When you enter Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science Murray P. Dry’s office he appears, dare I say it, quiet. The man who sits behind the desk in Monroe 221, the stately office with the pocket-sized constitutions outside of it barely seems to resemble the same man who, after 43 years of teaching at Middlebury, still inspires fear and triumph in students of all ages. The totems on Dry’s bookshelves profess his commitment to true inquiry that so many people spoke of during this weekend’s “Political Philosophy and the Constitution” conference in honor of Dry and his teaching career at Middlebury. Oft sung this weekend as frequently as his praises were the rarity of Dry’s achievements. The conference, originally proposed in 2005, featured three panels with academic presentations by 15 of Dry’s former students.
“It’s really very rare for an undergraduate teacher who doesn’t teach any graduate students to send so many of his former students into academia. It’s unusual,” said Suzanna Sherry ’76, one of the conference’s organizer’s. “That’s generally what graduate advisers do. So it’s a tribute to him that there were enough of us to make three panels, and then there are others. He’s rare. It’s also very unusual for students to throw a festschrift for an undergraduate professor.”
“Festschrift” is a word used in academia to mean both a scholarly celebration of someone and a collection of essays published in dedication to someone.
“The thing that struck me the most about this is the range of different interests and different political positions represented by these people,” says Fulton Professor of Humanities and colleague Stephen Donadio. “That’s unusual. Quite remarkable. It’s a real tribute to him to have people that arrive at conclusions that are not your own.”
As I sat in the audience listening to former students and colleagues chide that Dry uses every hour of every day in pursuit of knowledge and truth and torturing students into being better than they’d previously been, I couldn’t help but notice how little students reaction to Dry has changed over the years. Current seniors Maggie Moslander and Rachel Pagano are still trying to figure out what Dry wants. Just like Dry’s current students, Sean Mattie ’91, one of the weekend’s panelists said, “I want to do him proud. I want to impress him and that’s as true now as it was when I first met him.”
“He is still the same,” said Sherry. “He even looks pretty much the same. I guess he doesn’t look 15 anymore, but he still looks young. When I got here in the fall of ’72 he looked very young, but still he was very intimidating.”
True, Dry says that the only thing that’s changed about his teaching over the years is that he relies less on prepared lectures.
“I’m more and more interested in making sure students understand,” Dry said. “Experience has taught him to pause more and ask questions of his students, but I suspect that forgetting his lecture notes in his office when he went the first class of his career may have influenced the change in his style as well.”
Dry says the students here haven’t changed much either. “In general I have continued to be very fortunate to have students who are able and diligent,” said Dry. “I remember when I started teaching hearing from others at other schools about their needs to dumb down material to make sure that everybody was covered or that they were only going to teach to a certain group. And that’s never been the case here. That’s very gratifying.”
He also remarked that Middlebury has become more diverse, for the better, during his time here.
“We’ve done that in a responsible way,” said Dry.
While working on his doctorate at the University of Chicago, an advisor recommended to Dry that he apply for an open teaching position at Middlebury. He considered what he calls a fairly comparable position at Kenyon but at the time Kenyon College was still an all men’s institution. Middlebury had already become co-ed, so he chose Middlebury.
“This has been my first and only job ever,” said Dry. “And I’m not planning on retiring at the moment.”
One of the luxuries of a long-teaching career is becoming part of not only campus lore, but family history as well. “It’s great having second generation students. I feel as if I have some invisible hold over them. If they don’t want to take the course, they don’t take the course, but if they’re going to take the course I think there’s a sense of “I’m going to make an effort here” and in general they have.”
Dry said, “I probably have a reputation as a demanding teacher. For students who have an interest in the subject, I think they enjoy it and find that it’s doable. It’s not just the students that can benefit, but you have to be diligent. You just can’t get much out of it if you don’t put much into it.”
A lover of golf, swimming and summer breaks, Dry counts his teaching as his main hobby. In addition to teaching students how to think, Dry is nearing the end of a new book about same-sex marriage and the law, a topic he became interested in after a mock-court case on an early court decision that established precedent for later cases.
In response to the conference, Dry said “It’s overwhelming. I was really quite surprised when I learned about it, but I’m now looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to seeing the many of my former students who are coming.”
Though Dry looms large in Middlebury’s political landscape, when his daughter Judith Dry ’09 overlapped on campus with him “I felt as if I was Judith’s father, not as if she was my daughter.”
The weekend concluded with a celebratory dinner for Dry, though the honoree felt like just a man with daughters who hoped his speech would be good and a mother who hoped he would keep his clothes clean all night.
Nearly speechless Shirley Dry summed up her emotions, saying, “It’s a wonderful day for a mother. Look at all these people here for my son. I hope he doesn’t drop anything on his tie.”
Staff Spotlight: Murray Dry
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