Hageman remembered fondly

Author: Brian Fung

When Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Bob Cluss moved to Middlebury over a decade ago, he had never owned his own home before. So it was a new experience for him when he checked his mailbox for the first time - and made a new friend.

"I discovered I had a mailbox buddy," said Cluss. "His name was Bill."

Bill Hageman and Cluss warmed to each other quickly, greeting each other in the mornings while walking their dogs or collecting their respective newspapers. Often, said Cluss, their greetings would turn into longer conversations, prompting their families to ask, "Where's Dad? Where's Bob?"

"Sometimes it took 15 minutes to get the paper," said Cluss at a memorial service on Sunday held in honor of Hageman, who passed away last Monday after a year-long battle with cancer.

Bill Hageman lived and breathed Middlebury baseball, coaching Little Leaguers, Addison County American Legion players and the College's own baseball team. But Hageman never treated teaching as a job. To him, baseball was always a means to an end, a way to learn important life lessons.

"Everyone talked about how big a commitment that was going to be, Legion baseball," said Doug Denu, a first-year student at St. Lawrence University who once played for Hageman. "But the way [Hageman] orchestrated practices, went about his philosophy, it didn't seem like a commitment at all. It was two hours of playing baseball and doing something you love. He made it fun."

Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson said her children shared a relationship with Hageman that lasted through their college years and beyond.

"We followed him all the way up," said Hanson. "When I think of who has influenced my kids' lives other than family members, he's probably been the most important influence. My younger son ended up pitching in college. My older son went [to Middlebury College] and ended up coaching."

For those who worked with him, Hageman's gentle but authoritative persona formed an integral part of his leadership style.

"He was a good match," said Middlebury Baseball Coach Bob Smith. "He was a quiet guy, and I feel like I'm pretty laid back and quiet too, and so he fed off of me, I fed off of him. Things worked very smoothly between us."

But even more endearing than his disarming friendliness was Hageman's devotion and loyalty to his players. In one season, when he thought the umpire had made a bad call during a game against Williams College, Hageman pursued the umpire far into the outfield to contest it.

"Instead of making a big stink of it, he started walking slowly, meandering his way towards the ump," said Smith. "Well, the ump saw him coming so he went further away. Bill thought, 'I'm not going to let this guy get the best of me, I'm going to defend my player.' The ump finally turned around and said, 'Didn't you get the message that I didn't want you to come and see me?' Bill said, 'You made the wrong call.' And the ump went and tossed him out of the game. Bill was so loyal to his guys that he'd go that far to defend them, back them up all the way."

Hageman's determination and sense of justice spilled over into his life beyond the baseball diamond. While commanding a company of engineers during his time in the military, Hageman was severely punished for insubordination when he refused to carry a group of infantry across a river by boat.

"Bill measured the stream velocity," said a colleague of Hageman's at the memorial service. "It was up to 16 feet per second. His immediate response to the S-3 [the officer in charge of training operations] was, 'Sir, I'll be happy to fly your men across this river, but we're not going to cross in river boats. We'll kill too many of them.' Bill was a leader of men. He was an expert at that."

Smith recalled that Hageman's support for the common individual was driven not just by his humility, but also by a desire to forge lasting relationships, on and off the battlefield.

"Each year he'd take his pitchers out to dinner at Hooters," Smith said to the laughing crowd with a grin. "He told me he loved the food."

Though Hageman was always supportive of his players, an open-heart bypass operation last spring prevented him from accompanying the rest of the Middlebury baseball team on its annual trip to Arizona. While Hageman recovered from the surgery and became well enough to continue working with the team, x-rays taken before the heart operation revealed a tumor that would require chemotherapy treatments.

"The real problem was the chemo," said Smith. "It wore down his white blood cell count to a point where he had no immune system. He went in [to Fletcher Allen Health Center in Burlington] on Thursday. We thought he was going to be out and about after the weekend."

But the suddenness of Hageman's passing on March 12 took all by surprise.

"He was thinking of coming back on Monday and Tuesday," said Smith. "[He] was talking like he was going to go to Arizona with us and everything, still wanted to go with us this Friday."

The night of Hageman's death, Smith notified the rest of the College baseball team in a tear-filled meeting. Despite the loss of a valued mentor and ally, the team plans to attack the upcoming season with renewed resolve.

"We're gonna have to rally the troops a bit, pull together and try to fill the void," said Smith. "We'll have to do a lot more with different things. None of us is going to replace the knowledge that Bill had."

"He'll be gone this year, but in a way, he'll still be around with us," said Denu, explaining that Hageman's advice will continue to resonate with the Legion players this season. "We'll miss the coach, but also the friend. When we play this year, we'll be playing for him."

Hageman is survived by his wife, Candace Hageman, and two brothers, Mike and Tom.