M EN TO RS & M U SES Since 1937, Bulfinch Hall has been a constant for Andover students. From grammar to the well-formed sentence, poems to essays, literature to criticism—here gifted, demanding instructors teach English. Alumni recall these mentors with gratitude. Ozzie Ayscue, Class of 1951, wrote: “I doubt that any one of us fully realized at the time the grounding these great teachers were giving us in the beauty of literature, the precise use of language and the art of critical thinking.”
Giamatti recalled, “Harrison connecting with a student, and thus with all his students, in his unique way, language his fundamental medium and final cure.” One of the English Department’s most awe-inspiring instructors was Dudley Fitts. He taught English from 1941 until his death in 1968. Poet, critic, and translator, Fitts was a highly regarded author when he arrived, bestknown for rendering ancient Greek verse into a terse and compelling modern English. In his translation, the epitaph of Hector of Troy became:
Andover instructors are given great latitude to teach as they think best, and the denizens of Bulfinch Hall were as famous for their instructional serendipity as for their rigor. Pen Hallowell, in the first session of an expository writing class, gave students fifteen minutes to write instructions for operation of the room’s Venetian blinds. Tom Regan jumped on window sills for emphasis. Holly Owen, teaching The Iliad, once opened a window of his basement classroom, then left; in a minute, a baseball flew through the window, falling on the floor; it was inscribed To the Fairest. How better to engage teenagers in the fateful Judgement of Paris that launches the saga? Ted Harrison, a stellar pitcher while at Andover and Yale, kept students in line by throwing chalk—mind-clearing missiles. Occasionally, Harrison resorted to heavier ammunition. A. Bartlett Giamatti (later president of Yale) recalled a spring morning in 1956 when Harrison, upset that Giamatti’s classmate Tom Bagnoli wasn’t paying attention, threw Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary at Bagnoli. Bagnoli (catcher on coach Harrison’s baseball team) caught the tome. “I have never forgotten,”
Stone, who was his father that lies beneath you? What was his name? His country? What was his death? His father was Priam. Ilion his country. His name was Hektor. He met death fighting for his land.
Fred H. “Ted” Harrison ’38, Instructor 1952–1983; Phillips Academy Archives & Special Collections.
Dudley Fitts, Instructor 1941–1968; Phillips Academy Archives & Special Collections.
Brilliant, sardonic, and effective, English was not all Dudley Fitts taught. His courage and determination in the face of crippling illness became a life lesson for students. The inscription on the Fitts monument in the Academy cemetery can only be read by lying down on the ground and looking up—that is, from the vantage point of he that lies beneath you. In addition to generations of classroom mentors like Bill Brown, Emory Basford, Hart Leavitt and Craig Thorn, Bulfinch Hall was and remains the setting for inspiration offered by visiting writers. The readings, critiques, and musings of the likes of Jorge Luis Borges and Robert Frost have occasioned epiphanies for generations of students.
Robert Frost, May 1960 photograph; Phillips Academy Archives & Special Collections. Frost converses with students, his fedora resting upon a table before the podium in the Debate Room, Bulfinch Hall.
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