Dr. Richard Gerberding, a professor in the Department of History at UAH, retired last year after twenty-nine years of teaching. The good professor emeritus is still alive and kicking, and even teaching Latin up in Oregon. Some retirement! Dr. Gerberding answered the following questions later last year and provided some wonderful memories and advice. Thanks for everything, Dr. G.!
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate and doctoral
degree in history, as opposed to continuing your studies in psychology?
The reason had more
to do with Psychology than history. The more I studied psychology, the
more I realized that it was, in its modern academic form, an empty science
- more or less jargonized common sense. I wanted to learn about human
nature, and it was pretty obvious, even to a 23 year-old punk, that
history was the far better teacher of that.
One of your greatest legacies is your creation and sponsorship of The
Society for Ancient Languages. Why did you decide to begin the Society?
I didn't. It was the students at
the time who did, under the leadership of Ken Swaim. They came to me and
asked if I would lead an informal reading group in the evenings so that they
could move beyond the rather disjointed readings in Wheelock to real and coherent
Latin texts. The Society grew naturally out of that reading group.
What do you think is the ultimate aim of an education in history, and in
education itself?
Those are huge questions, and
I cannot pretend to answer them. I have thought about them a lot and
continue to do so, but have only come up with guides, thoughts, and partial
answers. As you know, I differentiate strongly between education and
training. Education is the matter of the undergraduate, training that of
the graduate student or someone attending a tech/vocational school. The
undergraduate studies history, the graduate history student is in training to
become a historian. So education has to do with the student, perhaps even
more than the discipline he/she chooses.
Otium cum dignitate is high on my list of education's most
important purposes. Politics is another - helping the young become
critically aware and developing their sense of social responsibility so that
they live larger than their own little patch. All of this has to do
with
humanitas - refinement -, the
attempt to polish and hone the talents and breaks we are given and
raise them to a level beyond the selfish.
While you taught history, you also taught Latin. Indeed, language is a
passion for you. What is the significance of studying language, especially in
tandem with history?
There are two reasons for studying
languages as an academic exercise; I leave the practical ones to the
business school. 1) It is fun. 2) Nothing more quickly and more fundamentally
teaches you a different way of thinking than to try it in a language not your
own. Both these reasons are important to people studying history.
While it is cliché to ask, what are some of your best memories from your
time at UAH?
It is not a cliché: one of the great things
about being old is that you have a lot of memories. My professional life
was largely that of a teacher, and so my best memories are not of UAH [...] but of its students. One vignette that
continues to give me pleasure happened years ago at a Convivium. Our
distinguished speaker that year was Julia Gaisser, professor of classics at
Bryn Mawr, most years rated as America's
best undergraduate institution. After dinner, she said to me privately, “You know,
Dick, I am jealous of you.”
“Huh?” I
responded, “How could you, coming from Bryn Mawr and being such a famous
scholar possibly be jealous of me?”
“It's
your students,” she said. “They are hungry for learning. My students are much
less passionate about it. By the time I get them they have seen it all,
have been to Europe twice, and never really
develop academic passions. Your students do.” Whatta memory. She said it far
better than I ever could.
You
are currently teaching Latin in Oregon
now that you have retired, if only from UAH. What other plans do you have for
your post-teaching life?
I have no plans. I am enjoying my current
adventure in the Pacific Northwest, but it is
not part of a plan. A wise friend of mine, retired now about six years, said, “Make
no important decisions about your retired life until you have been retired
at least two years.” I think that is good advice.
Is there any advice you would like to give to
university students?
Advice to the young?
You have heard this sermon many times. The advice I
would give to young undergraduates, and did give to them for decades, is the
same that my father gave to me as I walked down the front steps of our house
setting off for college on a Greyhound bus. “Look around and then follow
your academic passions.” And I, like most all-knowing youth with sensible
and wise parents, didn't. At least not at first. Practical considerations, such
as future employment prospects or even a sense of social
responsibility, should take a decided backseat to what cranks your tractor when
deciding what to study. This includes the obvious caveat that the subjects
you choose should be ones of intellectual and academic value. Basketball-arena
concession-stand management should not enter the field no matter what your
passion for basketball. Take good professors for your General
Education Requirements and treat these courses as exploratory - find out what
which ones make the heart beat faster. Then go. Worry about jobs and the
world later; if you get yourself educated first, you will be in a far
better position to tackle the practical things later.
Ipse dixi.
Photo Courtesies:
1: Gerberding in Office: The Society for Ancient Languages
2: Gerberding, Students, and Hotel Staff in Rome: Cameron Umphrey
3: Gerberding clearing out Office: UAH Department of History
Undergraduates included Kirsten Currier, Andrew Donovan, Heather Gargis, Seth Kelly, David Kemmerer, John O'Brien, David Smith, and Chase Tate. Graduate students were Elysha Francis, Charity Ethridge, Chris LeQuieu, and Nathan Raby.
Kirsten Currier and Kelly Fisk won, respectively, the Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate Achievement Awards for the Department of History. Ross Compher won the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama History Essay Award for a paper he wrote for Dr. Christine Sears. Kirsten won another award, the Colonel Walter Aston Chapter of the Colonial Dames of the XVII Century History Award. John O'Brien received the Dr. John Rison Jones Award in Southern History, sponsored by the Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, for his paper "If You Burn It, They Will Come: The Housing Authority and Huntsville, 1941-1960," which was published in the Huntsville Historical Review. Tish Cates received the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists Medal Award.
There were also awards for disciplines related to the Department that history students received. Brad Irwin won the Outstanding Classics Achievement Award, and Kayla Lowery and Kayleigh Last won a joint award, the Kathryn L. Harris Women's Studies Paper Competition Award, Graduate Academic Division for two papers they wrote for Dr. John Kvach on southern women and the "Lost Cause." Both papers were so good, they could not decide between either Kayla's or Kayleigh's.
The Department likes to keep updated on its alumni, and last December Todd Fulda graduated with his Master's in History from UAH. This was a well-earned achievement that required a great deal of work, but Todd doesn't seem to mind. He writes, "I enjoyed every moment I was a grad student in UAH's history department. I went in with high expectations and each professor I had exceeded those expectations. Call me masochistic, but I enjoyed the late nights spent doing research in the library and writing papers on various topics. All together, I feel I grew significantly as a historian while working on my master's and it made moving back to Alabama worth it." It's good to see his time was well-spent (and from the looks of it, filled with caffeine).
Since Jesse has been there, he has been pretty busy. He writes, "I recently participated in a United Nations-sponsored round-table discussion about economic development in the Asia-Pacific region that included delegates from the US, Canada, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico. As one of 6 graduate students in International Relations, I was invited to participate, as it was organized by one of my professors." He thought it was a wonderful experience. He is also working with the Model United Nations of the Russian Far East (MUNRFE). Concerning this, he writes, "I am one of the six members selected to represent our organization at the Model UN conference in New York at the end of March, and our delegation also has received an invitation to meet with World Bank representatives in Washington D.C. during our trip. I am excited for this opportunity."
