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“I hope that he understood that his strength as a person was as important to his students as anything he imparted to them through the law books.”

In the aftermath of Stephen Gey’s death – he was a law professor at Florida State – one of his students pays homage to the strength of his character as well as to his intellect.

This article, a few years back, captures Gey’s passion, and his students’ reciprocal feelings.

This is the best – the very best – of the university, that free and ordered space, as Bartlett Giamatti called it – a space as removed from the tawdry cyberspace of distance ed as possible – where human beings and their passions meet human beings and their passions.

[Ben] Gibson and about 40 other students gathered for Gey’s First Amendment class Monday. They couldn’t see Gey, who was calling from his house of hard, steep angles. They could only hear his voice over three speakers. But they could picture him in those ironed jeans, sitting ramrod straight.

He called to say goodbye.

He said he could no longer teach, even by phone. He said he had wanted more than anything to finish the term, but was too sick. “I’m sorry I have to do this,” he said.

The class fell silent.

“This is Ben,” Gibson called out. “I want to thank you for the semester. I want to thank you for everything you’ve done.”

The class was again silent. So were the phone speakers.

Finally, they heard Gey sign off. “Thank you,” they heard him say. His voice was choked.

“Thank you for allowing me to fulfill my life’s passion.”

***************************

The man in action.

Margaret Soltan, June 11, 2011 11:04AM
Posted in: the university

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2 Responses to ““I hope that he understood that his strength as a person was as important to his students as anything he imparted to them through the law books.””

  1. tony grafton Says:
    June 12th, 2011 at 12:30PM

    UD once headed a post about another heroic professor “A Man in Full.” This story is even more extraordinary. For Stephen Gey, scholarship and teaching were nothing less than a vocation. His students practiced Christianity as a way of life, and a religion of love, rather than a body of rigid doctrines.

    Thank you.

    Tony

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    June 12th, 2011 at 12:39PM

    You’re very welcome, Tony.

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