"Mr. SMU" Marshall Terry Retiring: DMN article

[PonySoprano]

Prof. Terry's Myth of the American West has always been one of my favorite classes that I took at SMU.

Fond farewell to 'Mr. SMU'
Many found lives changed in Marshall Terry's class

06:34 AM CDT on Monday, March 26, 2007
By MICHAEL GRANBERRY / The Dallas Morning News
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Many teachers come and go, barely making a blip on a student's radar. And then some teachers are extraordinary, leaving a lasting imprint on students' lives.

For Douglas Terry, Joe Coomer and Tracy Daugherty – all published novelists – Marshall Terry was precisely that kind of teacher – one Southern Methodist University has been lucky to have.

"You always knew Marshall was going to help you as much as he could and tell you the truth about your writing," says Douglas Terry, author of The Last Texas Hero. "But it was always in a way to build your enthusiasm. ... It was all about confidence and creating your own voice."

Douglas Terry, 55, is not the first student to have found his voice or had his life changed in Marshall Terry's class. In more than 50 years as a professor at SMU, Mr. Terry – who's retiring at 76 – has directly influenced thousands of students. At least eight have become published novelists, and some, including Mr. Daugherty, are running their own programs at other schools.

SMU President Gerald Turner has called Professor Terry "the campus Yoda" since he seems to be all-seeing and all-knowing; he has served his alma mater in so many capacities for so many years that colleagues long ago branded him "Mr. SMU."

So, to mark the departure of the Hilltop legend, Douglas Terry and other students will return to campus for a three-day symposium and literary festival beginning Thursday that will honor his life and career. Those paying tribute include Mr. Daugherty, who, in a case of protégé imitating mentor, founded the creative writing program at Oregon State University and is the author of four novels.

He once called his former professor "the most humane teacher I've ever had."

"He helped not only with the craft and art of writing but was, as much as anything, an encouraging presence that helped keep writing in perspective," Mr. Daugherty said in 2002.

"When you're young and ambitious, you want to make your mark right away, but Marsh was very good at pointing out that writing is part of life and often not the most important part. He always kept me grounded."

Long history
Sitting in his office at Dallas Hall, Professor Terry says he's overwhelmed by all the attention but laughs at the notion that he, of all people, is deserving of such a cute nickname.

"There's a statue of 'Mr. SMU' over there," he says with a wry grin, peering out the window toward the athletic buildings. "I don't see a statue of me over there."

He's referring, of course, to football great Doak Walker, who preceded Mr. Terry at SMU by only a few years. When the kid from Ohio enrolled as an undergraduate in 1951, Harry S. Truman was still in the White House.

By 1953, Mr. Terry had graduated, and, as a 22-year-old, he was hired as a teaching fellow in the English department. He walked into his class, "and this big burly guy – I think he was a veteran – said, 'My God, is that the teacher?' As it turns out, I hadn't even brought the textbook to class. I had to walk down the hall and get the text. And I almost didn't come back."

During nearly 60 years on campus, he has worked as an assistant to then-President Willis Tate, who recruited him to write the master plan for the university, a document that did nothing less than shape the school's curriculum and educational philosophy for decades to come. He has been chairman of the English department and associate provost, all without having a doctorate.

SMU gave him his undergraduate and graduate degrees, and he met the love of his life on the porch of the Pi Phi house. Mr. Terry and the former Antoinette Barksdale of Ruston, La., have two daughters: Antoinette Terry Bryant, a screenwriter living in upstate New York, and Atlanta attorney Mary T. Benton.

Ms. Benton, 36, says her father's adult life is inextricably woven into the fabric of SMU, where she was a student in his Myth of the American West class.

"I always knew that SMU was very special to him, but then as I grew older, I realized how special he was to SMU," says the mother of two children, the younger of whom is named Marshall.

She remembers extraordinary evenings in her parents' home, where the writers giving readings included Saul Bellow and Eudora Welty. But more than that, she says, was "the rapport he established, the respect students had for him, how much he cared for them and what they were writing."

She remembers a dad who would serenade her to sleep at night by singing the SMU fight song, "Peruna," or the school song, "Varsity."

"I think the most important thing he taught me is to have faith in people," she says. "My dad believes every person is worthy of respect and that every person deserves a fighting chance. And he learned that through his students."


What he taught
Douglas Terry (no relation to his former professor) says his own life was changed by having Professor Terry show him that the mind was more important than the body, that developing his talents as a writer would have a much greater impact than honing his skills as a nose tackle.

When he came to SMU, he says, he was most concerned with hitting people – as a tackler on the football field. By the time he left, he was headed to a graduate writing program at Stanford, where his classmates included author Tobias Wolff.

Professor Terry says he marveled at Douglas Terry's ability to tell stories, albeit orally, and simply channeled that talent into a novel, which he calls superb.

James Hoggard, 65, who teaches at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls – and who will moderate the symposium honoring Mr. Terry – says his friend, "whom I love like a brother" and has known for 40 years, "has written wonderful novels and stories and is one of the most dedicated teachers I've ever known. And, of course, it was his vision that launched the creative writing program at SMU."

Which was no easy task. Mr. Terry founded the program in 1975, against the wishes of more than one traditionally dubious colleague.

"A few old-guard teachers said, 'Don't promote him, don't give him tenure! He'll teach creative writing!' "

And, he says with a sly smile, "They were right."


Roots and novels
Mr. Terry grew up in Cincinnati during the Great Depression, the son of a "supersalesman" father and a "secret poet" mother. After beginning his academic career at Amherst College, he transferred to Kenyon College. The year he spent there among students including E.L. Doctorow inspired his debut novel, Old Liberty. Other works include Tom Northway , which his late colleague James Early once complimented as a remarkable novel, and Ringer, which Mr. Hoggard says carries the Terry trademark of a truly distinctive voice.

What Mr. Terry remembers most about SMU, he says, is how his own mentor, Willis Tate, stood up to those who sought to ban books from the library or who wanted certain speakers kept off campus, such as John Gates, editor of The Daily Worker, which was published by the Communist Party.

And so he laughs at those who criticize SMU as being a bastion of ultraconservatives. It's still true, he says, that the student body is far more conservative than the faculty, a longtime reality on the Hilltop. But when he hears someone, particularly an out-of-stater, say, "Hey, it's too conservative," he remembers a Dallas constituency that hurled invectives at the curriculum he helped write because they saw it as "pro-communist." He's also proud of a faculty that has launched a spirited discussion of the pros and cons of the proposed George W. Bush library and the ideological think tank that goes with it.

What will he do in retirement? Finish his memoir, of course. The title? Loving U: The Story of a Love Affair (and Some Lover's Quarrels) With a University.

"There are people who will tell you that SMU is not first-rate," he says. "But I will tell you that SMU has come a long way from when I showed up in 1951, when it was a good prairie college."

He was part of its evolution, and, he says, "I'm proud of that."

MARSH TERRY LIT FEST '07
The SMU Literary Festival Honoring Marshall Terry begins with student readings on Thursday. Highlights will include readings by alumni Joe Coomer, Tracy Daugherty, David Searcy and Lewis Shiner at 7 p.m. Friday and a series of panels and readings on Saturday. For a schedule, visit www.smu.edu/english/events and click on "Marsh Terry Lit Fest '07." Register online or call 214-768-2946.

[smupony94]

He is one of the few professors I remember. Great great person.