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FACULTY RETIREMENT Calvin Kendall & Archie Leyasmeyer By Professor Kent Bales Diversity is rightly sought and praised these days, mostly for good reasons although sometimes without due acknowledgment of the diversity that already exists, especially in good English departments, or so many of us like to think. The retirements of Calvin Kendall and Archibald Leyasmeyer are cases in point of diversities that were acknowledged— indeed celebrated—on a warm May evening in the Campus Club. For, while these colleagues share a love of teaching and great skill at it (virtues attributed to them both in the praise of many students and colleagues), their useful careers otherwise diverged. We have been made the richer by their difference, and so too have the “worlds” of scholarship and service to the arts that Cal and Archie occupied and, both being the best of citizens, bettered. Cal’s scholarship concerns three central interests: Old English literature (especially Beowulf), Middle English literature (especially Chaucer), and Medieval Latin. He first A r c h i e L e y a s m e y e r contributed an edition of the Venerable Bede’s De Arte Metrica et De Schematibus et Tropis to the modern edition of Bede’s works—which he also co-edited. He then wrote the introduction and notes to a translation of his earlier work: Bede’s Art of Poetry and Rhetoric: The Latin Text with an English Translation, Introduction, and Notes. But a student’s after-class question turned his attention to The Metrical Grammar of Beowulf, the book that emerged from much study and careful inferential thought about the question that he, in this way and eventually, answered. The Allegory of the Church: Romanesque Portals and Their Verse Inscriptions, Cal’s most recent book, The retirements of Calvin Kendall and Archibald Leyasmeyer are cases in point of diversities that were acknowledged—indeed celebrated—on a warm May evening in the Campus Club. C a l v i n K e n d a l l answers another question, this one asked of himself and requiring years of mostly summer research trips to answer—trips that he thoroughly enjoyed and lectured on, also with great pleasure. Praised by literary scholars and art historians alike, The Allegory of the Church and the study of the metrical grammar of Beowulf deliver the “new knowledge” so prized by scholars and scientists alike, however different their concepts of knowledge may be! Archie and Cal have the distinction of being Morse- Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professors of English; they are members of University of Minnesota Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Because both Archie and Cal have the distinction of being Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professors of English, they, together with their counterparts in other departments, are members of University of Minnesota Academy of Distinguished Teachers—the creation of former president Mark Yudof to encourage faculty leadership in improving the quality of teaching and learning at Minnesota. Cal also has been a Scholar of the College in the College of Liberal Arts and received a McKnight Research Award, both as aids to his scholarly research. Archie has received the Gordon L. Starr award for outstanding service to students and the English department’s own Ruth Christie Teaching Award, both awards given wholly by students. He also was one of the first to receive a College of Continuing Education award for distinguished teaching, some of it done in his courses on “The Plays at the Party--continued on page 15 ENGLISH AT MINNESOTA 8
The Final Installment of the 1954 Faculty Photo! This third and final installment of the Spring 1954 faculty photo still leaves us about eight people short of complete identification. We have enjoyed the search, especially your letters of assistance. Now, imagine all of the people below raising their hands and waving goodbye as they disperse from the steps of Folwell Hall. HAVE YOU PUBLISHED A BOOK RECENTLY Or have you published one not so recently that you would like us to know about In either case, please send details to Michael Hancher at mh@umn.edu. We will regularly publish information about books by alumni/ae in English at Minnesota, and also online. GEORGE T. WRIGHT Professor Emeritus of English Hearing the Measures: Shakespearean and Other Inflections (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002) ON THE COVER Front row (l-r) Theodore (Ted) Hornberger, Jack Levinson (), Clyde Enroth, Martin (Bud) Steinman, John Sweetser, Hans Arsleff, Frances K. del Plaine, Mary Turpie. Row two (l-r) Leonard Unger or Clell Peterson, Franz Montgomery or Julian Markels, Robert (Bud) Rathburn, Leo Marx, Bernard (Barnie) Bowron, unidentified, Tremaine McDowell, Robert Stange. Row three (l-r) Unidentified, Allen Tate (), Roland Dille, Julian Markels (), unidentified, unidentified, Murry Krieger, James T. Hillhouse, Lowell Plinke (), Elizabeth Jackson. Back row (l-r) Unidentified, Robert R. Owens, John Dudley Moylan, John W. Clark, Huntington Brown, John H. Randall, Robert E. Moore, unidentified, Samuel Holt Monk, Frank Bliss (), Frank Buckley. Other 1953-1954 professors and instructors: James Gray, Harold B. Allen, William V. O’Connor, Louis Coxe, Elizabeth Atkins, David Erdman, Ruth Christie, Ledru O. Guthrie, David R. Weimer, Anne Gillette, Marjorie Kaufman, Robert Miller, Danforth Ross, Clifford Haga, Douglas Stenerson, James V. Lill, George Hemphill, Elaine Perry Hulbert, John B. Orr, Samson O.A. Ullman, Raymand McClure, Paul Ramsey, John D. Kendall, Donald J. Hogan, Richard Scanlan, Mark Harris. Wood engraving by Edward Burne Jones from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (William Morris, 1896), part of the Kelmscott Press books, Special Collections and Rare Books, University of Minnesota Libraries. Reproduced by permission. ENGLISH AT MINNESOTA 9
Page 1 and 2: AT M INNESOTA University of Minneso
Page 3 and 4: P HOTO BY T ERRY F AUST Chabon to s
Page 5 and 6: MARIA BAMFORD’S LIFE ON THE EDGE
Page 7: about, at least according to Pulitz
Page 11 and 12: EDELSTEIN-KELLER V I S I T I N G W
Page 13 and 14: ALUMNI PROFILE: JOHN COLBURN By ANN
Page 15 and 16: PARTY—contined from page 8 Guthri
Page 17 and 18: versity lectures open to the public
Page 19 and 20: C O N T R I B U T E T O Y O U R E N

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