Professors Have Enduring Influence on Future Educator

I am a loyal Smith alumna. The friendships I made with my professors were the most enlightening, cherished, and enduring aspects of my undergrad years. Some of my favorites include:

• Klemens von Klemperer, my history adviser. We kept in touch until his death. When the skiing was poor, my husband and I would stop early and drive to Northampton to visit him and his wife, Elizabeth.
• Cecelia Kenyon—I called her a philosopher queen. Brilliant woman! I took all her courses, not caring what she taught. 
• Robert Harris. In looking for a course that met Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I stumbled on medieval art. Harris’s undergraduate degree was in history, then he switched to art history. Despite never having taken a course in medieval history, I learned everything I needed to know for my history comprehensive exams from two semesters of medieval art.

I taught history in independent girls’ schools, counseling my students to go to a college—not a university—for their undergraduate degree. Smith was my model, of course. The professors lived in Northampton; they didn’t commute from elsewhere, so I would bump into them in town. In those days, we called them Mr., Mrs., or Miss (Ms. was not in the lexicon then!) out of respect. I felt they never put up barriers between themselves and their students. And their focus was the undergrads; there were no graduate students to distract them!

I spent my junior year in Paris—yes, it was a year. A semester doesn’t give students the time to reflect on their own country from afar. There, I became the world citizen I am today, who happens to live in the United States. And boy, did I embrace the open shelves system senior year, having been denied that in Paris!

Bravo, Smith! Thanks for remaining a women’s college and continuing to mutate to meet 21st-century needs.

This is just one of the many love stories we've received in conjunction with Smith's 150th. Submit your own using our love story submission form.