February 24, 2010
Stephen Glass, Pitzer Professor
“I knew the Claremont Colleges and loved them,” said Claremont resident and Pitzer classics professor Stephen Glass. “The chance to be a colleague with my old professors was irresistible.”
Glass graduated from Pomona College in 1957 and returned to Claremont several years later, when in September 1964, Pitzer College first opened its doors as a women’s college. Glass will retire in June 2011, five days short of his 76th birthday.
His talents are scattered but abundant, but his expertise in one area makes him no less adept in others. “Knowledge serves as a bastion of your critical abilities,” he said. Without it, “you’re at the mercy of whoever is telling you anything.”
Glass has spent most of his life in Southern California. He grew up in Los Angeles and throughout his life has shuttled between LA and the Mediterranean, where he is an archaeologist as well as a scholar. “Temperature drops below 60 or so and I grow morose,” said Glass.
During high school, he made money playing “cool school” West coast jazz in nightclubs even though it was illegal because he was underage.
“Nobody ever made any noise about it. Nobody ever asked and nobody ever told. It was a lovely way to spend the end of my youth,” Glass said. “I miss it everyday of my life.”
“I always keep [a guitar] in my office just in case the day’s annoyances are too much then I can retreat to the past.”
He is a wine connoisseur and an avid chef. “I cook dinner every night of the week and it’s a great relaxation and great fun. You never stop learning,” Glass said.
Glass’ academic specialties are Greek and Roman history, mythology and Greek and Latin. He has a reputation for being one of the most challenging professors on campus. He admonishes the Claremont Colleges for dropping the required course load from five to four classes a semester, saying, “The fifth course is to allow you to take stuff just for the intellectual hell of it.”
He believes students lack the academic background he expects and cited Kipling as an example. “You don’t know whether that’s an author or a present participle,” he joked.
Glass reads modern and ancient Greek, Latin and French, German, Italian and Spanish. Glass does the majority of his archaeology in Greece. “You have to be able to read those languages in order to be able to do any kind of study in depth,” he said.
“When I retire I’m going to go back to school,” Glass said. “I overspecialized. There are some things I should have studied.”