1976 Faculty
done with me,” he says. For Rodd, coming back to Harvey to teach English reminded him of long-held passions. “What brought me to teaching was a love of books and sports,” he says. “Teaching in private schools allows for both.” Rodd praises Harvey for being one of the few schools where he has taught “where learning was promoted by regulation and structure.” He cites his past academic positions at four independent schools, and heading five others. “In all that experience, however, only one other school centered its academics on a large room specifically designed for quiet and regulated study,” he says. “And none except Harvey structured student time in no doubt vain hopes of having students finish their academic work before departure for home.” Instilled in the Harvey community has always been a strong sense of camaraderie, something Cocks clearly felt when he came back. “The year I returned, there were five of us former students: Peter Duncan, Mike Wise ’63, Jock Burbank ’56, and Dave Lowry ’47,” he says. “Peter Duncan and I put our old pictures in a montage in the Rambler that year.” Indeed, archived, black and white photographs of these and other returning teachers during the 1970s capture a sense of conviviality and a time when change was in the air. A 1976 faculty coach photograph shows jovial young men standing casually on a field, happily looking at the camera. In other shots, posed faculty members wear paisley ties, plaid pants and jackets, and sport bushy mustaches and long hair—all signs of Harvey’s respect for individuality and freedom within the world of academia. “The people in the school were uniquely stimulating and motivating with us,” says Cocks. “John McMahon became a friend, and even toward the end when surmounted by some of his life’s challenges, he was a practical inspiration to me.”
(McMahon was a senior dean at Harvey.) Most inspiring to Cocks was Leverett Smith, longtime math teacher and headmaster at Harvey from 1936 to 1963. “I knew Lev Smith briefly, but the way he said that he thought I would do well made me always not want to let him down,” Cocks says. He was so moved by Smith that he wrote a story about him titled “These Men Who Made Me.” Duncan deeply appreciates his years at Harvey, both as a student and a teacher. “I actually learned more from being a teacher than a student,” he says. “I taught math, ran a dorm, coached numerous sports and became director of public relations for four years. In 1979, I left to pursue my MBA at the College of William and Mary. My time at Harvey was a very rewarding experience for me.” When Rodd considers his years in education he raises concerns about how goals can undermine values: “Looking back 60 years at Harvey, I see values and goals more in congruence, and that has been an influence.” Reflecting on why former students find their way back to teach at Harvey, Cocks says, “It so happens there are moments in history that a cohort infused with the spirit of a particular time comes together later for another common experience.” H (Editor’s note: Harvey alumni Michael Barefield ’05 and Kyle Delaney ’04 currently teach at their alma mater, and Greg Janos ’98 serves as substitute teacher and full-time coach.)
“i actually learned m
ore
by being a teacher than a student.” —peter Duncan ’65
10 Harvey Magazine Spring 2014