The Life of a Faculty Assistant
Stephen T. Wagner
Stephen T. Wagner, A.B. Oberlin 1968, M.A.T. Harvard 1970, Ph.D. Harvard (History of American Civilization) 1986, teacher at Wayland High School 1968-1988, secretary to professors at HLS (now called faculty assistant) since 1990.
A Toast, of sorts, to Erwin Griswold
I read Dean Griswold's autobiography shortly after it was published in 1992, when he was nearly 90, and I'd been working at HLS for about two years. Among other things I learned from it..
Cold Calling
For many years starting in 1990, I worked as secretary to Arthur R. Miller, a renowned professor at HLS. He used to have me bring him a fresh cup of coffee halfway through his 1L civil procedure class (I think it was mostly a prop; he never had finished the cup he'd brought with him when the class started). If he was talking when I entered the room, I walked right in and gave him the new cup. If a student was talking, I didn't move until he or she had finished...
Professors' Dirty Looks
At least into the 1990's, the fifth floor of Griswold Hall was the Faculty Library, and people who weren't professors weren't welcome there...