About My Best Professor, Rufus Bellamy Many great Profs have graced my education, but none more lastingly than Rufus Bellamy. Rufus was a child of the Ivy League. He grew up in Boston, lived in Maine,was a “preppy” at Putney and got his M.A at Yale, majoring in 16th and 17th century literature, and Greek. Most of my memorable profs were great lecturers—witty well-versed, and never boring, but Rufus' style was more conversational and always focused on interpretation of the material. He wanted clear understanding not only of the content of a piece but of the stylistic nuances and word choices that gave the piece its power or beauty. Rufus truly looked professorial: thick horn-rimmed glasses, tweed jacket, cords or khaki chino pants, L L Bean blue cotton dress shirts, tie, black socks and tennis shoes. His hair was reddish brown (Rufus) colored, always tousled, but perfectly suited to his personality which was genuinely friendly, open and approachable. He was intensely interested in anyone he talked to. That made him believable, because his interest in you was genuine. It also opened his classes to great discussion and great discoveries. My first class from Rufus was 17th Cent. British Lit., often deemed the most glorious but challenging of the periods awaiting the English major, and its prose was as challenging as its poetry. In this class we got to deal with the century's most enduring and certainly most quoted work, “ The King James Bible,” (KJB), a book esteemed both for its timeless content and majestic, almost poetic prose style, a style well worthy of being chosen by Cecill B. DeMille to be the voice of God in his “ The Ten Commandments.” Rufus' approach to teaching it was to assign a passage, say the 23rd Psalm, and have us write paper about some aspect of its wording that we either liked or took issue with. Then we would be asked to read our paper to the class for discussion later-- not the typical lecture approach. It was during these discussions that I became acquainted with Fr. Tom Machie, a priest who may still be living in N. Dak. He made news years later by leaving the priesthood to marry, but I'm sure he is still dedicated to his faith. Tom argued that some of the more recent “revised” versions should be adopted to replace the KJV to make the bible more accessible to everyone; I believed the KJV should be kept both for its beauty and for its power. Both of us had pretty solid arguments, and neither of us ever wholly conceded to the other but we became good friends in our “paper chase.” Anyway, Rufus' classes were so challenging I looked forward to them very much, and never missed a one. Furthermore, the corrections he made on my papers taught me more about writing than any of the “writing” classes I'd had previously. Rufus ended that class by inviting us all to his apartment in the basement of Concordia coach Jake Christianson's huge house abutting the river in Moorhead. There we were treated to the tastiest gourmet meal I had ever eaten. Just another of “Mr. Bellamy's” surprises. Since then I've enjoyed many meals with Rufus and every one seemed to out-do the last. That's because he became my graduate studies adviser, which required my taking my “starred” papers to him often for advice. Those three mini thesis are cached in “Livingston Lord Library on the MSU campus and can, I'm told, be seen on line. They are “The Epicurean Doctrine of Pleasure in More's Utopia,” “Light Imagery in Tennyson's Poetry”, and “Staging Problems in the Production of 'King Lear' .” Let me honestly say that discovering the wonder of Rufus Bellamy was a life-changer. Thank God I didn't heed the rumor that he was “too hard.” We became great friends, and Audrey and I were invited out to Castine Maine for several memorable and priceless summer visits. Clearly, I owe so much to him that at least two more of my columns will deal with this extraordinary man who, I regret to say, left life's banquet far too early. “Farewell sweet Rufus, ruffled friend/ Great mentor I'll not soon forget/ We've verses yet to comprehend/ And we'll 'have at' them yet.”   Gene Pinkney - For The Daily News - 6/9/21 edited html update 09-03-2021