from Phil Levine

Alan was the chairman who hired me to teach at Tufts back in the early '80's. I've since taught poetry & poetry writing all over the country & had at least twenty bosses & none are near my heart the way Alan is, but I never thought of Alan as a boss. He was a friend & a fellow teacher. I never asked him for any help he didn't give, & in a thousand small ways he made me & my wife Franny feel totally at home at Tufts, a place it took a huge-hearted genius like Alan to make me feel at home at. I'd been teaching at Wind & Dust Tech (Fresno State), & my students were working class & pissed off, & I was working class & pissed off, but Alan made me feel comfortable. I have many warm memories of the man, the wonderful dinners he treated us to, the promises he made when he hired me & always kept, the interesting people he introduced me to--T.J. Anderson, in music, for example, who has become a friend for life. One memory in particular stands out. Jay Cantor, Linda Bamber, Alan, & I made up a committee to chose a a second poet to teach at Tufts. Jay & Alan had set their sights on a fine young male poet. I was with Linda: the poetry writing class were two-thirds women, they got me one semester, so--yes--let's get a woman poet for the other semester. Jay & Alan were solid in their choice. We sat there deadlocked for fifteen minutes or so, & then Linda said without the least drama that she believed that had she had the model of a woman fiction writer during her student years she might have followed her natural bent & become a novelist. She added, "I feel strongly about this." Ten seconds later Alan--who was the chair, the boss--said, "I hear you Linda; I'm changing my vote." That was about 1985; I'd been teaching since 1955 & in fact I'm still teaching, & it's the only example I can recall of a chairman actually listening to a teacher. A soulful, rational decision from achairman. Astounding. Enjoy your retirement, friend.
Phil Levine