Arthur Naething Remembered....
Hackley Review Winter 2014-15: He is remembered fondly, and with gratitude, by former colleagues, students and friends: Andrew Burstein ’70, Elizabeth Trostler LaBan ’85, Dr. Peter Gibbon, Carol Gibbon, and Belinda Walker Terry ’76
As an educator myself, I defend and promote the literary imagination every day, as a tool for understanding the human condition. Arthur Naething taught me how to do that.
He was a militant, in the best sense of the word. He cherished all that print culture has done to improve minds -- Shakespeare being the foremost example -- and he brought that magic into the classroom. He provoked. He honored the cause of critical thinking. He led his students to understand dramatic pathos and to appreciate the power of heroic sentiments. I can assert with confidence that more than one generation of Hackley students is out there spreading light because of Arthur Naething’s sturdy example.
— Andrew Burstein ’70
Andrew Burstein, author, is Charles P. Manship Professor of History at Louisiana State University. His new book, Democracy’s Muse: How Thomas Jefferson Became an FDR Liberal, a Reagan Republican, and a Tea Party Fanatic, All the While Being Dead, comes out in April 2015.
In the acknowledgements of my first novel The Tragedy Paper, which I can say with certainty I never would have written if Mr. Naething had not been my teacher, I thank him for “assigning me a Tragedy Paper when I was a senior, and for teaching me the most important lesson he could -- that I love to write.”
I was short on space, but I should have also thanked him for introducing me to words such as “hubris,” “magnitude” and “reversal of fortune,” because they still ring in my head almost daily.
For having each of us memorize Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, because when my 13-year-old son looked up Shakespeare quotes the other day, all he had to say were the first few words and it came back to me.
I should have thanked him for being so scary and yet so kind at the same time, and for challenging us each day to go forth and spread beauty and light.
Most of all I should have thanked him for giving me an A on my Tragedy Paper, because if I could get a good grade on his paper, on THAT paper, I could do anything, right? I could pursue my dreams; I could have really great dreams. And maybe, just maybe, I could get a novel published one day.
Thank you, Mr. Naething. I will always remember you.
— Elizabeth Trostler LaBan ’85
Elizabeth LaBan is the author of the novel The Tragedy Paper, which was inspired in part by her experience as Mr. Naething’s student.
Of course the Naething magic is not replicable and not easily described. It was the voice, the pointer, the passion, the drama and humor, the tragedy paper, and the benediction at the end of each of class. With some mysterious alchemy, he commanded the respect and affection of his students and made them reach beyond what they ever imagined they could do: You did not want to disappoint Mr. Naething.
Accustomed to teaching Shakespeare and Melville to generations of Hackley seniors, he also taught electives to juniors during the early 70’s. One year I asked him to pinch-hit and teach Dickens and mythology to ninth graders. At multiple levels, he received the same accolades.
This remarkable teacher was also a serious scholar. During his last year at Hackley, while teaching part-time, he sat in his office and wrote a 354 page essay -- ”Hamlet, A Reading” -- a guide to the teaching and understanding of Shakespeare’s greatest play. The essay is an extraordinary achievement, reflecting knowledge of all the Shakespeare plays and familiarity with over 300 years of criticism.
— Peter Gibbon
Dr. Peter Gibbon joined the Hackley faculty in 1970–75, and served in that role until 1986 but for a three-year sabbatical for doctoral work. Named Headmaster of Hackley School in 1986, Dr. Gibbon served in that capacity until 1995. After Hackley, he was a Research Associate at Harvard University’s School of Education and a Senior Research Fellow at Boston University’s School of Education. He is the author of A Call to Heroism: Renewing America’s Vision of Greatness and has published articles in leading newspapers, as well as in numerous scholarly journals.
In his small office cluttered with piles of composition books, Arthur and I spent hours between classes, trading stories, laughing, and occasionally grumbling about this and that, like two kids in a tree hut.
Outside class, he was shy, witty, self-effacing, and to a great extent private, often exiling himself to his apartment over the infirmary after the close of his day teaching. During the last few weeks of his life, we talked on the phone often. He told me that as he lay in bed each night, he was in the classroom, talking to students, teaching, and thinking about Hamlet. “You would think after all these years,” he quipped, “I would understand that play” -- and we shared yet another laugh.
I will miss Arthur, my colleague and enigmatic friend.
— Carol Gibbon
Carol Gibbon taught English at Hackley during the years between 1970 and 1995 and served as editor of the Hackley Review, beginning in 1989. After her husband Peter was named headmaster, she graciously hosted numerous campus events. The Gibbons raised two sons, Sean and Brendan, both Hackley alumni, on campus.
Graduation time 1995, the winds of change were blowing on the Hilltop: the Gibbons, Mr. Naething, amongst others, were retiring. A final party at the Gibbons’ home, I stand and watch Arthur Naething leave, tears running down my face as I, falsely, believe this will be the final time I see the man who taught me so much about grammar, literature and William Shakespeare.
A few weeks later, I receive a letter, written in very familiar handwriting. I was one of those students, the ones who needed a discursive explanation as to why my paper, once again, failed to meet the requirements. I knew the handwriting, perhaps too well.
To say that I spent days editing, reworking, spell checking, etc. my answer to him goes with-out saying. But, boldly, I found the courage to send a response and that was the moment we became friends.
I miss him.
— Belinda Walker Terry ’76
Belinda Walker Terry, former president of the Hackley Alumni Association Board of Directors, was perhaps the Hackley alum who stayed closest in touch with Mr. Naething in the years since her graduation and then, his retirement.
Back
He was a militant, in the best sense of the word. He cherished all that print culture has done to improve minds -- Shakespeare being the foremost example -- and he brought that magic into the classroom. He provoked. He honored the cause of critical thinking. He led his students to understand dramatic pathos and to appreciate the power of heroic sentiments. I can assert with confidence that more than one generation of Hackley students is out there spreading light because of Arthur Naething’s sturdy example.
— Andrew Burstein ’70
Andrew Burstein, author, is Charles P. Manship Professor of History at Louisiana State University. His new book, Democracy’s Muse: How Thomas Jefferson Became an FDR Liberal, a Reagan Republican, and a Tea Party Fanatic, All the While Being Dead, comes out in April 2015.
In the acknowledgements of my first novel The Tragedy Paper, which I can say with certainty I never would have written if Mr. Naething had not been my teacher, I thank him for “assigning me a Tragedy Paper when I was a senior, and for teaching me the most important lesson he could -- that I love to write.”
I was short on space, but I should have also thanked him for introducing me to words such as “hubris,” “magnitude” and “reversal of fortune,” because they still ring in my head almost daily.
For having each of us memorize Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, because when my 13-year-old son looked up Shakespeare quotes the other day, all he had to say were the first few words and it came back to me.
I should have thanked him for being so scary and yet so kind at the same time, and for challenging us each day to go forth and spread beauty and light.
Most of all I should have thanked him for giving me an A on my Tragedy Paper, because if I could get a good grade on his paper, on THAT paper, I could do anything, right? I could pursue my dreams; I could have really great dreams. And maybe, just maybe, I could get a novel published one day.
Thank you, Mr. Naething. I will always remember you.
— Elizabeth Trostler LaBan ’85
Elizabeth LaBan is the author of the novel The Tragedy Paper, which was inspired in part by her experience as Mr. Naething’s student.
Of course the Naething magic is not replicable and not easily described. It was the voice, the pointer, the passion, the drama and humor, the tragedy paper, and the benediction at the end of each of class. With some mysterious alchemy, he commanded the respect and affection of his students and made them reach beyond what they ever imagined they could do: You did not want to disappoint Mr. Naething.
Accustomed to teaching Shakespeare and Melville to generations of Hackley seniors, he also taught electives to juniors during the early 70’s. One year I asked him to pinch-hit and teach Dickens and mythology to ninth graders. At multiple levels, he received the same accolades.
This remarkable teacher was also a serious scholar. During his last year at Hackley, while teaching part-time, he sat in his office and wrote a 354 page essay -- ”Hamlet, A Reading” -- a guide to the teaching and understanding of Shakespeare’s greatest play. The essay is an extraordinary achievement, reflecting knowledge of all the Shakespeare plays and familiarity with over 300 years of criticism.
— Peter Gibbon
Dr. Peter Gibbon joined the Hackley faculty in 1970–75, and served in that role until 1986 but for a three-year sabbatical for doctoral work. Named Headmaster of Hackley School in 1986, Dr. Gibbon served in that capacity until 1995. After Hackley, he was a Research Associate at Harvard University’s School of Education and a Senior Research Fellow at Boston University’s School of Education. He is the author of A Call to Heroism: Renewing America’s Vision of Greatness and has published articles in leading newspapers, as well as in numerous scholarly journals.
In his small office cluttered with piles of composition books, Arthur and I spent hours between classes, trading stories, laughing, and occasionally grumbling about this and that, like two kids in a tree hut.
Outside class, he was shy, witty, self-effacing, and to a great extent private, often exiling himself to his apartment over the infirmary after the close of his day teaching. During the last few weeks of his life, we talked on the phone often. He told me that as he lay in bed each night, he was in the classroom, talking to students, teaching, and thinking about Hamlet. “You would think after all these years,” he quipped, “I would understand that play” -- and we shared yet another laugh.
I will miss Arthur, my colleague and enigmatic friend.
— Carol Gibbon
Carol Gibbon taught English at Hackley during the years between 1970 and 1995 and served as editor of the Hackley Review, beginning in 1989. After her husband Peter was named headmaster, she graciously hosted numerous campus events. The Gibbons raised two sons, Sean and Brendan, both Hackley alumni, on campus.
Graduation time 1995, the winds of change were blowing on the Hilltop: the Gibbons, Mr. Naething, amongst others, were retiring. A final party at the Gibbons’ home, I stand and watch Arthur Naething leave, tears running down my face as I, falsely, believe this will be the final time I see the man who taught me so much about grammar, literature and William Shakespeare.
A few weeks later, I receive a letter, written in very familiar handwriting. I was one of those students, the ones who needed a discursive explanation as to why my paper, once again, failed to meet the requirements. I knew the handwriting, perhaps too well.
To say that I spent days editing, reworking, spell checking, etc. my answer to him goes with-out saying. But, boldly, I found the courage to send a response and that was the moment we became friends.
I miss him.
— Belinda Walker Terry ’76
Belinda Walker Terry, former president of the Hackley Alumni Association Board of Directors, was perhaps the Hackley alum who stayed closest in touch with Mr. Naething in the years since her graduation and then, his retirement.
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