Green pen marks appeared on every paper professor Bill Glavin returned to his students.  It’s a small detail, but it’s one of many that make Glavin unforgettable in the eyes of those who knew him.

‘Instead of telling you what you did wrong, the green pen helped you see where to go,’ said Sarah Rainone, a 2001 alumna.

More than 100 of Glavin’s colleagues, friends and former students gathered Tuesday night to celebrate his life and legacy. 

Glavin, who died May 7 of lung cancer, was a magazine journalism professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. During his lifetime, he was recognized as an outstanding teacher by the university and was named a Syracuse University Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence, according to Newhouse’s website.  

The evening sought to capture Glavin’s essence in each of his many realms by bringing in friends from his college years, associates from his various professional positions and former students. The speakers shared personal stories about their time with Glavin.   

‘I think it’s great that they brought people in from all facets of Bill’s life. It gave us a well-rounded account of who he really was,’ said Samantha Schoenfeld, a junior magazine major.  

The event opened with a slide show of photographs created by Lawrence Mason, a photography professor. The final slide of the presentation described Glavin as ‘a camera-shy sportsman, mentor, award-winning teacher and treasured friend.’ 

The event, held in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium, was preceded by an event in New York City on Oct. 5 that also memorialized Glavin. Prior to his death, Glavin told David Rubin, former dean of Newhouse, that he wanted these events to be happy, despite them reflecting his death, Rubin said. Many of the speakers had the audience laughing as they wiped away their tears.  

Hart Seely, a friend of Glavin who worked with him during his time at The Post-Standard, had the audience laughing as he recounted stories of their Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. If the Yankees lost, Glavin would immediately call Seely to gloat.

‘The deal is this: The Yankees had a real bad night last night. They lost 8-0. I stayed up waiting for about an hour for a call that never came,’ Seely said, sobering the audience.

The evening closed with a panel of Glavin’s former students, including Joseph D’Agnese, a 1986 alumnus; Allison Glock, a 1991 alumna; and Pete Thamel, a 1999 alumnus. The trio discussed Glavin’s impact on their lives and their careers and agreed their professional careers would not be what they are today if it hadn’t been for Glavin.  

‘He opened up my mind to a different kind of writing,’ Thamel said.

Glavin projected copies of his students’ work during class to critique, Thamel said. He would heavily mark the piece with his green pen, ripping apart the story and pointing out mistakes. Despite the potentially disheartening comments, Thamel said Glavin had a way of keeping students encouraged.

Allison Kenien, a student of Glavin who graduated in 2007, said Glavin’s encouragement has led to many students’ success outside of school. 

‘He gave the world so many editors. There are so many of his students working out in the industry right now that it’s kind of like little pieces of him that are out there,’ Kenien said. 

The panelists remembered Glavin’s traditional approach to journalism, something they will keep with them as the industry evolves.

‘It’s good to hear all the stories and have that voice in my head again to sort of reinvigorate me to really still care about the words, because they do matter. They really do matter,’ Glock said. ‘Good writing takes refining, and he taught that through his green pen.’

mjfahner@syr.edu

 

Published on October 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm