Question of the Day

Suggested by Shaker Alison Rose: "Who was your favorite teacher, what did they teach, and what made them stand out for you?"

I am fortunate to have had a lot of great teachers in my life, both formal and informal. The first person who came to mind today was a professor of anthropology I had at Loyola, Dr. Paul Breidenbach.

I had him for several classes, and attended events he regularly held for students at his home within walking distance of campus. He was brilliant and warm and funny and kind, and I learned a lot from him, academically and personally, but what most makes him stand out for me is that he was so profoundly his own person.

I could always spot him from halfway across campus, with his particular hunching gait, hands in his pockets, head down as if weighed by the heaviness of the thought in which he was lost. Always in jeans and a sweater. His curly, unruly hair caught in the wind coming over the lake.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Breidenbach," I would say as I passed him. He would look up, just enough to be polite, to mumble a perfunctory hello, and, if you were someone he liked, someone he was happy to see, he would double-take and his face would break into a grin for a proper greeting. Sometimes he would stop you and run past you whatever new idea had seized his mind as he strolled.

In class, he was all frenetic energy, moving like he had electricity running through him, because he couldn't get all his thoughts out quickly enough. When he ran out of room on the chalkboard, he would just continue on the cinderblock walls of Damen Hall, and we could do naught but hang on for the ride and try to keep up.

Dr. Breidenbach was the first male professor I had who told me that I was one of the best students he'd ever had, without couching it in terms of my being a girl. He didn't tell me I was one of the best female students he'd ever had, nor did he touch me or lean in too close as he told me. He looked me in the eyes and complimented me fiercely; he made a compliment that fucking meant something.

Remembering Dr. Breidenbach for this question, I looked him up only to find he passed away two months ago. His obituary is accompanied by a picture of him sporting his infectious grin.

But Loyola's anthropology department has a picture of him exactly as I remember him: Jeans, sweater, hands in his pockets.

Good afternoon, Dr. Breidenbach. And thank you.

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