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In Memory of Bob HanksEulogy for Bob Hanks, 22 April, 2002; from John Pinschmidt ...continued They were great times. The foundation for our relationship was that we made each other laugh. Life is so tough---humor, raunchy or otherwise, helps. Of course, Bob made it a great part of his daily teaching routine too. Senior Robert Birkette said it best-----"Through the year I had to deal with rubber bands being shot at me, my notebook being thrown out the window, him foaming at the mouth, and especially Big Bertha. He was a little kid, trapped in a man?s body." Bob was a mass of contradictions, many of which were known only to those of us who were lucky enough to know him well. He taught Biology and was a walking encyclopedia of the Life Sciences, but also he knew more history than many history teachers. He was the most extraordinary educator, with a love for and an astonishing command of his subject, and he had a deep, personal involvement with his students. Yet he never sought recognition. If there ever were a candidate for "Dodds Teacher of the Year," Bob should have been it. He simply could not be persuaded to apply. Largely perhaps due to the influence of his hero, Charles Darwin, he didn?t believe in God. He once said, "It?s like this: we come into this world, those of us who have children contribute to the gene pool, and then we die. There is no afterlife." Yet he read scores of books on religion. He regularly visited monasteries and medieval pilgrimage sites all across Europe, and he loved and collected antique Russian icons. * Last week and today student after student commented movingly on Bob?s strengths. He was so supreme that he seemed to blow the rest of us out of the water; merely excellent teachers seemed to recede to black and white in comparison to his Technicolor/Wide-Screen/Dolby Surround-Sound presence. Remember his booming voice? He was so much larger than life. Pat Cosby said it best when she called him "The heart of the school." He was. Though his physical heart stopped 9 days ago, his symbolic heart will never cease, as it had already been given to thousands of students and adults before his passing, and we were forever changed by it. And this is important: we must not let the tragedy of how he died replace the wonder of how he lived. This intensely public, high-profile heart of the school had depths, complexities which were hidden to all but a few adults, and that is why his untimely end was so completely inexplicable and shocking for almost everyone. Many teachers and students thought he was the last person likely to come to such an end. And many felt betrayed, even angry that it happened, here, in the school on an April evening, the fruit trees starting to blossom, the birds singing
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