WEBVTT

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[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

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Bob Houston.

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I'm one of those who
wrote it out, too.

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I thought I might share with
you some of the words that have

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come to my mind about Steve.

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After all, words are what we're
all about in our business,

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and no one was better at
choosing them than he was.

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When I think of
Steve, which I've

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done a great deal over
these past couple of months,

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I remember a tough time we
were going through together

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some years ago.

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And Steve was asked to
describe our relationship.

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He thought a moment, and
replied, a warm collegiality.

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It was very much
a Steve answer--

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carefully chosen language,
accurate, and honest.

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But the word that has
stayed with me the most

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is warm, because that's
the first one that comes

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to mind when I remember him.

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No matter what nonsense might
have gone on in some committee

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meeting or another
the next time you

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saw Steve he was warm as ever.

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It was something that radiated
from him, as naturally

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as breath.

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Whenever I saw him, I was happy
to be in his company, perhaps

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because he always
made you feel that he

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was happy to be in yours.

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Another word is openness.

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For nearly 40 years we wound
up spending a good deal of time

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together in airports
and on airplanes,

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over dinner and lunch tables,
official and unofficial,

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at parties and bars,
and art openings--

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most of those
Gail's, of course--

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in vans, in buses,
and receptions,

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and readings from Vermont to
Tennessee, and Points West--

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at Bread Loaf more than
once, in each other's office

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countless times, in each other's
homes a few welcome times.

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And then more creative
writing program meetings

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than either of us would
have wanted to remember.

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On all those occasions, except
for creative writing program

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meetings, of course, which
are always solemn and formal,

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Steve would talk with an
incredible lack of reticence

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about family, students,
poetry, fiction, nonfiction,

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growing up in our very different
places, the things he loved,

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and the things he didn't.

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Sometimes, naturally,
we would gossip.

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I don't think folks who aren't
in this business of writing

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realized how we love to
gossip about one another.

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And Steve would never
leave you in doubt

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about what he felt about one
writer or another's work.

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But he never descended
to personal invective

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as others of his
kin sometimes do.

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There just wasn't any.

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In other words, it's decency.

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Steve was no saint, but I
don't think either of us

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believed much in saints anyway.

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He and I often locked horns
about some creative writing

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policy or hiring
decisions, most of which

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don't amount to
much in retrospect.

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But that warm
collegiality always

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remained and
operationally defined

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decency, as well as
I've ever known it.

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Steve was a gentleman,
first and foremost.

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A Golden Gloves boxer
who learned well

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his lessons from that sport.

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Then there's responsibility.

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To my knowledge, Steve
never let a student down.

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I know that after his seven
good years as Creative Writing

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Program Director he
never let me down

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when I took over the
job a few years later.

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I knew that I could always ask
him how things should be done,

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and why, and I'd get
a well-considered,

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straightforward answer.

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So many of the policies we still
follow in the creative writing

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program today
originated with Steve.

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And during his
directorship the program

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became known as one of the
top half dozen in the country.

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A great part of that
recognition came

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from Steve's consistent
advocacy for the program

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and its students, as well
as his personal reputation.

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Some of Steve's poems
are being read today.

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So talent is something
that is self-evident.

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But involved in both his work
and his self is accessibility.

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Knock on his office door, and
you'd hear, "Come in," and know

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that he really welcomed you.

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Hear him read a poem, which was
something he did beautifully,

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and you'd hear the same message.

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Come in.

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Read his poems and you'd
hear him invite you in even

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more deeply, and more deeply.

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Teacher is the last,
perhaps finest, word,

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I'd like to apply to Steve.

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Year after year,
graduate after graduate,

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his mentorship and
encouragement defined him.

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The list of his
successful students

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is as long as any
poet's in the country.

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Witness those who came from
so far to say goodbye to him.

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How many other teachers
anywhere on the planet

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could claim such
loyalty and love?

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This is homage I'd like to have
delivered at Steve's retirement

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ceremony.

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I'm sorry I didn't get
the chance to, Steve-o.

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I respected you as I did
few people I have known.

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Each of us lives in a
mosaic of other lives

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that makes up the
picture of our own.

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Your absence leaves
a very large portion

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of those mosaics missing
for everyone here today--

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a part that just can't
be replaced, ever.

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Thanks for being part of them.

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[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE]

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