| When the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society
was founded five years ago, in addition to the graduating seniors
and alumni, the Society decided to induct each year a coach or a
faculty member who has shown sustained support for athletic
accomplishment. In the past four years, Bob Hatch, Professor
Emeritus of Physical Education, the late Dick Williamson, Professor
of French, George Wigton, Professor Emeritus of Physical Education,
and Mike Retelle, Professor of Geology, were honored. We are
pleased this year to welcome into the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society
John Cole, Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History, Faculty in
the Program of Classical and Medieval Studies, and faculty liaison
to the men’s Basketball team. John Cole graduated from
Haverford, and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard. He teaches
in areas of ancient Greece and early modern France. These are not
areas normally noted for humor, but one can make a solid case for
John Cole as one of the two funniest professors at Bates, with the
other, curiously, also a Classics professor, Margaret Imber. Taking
a course with John Cole is often parallel to that old advertisement
with the student being blown back in their chair by the energy of
his teaching. He served as Acting Dean of the Faculty, and as chair
of the History Department and the Social Sciences division. Part of
John’s success as a teacher involves the intersection of his
intellectual power with a self-deprecating sense of himself. Asked
about his athletic endeavors, the 18th century French historian
recounts a time-trial up from the St. Lawrence River to the Plains
of Abraham outside Quebec, where both Montcalm and Wolfe were
killed. Not doing it at night with weapons, John said, it was
pretty easy. At Haverford, he received their Varsity Cup as a
soccer goalie and a golfer. But what he remembered as a goalie was
turning his back to see what all the noise was about on the
adjacent football field -- the football team had just scored its
only touchdown in four years -- and allowing the opposing soccer
team an easy goal. As a marathoner, he remembered walking the last
two miles in heat exhaustion. John either brought with him, or more
likely, took in while he was here, the Bates modesty gene. His
resume on the History website is one page, with plenty of white
space and two major books on Descartes and Pascal listed at the
bottom. In contrast, the course descriptions for each of the
courses on his Web site run from four to 12 pages each. John is the
longest serving member of the Bates faculty, having begun in 1967.
He commented about himself, “I learned much more and more
happily at little Haverford than at great Harvard, and I have gone
on to learn much more and more happily while teaching at little
Bates. I am convinced that a highly selective private liberal arts
college offers a superior setting for most sorts of
learning.” John has given his teaching career to Bates, doing
it with great skill and support for others. He is, as the
marathoners say, in for the long run. For his passionate teaching,
and for his devotion to athletics as an irreplaceable part of a
life lived well, we are honored to welcome Professor John Cole into
the Bates Scholar-Athlete Society. |
For history professor John Cole, athletics is part of a life
well lived
|
