school many times to observe her teaching and to view the exhibition of work all based on stories from classical mythology in drawings, paintings, ceramics, weaving, and sculpture that she was inspiring her students to create. Janeen then came to ACL the following June and held a weaving workshop in which we all learned basic weaving skills. She had brought all of the materials for us to make simple colorful mats, and I still have one under my telephone. It is amazing how a little leaven raises a whole loaf. That one workshop of Bob Wilhelm had produced a generation of teachers who took back what they had learned to their schools and their students.
Geri Dutra ACL Office Oxford, OH info@aclclassics.org
1985 my first official Institute --menu items, Margarita machine, pizza, & liver!!!
1988 Knoxville, TN HOT!!!
1989 CANADA great fun!
1990 Northridge, California Hot again, Getty was great! Remember the Brock Bus Lines???
1991 Tufts Medford Mass. Memories include un-air-conditioned dorms, but great Sing A Long with Stan
1992 Athens Georgia loved the conference center
1993 Boulder Colorado. Sheila found a great ice cream parlor with maple walnut ice cream.
1995 LSU 4 o'clock downpour every day.
1998 San Francisco I remember the sweatshirts! They were great for a cool San Francisco. Great idea Kendra.
2001 San Antonio -fire drill in the middle of the night
2003 Buffalo, long walk to the food!
2004 Miami University. "perfect weather"
After 22 Institutes, my best memories include the great people I have met over the years.
Marie Bolchazy Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Wauconda, IL mbolchazy@bolchazy.com
Year: 2003
The ACL conference held in Buffalo in 2003 stands out in my mind. That year Benita Kane Jaro, (author of The Key, The Door in the Wall, and The Lock), was a keynote speaker and Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers was sponsoring a book-signing reception for her. Since we also had just published Excelability, the author Marianthe Colakis was going to do some autographing as well.
We were supposed to have the reception right after President Kitchell’s talk. I personally rushed up to the reception area a short time before the rest of attendees arrived, and NOTHING was ready. (The University of Buffalo staff had assured the ACL staff that they would set up in time for the reception.) Lou Bolchazy and LeaAnn Osburn were planning to help me, but they were delayed since LeaAnn was searching for an elevator and Lou was helping her find one. I drafted a couple of University of Buffalo students to set up chairs, but the books that Benita and Marianthe were to autograph were still packed tightly in their boxes. But then Sherwin Little and John Breuker came to the rescue. Hard-working and diligent, they got the boxes unpacked and the books arranged. The reception went as planned although I felt as though I had just completed a workout at the gym.
By the way, we had future reminders of this conference for several years to come. Lou was dunned by the University of Buffalo to pay a parking ticket.
Tom Sienkewicz Monmouth College Monmouth, IL
toms@monm.edu I am pretty sure
that my first institute was in 1980 at the University of New
Hampshire. The 2002 Institute
in Madison was closer to home. I remember how spread out everything
was and people didn't all eat in the same place as I recall. But
Madison, too, is a great town. I still use the mug with the U.S.
great seal which I won at a NCLG raffle in Madison. My fondest memory
of Albuquerque was seeing Ken Kitchell pose with a statue of a man
reading a book on the UNM campus.
Sherwin Little Indian Hill High School Cincinnati, OH President@aclclassics.org Year: 2003
As Vice President of ACL one of my tasks was to slot presentations into rooms which were given to me by the University. Very often this is done with only a description of the room and capacity. Once sessions start going, I would make sure that signs were posted outside the room to make sure everyone could find their sessions. I was looking hard to find one room that the University had put on the list and was in the program. I was shocked when I discovered the room listed - was the Men's restroom. My shock deepened when I discovered that the session I had slotted into the Men's restroom was the session on Gregorian Chants, presented by two nuns. I found a substitute for the room, which was not nearly adequate, as there were people in every available spot in the room and many more standing outside the classroom peering in. Needless to say the Men's room would have been insufficient in that way as well.
Rick LaFleur Years:
1979 and 1992
Vivian Quiroga Klein At my
first Institute I remember fondly that Pres. Ken Kitchell advised
his fellow ACL members to welcome newcomers. I was warmly welcomed
by Norma and Bernard Goldman and enlightened by them and others. It
was at this first Institute that I became involved with ETC.
Then, in Albuquerque, I was once again moved by the
camaraderie and sharing of wisdom and learning. I look forward to
many more years of Institute, during which I am nourished in mind
and soul. Member since 2004
Charles Speck
After a decade in the city of Rome (7 years of schooling) I
was signed up In 1970
(for 28 years) as assistant professor of Classics at Southern
Illinois University in Carbondale.
From 1971 for over 25 years I found no better place to share
ideas with colleagues than at the annual ACL Institutes from coast
to coast.*
For a dozen years around the eighties I published articles in
the ACL Newsletter both on upcoming meetings across the USA and
articles on Classics, especially Latin, appearing in non-classical
journals.. For another such period I was appointed one (for the
Midwest) of the three professors apportioning the summer Scholastic
Awards for study, very often in Rome.
For a dozen years into the nineties I was the representative
from the ACL to the state Illinois Classical conference, which I
attended over 25 years and shared the above 2 publications with the
ICC “Augur” newsletter plus a report on the ACL Institutes.
Of course I really appreciated all the talks by and visits
with colleagues at the ACL Institutes.
I am trying to pass on my best regards towards ACL to my
successors at SIU, especially since I retired in 1996.
Thanks, Tom, for everything at the ACL and especially at the
ICC.
Fortius conamur, *including the Institute in 1977
hosted at SIU-C in Carbondale IL
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