Page 146 - YB1972

dr. theodore whitfield I "Two things probably kept me at Western Maryland: First, I liked it here. I've enjoyed teaching so much that I've made my home here. Secondly, 1 realized that in the big universities you have to publish or perish, and I want to teach. My first love is teaching - I just love to teach. " "I guess I would have been happy being either Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson. I respond to Lee because of my devotion to the South, my love for military history, and the nature 0/ Lee's no- bleness and generosuy. Also I think it would have been interesting to have been Thomas feffer- son or George Washington. I don't think I could have been happy as Napoleon or Pres. Lincoln. Napoleon because 0/ his brutal disregard for hu- man Life, and Pres. Lincoln because of his fail- ure to honor the constitution, even as he fought to protect it. I'm. thinking of the arbitrary flouting of the constitution as the safeguard of the people north of the Potomac when he arrested them with- out a trial." "Lack of courage on the students part irritates me most about my classes today, which comes to lack of purpose. I mean this - we permit stu- dents to drop out as late as April 21st this year with no damaging grade being recorded. Too of- ten, [ have felt, this has resulted when a suuieni stumps his toe, without breaking his leg; but stumping his toe, he's felt that he couldn't get up and go on." "I most want to be remembered for my integrity. It's so basic to anyone's being - self-respect. How can you ask something of someone else if you don't have some integrity. [ made up my mind early that the students might think Tm too hard; that might be, but I wanted above all for them to think [ was fair." "I've sometimes thought when [ heard Richard Crook singing part of the tenor solo in Faust that if [ had my choice in life, that [ would have liked to sing the tenor role in Faust." "2