Steve Glassman was the first to respond to the need for the arts at the technical university where he taught. He worked to secure funding to bring noted writers, professional musicians, and popular acting troupes to campus. He organized literary conferences that brought hundreds of scholars together and inspired his artistically inclined colleagues to develop arts programs and activities to flesh out the curriculum.
His interests were eclectic and deep-rooted. He was a serious student of horticulture, an accomplished photographer, a connoisseur of classical music, and an avid birder. He was an expert on the history and geography of Latin America.
He valued and nurtured writers. He recognized talent and promoted it however he could. As an editor he published the work of colleagues, sometimes enabling them to garner tenure or promotion.
He was a great defender of colleagues who became the butt of academic politics. He openly contested discrimination against faculty at his own peril, insisted upon benefits for fulltime employees, and served as liaison and counsellor for faculty in need of legal services. His endurance over the years in these matters was heroic.
He was inveterately curious, independent, and hardworking. He could be irascible, charming, passionate, and shrewd. And he was interested, in just about everything. Above all, he never lost his enthusiasm for learning, for research, for creating. He was a writer.
Ann
25th May 2020