An Evening of Literature with Betty Lou Blumberg

 

            A shared love of literature, family, and friendship illuminated Swain Library on May 23. Nearly 90 guests came together to celebrate the establishment of the Betty Lou Blumberg Endowed Chair of English with An Evening of Literature in Betty Lou’s honor.

            Bill Hunter, a Hamden Hall faculty member who was hired by Betty Lou in 1983 and eventually followed in her footsteps as English Department chair, served as moderator. Bill kicked off the program by reading from his own book of retrospective poems, Great Fields Behind Us—reflections about his childhood, nature, and the richness of literature. Bill’s fondness for Betty Lou has resulted in a lifelong friendship, and he said that one of the best parts of the evening was having Betty Lou back on campus—saying she “left us too soon!”

            Betty Lou, taking her turn at the microphone, expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all in the room—donors to the Endowed Chair in her name that included family, friends, colleagues, and alumni.  “I am deeply moved,” Betty Lou said. Looking back on her three decades of teaching at Hamden Hall, from 1971 to 2001, Betty Lou described her colleagues as “wonderful human beings with whom I shared this place, and a love of teaching, of literature, of art.” She gave a loving tribute to her two daughters, Nancy and Debra, and especially to her husband, Joe Blumberg, for their unwavering support of her work. As for her students, with whom she shared all the things she loved in her life: “You can’t find better students anywhere.” Betty Lou then shared a little of herself, reading two poems that held great meaning to her: one about her mother’s death, and the other about the last time—shortly before her retirement—she walked her students to a park across Whitney Avenue where they would write poetry.

            An array of speakers followed Betty Lou, including former Lower School Hamden Hall music director Katharine “Kathie” Harris, who, with ukulele in hand, offered a playful rendition of The Big Blue Frog. Zach Harris, Hamden Hall Class of 2002, credited “Mrs. Blumberg” as a teacher who encouraged his individualism, and, in fact, always went out of her way to make each student feel valued. Former Hamden Hall math teacher Roy Money attributed his love of literature—and especially poetry—to Betty Lou’s annual spring reading of FACES, the school’s literary magazine. David Pilot, Class of 1972, noted that although he never had Betty Lou as a teacher, he immediately connected to her “creative aura” and as life would have it, they both hold degrees from Vassar College.

            Hamden Hall Spanish teacher Marc Osborne, whose classroom was across the hall from Betty Lou’s for 10 years, spoke of their daily conversations where they would discuss the gamut—“from the most trivial to the profound”—and for Marc, Betty Lou is among his most treasured friends. Marc treated the audience to an advance listen of a song titled M-13, written for his band, HAND, and scheduled for release next year. “The song is about the human need to connect, about loneliness in the big city, about empathy,” Marc said. “I chose it because the lyrics are a narrative, a short story really, and we are celebrating Betty Lou's love of literature.”

            Herb Emanuelson, Class of 1982, attributed his “passion for Shakespeare” to Betty Lou who advised her students  “Shakespeare is a script, meant to stand up, to read, to act, to speak.” Herb recalled that on his graduation day, Betty Lou offered more words of wisdom. Herb, always a Hamden Hall thespian, then turned actor with a dramatic portrayal of Polonius giving advice to his son, Laertes, in Hamlet: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine ownself be true.”

            Jane Cohen, former Hamden Hall English chair who hired Betty Lou in 1971, offered a glimpse of the world that the two women shared as colleagues and friends, educators, wives, and mothers. Jane recounted that in 1971, women—among many things—couldn’t keep a job if they were pregnant, couldn’t get a credit card in their own name, and were prohibited from running in the Boston Marathon. Jane painted a picture of Betty Lou sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of her classroom for hours—editing papers with her students, writing comments, and meeting with her advisees.  Jane observed Betty Lou’s close and often maternal relationships with her students—many of whom were alumni in attendance that evening—adding that Betty Lou was also a proud mother of two wonderful daughters. Jane said that Betty Lou exposed her students to an array of topics, from Shakespeare to poetry, the Holocaust to women’s issues. Before reading two poems to celebrate Betty Lou’s special evening, Jane said that among Betty Lou’s many accomplishments, she helped establish the Cum Laude Society at Hamden Hall and that her Shakespearian banquets became “the stuff of legends.”

            Andrew Saxe, Class of 1980, reflected with amusement on Betty Lou’s teaching of Anna Karenina (all 864 pages of it!) and how, although she didn’t mean to, spilled the beans about the ending. “We still had 600 pages to go,” Andrew recalled, “but Betty Lou insisted that Tolstoy was a great writer and even though we all now knew the ending (uh, Anna kills herself), we could still appreciate the text!” Andrew also noted a lesson in Betty Lou’s class that took awhile to sink in. She was teaching Genesis and had played Morning Has Broken, sung by Cat Stevens. For Andrew, the dots were simply not connecting. However, 35 years later during a trip to Berlin in 2015, when he heard the song played against the backdrop of a stunning cathedral on a magnificent organ, Andrew had that “ah ha” moment and “finally got it!”

            Head of School Bob Izzo thanked Betty Lou for her dedication and commitment to Hamden Hall for 30 years. He noted the impact that Betty Lou had made on her students, their families, and her colleagues during that time. “Betty Lou, you are a big part of the foundation upon which Hamden Hall currently sits,” Bob said, adding that our school’s standard of excellence is credited to teachers such as Betty Lou and so many of her colleagues in attendance to honor her that evening. Bob also extended his gratitude to Joe Blumberg, Betty Lou’s spouse of 65 years, for sharing Betty Lou with us, making it possible for our legendary educator to share her passion, empathy and wisdom with our school community.

            Joe Blumberg surprised Betty Lou by taking his turn at the podium before evening’s end and reading a poem that he had written—just for his wife.  We are honored to share it here.

—Joe Blumberg

 

 

Enjoy some highlights of An Evening of Literature with Betty Lou Blumberg!