Just when you think you know a person

you find out he was Bill Clinton's English teacher

06/23/2011 12:43 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

3 Comments - Add Your Comment


Bob Irving, on the right in the white coat in the Glessner House coach house after "A Walk Through Time" (photo by Steve Reginald, "South Loop Connection")



“...two teachers were real characters. Robert Irving taught English to freshmen who were unprepared for his rapid-fire, acid commentary on the propensity of freshmen to be verbose and imprecise. He wrote withering comments in the margins of essays, calling one of his students “a capricious little bilge pump,” responding to another’s expression of chagrin with “turned into a cabbage, did you?” My papers received more pedestrian rebukes: in the margins or at the end, Dr. Irving wrote “awk” for awkward, “ugh,” “rather dull, pathetic.” On one paper I saved, he finally wrote “clever and thoughtful,” only to follow it by asking me to “next time be a sport” and write my essay on “better paper”! One day Dr. Irving read aloud an essay one of his former students had written on Marvell to illustrate the importance of using language with care. The student noted that Marvell loved his wife even after she died, then added the unfortunate sentence, “Of course physical love, for the most part, ends after death.” Irving roared, “For the most part! For the most part! I suppose to some people, there’s nothing better on a warm day than a nice cold corpse!” That was a little rich for a bunch of eighteen-year-old Catholic school kids and one Southern Baptist. Wherever he is today, I dread the thought of Dr. Irving reading this book, and can only imagine the scorching comments he’s scribbling in the margins.”

From the autobiography, My Life, by Bill Clinton

You could have blown me away when I found out that Bob Irving, a guy I've known as a fellow Glessner House Museum docent for 10 years, was Bill Clinton's freshman English teacher at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I found out after the Glessner House event, "A Walk Through Time," the weekend before last--a housewalk fundraiser for the historic home that takes place every year, allowing the public to walk through a smattering of the saved and remaining historic homes in the historic Prairie Avenue neighborhood that housed the creme de la creme during the Gilded Age in Chicago.

There was a silent auction and a reception after the walk--and suddenly it was announced that Bob Irving was going to be honored with the serving of some fancy cakes; it just so happened that coincidentally the day marked the 40th anniversary to the minute that Bob began giving tours of the Glessner House at 18th and Prairie.

A few short speeches were given by people involved in some way during at least part of those 40 years regarding Bob's volunteer life at Glessner. And then the mansion's executive director Bill Tyre read the above excerpt from former President Bill Clinton's 2004 autobiography. And I thought, whaaaaaaaaaaaa? I've been docenting with this guy for 10 years, been to a ton of parties and classes and lectures and special events with him, talked to him about all manner of subjects, talked to others about all manner of subjects about him--and no one, including him, ever mentioned that he was Bill Clinton's college English teacher? Or that his teaching style was memorialized in Clinton's best-selling book?

Bob didn't have much to say about Clinton. I guess it's a pretty old subject for him now. Although he does enjoy talking about old subjects immensely--such as life at the Glessner House in 1887.

You learn new things about people every day. And just to make sure: anyone else hanging out in the South Loop ever taught Bill Clinton anything? Or Hillary? Or Barack? Or Michelle?

And the other thing I'm wondering? I'm wondering whether Bob will feel compelled to mark up any of the margins herein.



3 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Fluffy de Crossharbour from Winnetka
Posted: 06/24/2011 6:48 AM

B you capricious little bilge pump: I just loved this article, and particularly the excerpt from Bill Clinton's book. cabbagy B2


By Mr. X from Albany Park
Posted: 06/23/2011 3:02 PM

At last, a humble person rather than a shameless name dropper! God bless Bob!


By William Jefferson from White House
Posted: 06/23/2011 2:08 PM

Congrats Bob. I doubt though that Bob wants credit for teaching Bill Clinton the finer points english verb tense, or for his pupils confusion in understanding "what the definition of is, is" :)