Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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ERNEST PRUDENTE It ' s pretty hard to get through Haverford without meeting Ernie Prudente. You can do it. although Ernie probably has as many peo- ple in his courses as any other professor. You can do it: hut you miss something. You may sign up with Ernie simply because of athletic require- ments, or because you have the sinking feeling that a few weeks of grinding or loafing have left you miserably out of shape. So you sign up for sports instruc- tion, body-building. Softball, base- ball or basketball: and vou dis- cover, if Vou didn ' t know it al- ready, that there ' s an unusual man at the heart of the program. He knows what he ' s doing and he does it well: and if vou came til learn something, you ' ll learn. Of course, if you don ' t want to learn. Ernie won ' t force vou; if you want to goof off, you can get away with it. You won ' t fool Ernie: but he won ' t get tough with you either. If you want to put ourself in shajje. he ' ll help, shouting words of encouragement to his sweating disciples. Let ' s keep those weights hot! he ' ll b :iow. And build up those necks and get those arms strong and those stomachs tight. Easy? Take it from Ernie. This is a gut course. When ou ' re sure nu can ' t lift five pounds more, hell grunt for ou so vou don ' t waste your energv: or he ' ll get you laughing so vou have to start over again. Usually the result is that vou make it next time: and that you find keeping vourself in shape great fun. Ernie may be serious about it. but be still makes it fun. Perhaps that ' s why vou like him — and there ' s no one who doesn ' t. When you come down to the gym. you don ' t stop being a stu- dent. Ernie believes that everv part of you needs to be toughened and exercised and brought into harmony, mind and body. Keep those arms going so vou won ' t get tired t ping. he ' ll roar. Ernie doesn ' t begrudge you the time ou have to spend stud ing. He knows you ' re here to get an edu- cation. That ' s part of Ernie ' s job: and ()u like the wav he does it. Page 13

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ROBERT H. BUTMAN No performance of a play is ever alive ' unless the direction has been enthusiastic and invigo- ratinpr. Time and apain college productions go flat because there exists no driving, encouraging force behind them to lend pace and clarity. The same is true for the classroom: learning is a lead- ing forth of knowledge, but first there must exist the inspiration and desire to learn. This is only created, in the classroom, when one feels that the professor him- self is motivated by a profound desire to understand and to help others to understand. There are few professors who take the trouble to broaden a student ' s mind as Bob does. It is for this that sreat teachers are remem- What does it mean to gamble? With money as the symbol, the flip of a coin in Humanities class has shown us more about Dos- toievsky ' s story than three hours of lecture time. Similarly, a sim- ple stage direction. You sound like you ' re making love to your- self instead of to her. ' has proved the most effective remedy for a common situation on the Haver- ford boards. There is at least one place on this campus of keys which is never locked. As students we have walk- ed into his apartment at anv hour and been made welcome, which is something some of us can do no- where else. He is necessarv. he is there, and he is appreciated. Yes, there have been quarrels, and some of us dislike him. To some he has come too close, to others not close enough. But that is part of the gamble — when each of us makes some attempt to reach out and sense the other, we are betting on the fulfillment of ourselves as human beings, and hoping, sometimes against hope, that we will win. He is respected for the amount and the frequency with which he stakes: criticized for his losses and loved for his victories, but always respected. That ' s as it should be. There are too few gamblers left.

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JOHN ASHMEAD, JR. During his student days at Harvard University, John Ash- mead worked at one time or an- other as a salt tablet dropper in a tomato cannery, a music critic and reporter for the Hartford Times, a translator of German, and a cowboy and piano player at a Colorado dude ranch. The diversity of Ashmead ' s activities has stuck with him as Associate Professor of English at Haver- ford. Most of us know him as a teach- er of literature and creative writ- ing, areas to which Ashmead brings a wide knowledge encom- passing many of the arts. He be- lieves that literature should be seen in a context which is not strictly chronological or isolated but which spreads into other areas of aesthetic endeavor. Thus Ash- mead was a pioneer force in bring- ing to Haverford the Carnegie Study o f the Arts of the United States — a collection of three thousand color slides of American architecture, painting, and sculp- ture which he uses to broaden the student ' s (conception of literature as a work of art. Similarly. Ashmead brings his knowledge of music to bear on the style and structure of literature. He frequently reads -aloud to the class to give students a feeling for pitch and harmony in langu- age, in the belief that ' nobody is tone deaf. Interpreting a book, he may associate certain motifs with a character, or note an ope- ratic effect, where three char- acters are singing at once. Perhaps Ashmead ' s most valu- able experience as a teacher, in preparation for his second role as a writer, has been simply in meet- ing people. Having a wide variety of acquaintances is invaluable, he feels, and his various foreign teaching assignments in Athens, Japan, Burma, the Philippines, Korea. Formosa and Hong Kong have added greatly to this circle of friends. Out of those years of teaching and travel, and out of his experience in World War H. came The Mountain and the Feather. Ashmead worked on the novel on and off from 1944 un- til November. 1960. when it was accepted for publication. The book was written mainly from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. or from 4 to 8 a.m.. the only times available with a busy teaching schedule. Future plans include another novel (completed but not yet published) and a third in the drawing-board stage. In his third role as critic. Ash- mead has not confined himself to literature alone. He also has some rather provocative opinions about Haverford College. He com- plains of a desperately over- worked faculty and student body dominated bv the Puritan idea that work is the first thing in life. Such conditions, he claims, produce an atmosphere where study is 95% analytical and 5% creative and acts as a stim- ulus to grinding out plodders. As a remedy for this situation. Ash- mead suggests the possibility of abandoning compulsory classwork in the senior year. Students need some time to reflect, even though the ' goof-offs ' will take advantage of this free time . . . they will under any circum- stances. Commenting on the new two million dollar science build- ing. Ashmead half-humorously wondered about the possibility of buying 100 dollars ' worth of re- flection. Some of the points John Ashmead has raised in this ac- count of his diverse career would certainly bear such reflection. Page 14