From the Chair

Last week I spent a delightful thirty minutes visiting with Dr. A. K. B. Pillai and his wife Donna, who were visiting the Greenville area for a short time.  Dr. Pillai received his M. A. degree in English from East Carolina University in 1968.  This was his first return visit to campus since he left to pursue doctoral work at Columbia University.  He stopped by the department, hoping to visit with some of his former teachers, but none are still active members of the faculty.  He was, however, able to have lunch with our colleague Jim Howell, who was one of Dr. Pillai’s classmates at ECU.

Dr. Pillai spoke with great feeling about the high quality of his educational experience at ECU and of the excellence of his teachers.  Out of curiosity, I was able to locate Dr. Pillai's M.A. thesis ("Walden and Indian Thought"), which was directed by Dr. Francis R. Adams, Jr., about halfway down the first row of M.A. theses in the conference room.  Dr. Pillai was astonished by the eight rows of theses that have been added in the years following his time in the department.  He considered them a mark of a continuing tradition of academic excellence, noting that many appeared to be the length of doctoral dissertations, rather than of traditional master's theses.

In his reminiscences, he spoke of the hospitality of the faculty and staff during his time at ECU; of the intellectual rigor of his courses; of the two professors who helped him carry boxes of books from his cab to his apartment when he first arrived in Greenville; of the departmental secretary who attempted to convince him that she was hard of hearing, and therefore required him to speak slowly and distinctly in order for her to understand him, rather than possibly embarrassing him by her failure to understand his Indian/British accent.

I came away from the meeting with Dr. Pillai reminded once more that our actions frequently have a lasting impact on the lives of our students, even if we may not hear from them for about 35 years!  We are the current representatives of the long tradition of scholarship and collegiality that characterizes the academy and that undoubtedly attracted us to our profession.  Every now and then, it's nice to be reminded of that tradition and of our responsibility for its continuation.

Thank you, Dr. Pillai, for serving as my reminder.

--Bruce Southard