The Tripod

Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Peggy Yocom

Media Credit: Peggy Yocom

On Sunday, Dec. 31, Trinity professor Hugh Ogden died near his home in Maine. Professor Ogden, or Hugh, as he insisted on being called, drowned in Rangeley Lake after falling through thin ice while cross-country skiing.

While a professor at Trinity, Ogden co-founded the Creative Writing Program, and with that came the Creative Writing concentration for English majors. He also established the Poetry Center, which brings a "Poet-in-Residence" to Trinity each spring and also runs the "Poets in the Schools" program. Under this program, Trinity students are given the opportunity to teach poetry in Hartford public schools.

Hugh, a member of the English department since 1967, was the author of seven books and approximately 500 poems. The effect he had on those with whom he came into contact was greater than his prolific career. "He was a teacher, and a poet -- a seer," said Scott Baumgartner '07. "He loved words, nature, peace, and the life, divinity in every minute thing."

This love and appreciation of the world around him changed the way in which he taught. "Hugh would always bring the conversation back to nature," said Jennifer Neal '86, an English Literary Writing Major. "The nature that informed the poetry. The nature that informed the poet. The nature that formed the man."

"He demanded a lot of his students," said Baumgartner. "He really pushed us all, he really pushed me, but it wasn't just an academic interest in having his students earn good grades. He wanted people to be able to get in touch with themselves through writing and feel more. He wanted us to be able to grow as people, not just as students."

Neal credits Hugh with helping her find the right direction in her life. "He leaned back in his chair and looked at me over the top of his glasses and asked me, 'What's the worst thing that will happen if you follow your heart?'"

Neal, who came to Trinity intending to continue on to law school, fulfilling her her father's dream, met Hugh in her first semester, and their relationship continued through her years in Hartford. "When I shared with him how terrified I was to disappoint my father, he shared with me that I would be far more miserable for far longer if I disappointed myself," she said. "We talked and talked and talked that day. When our words were done, I had decided that the only thing I could possibly do was to become a writing major. And where that would lead? Who knew? I only knew that I was going to follow my heart."

This great effect was felt not only by students, but also by faculty members. "At nearly every alumni gathering across the country, former students have asked me about [Hugh]," said President Jimmy Jones. "I was honored to serve on the same faculty with him."

"It's impossible to teach in a department for 40 years without developing long, strong friendships," said Chair of the English Department Sheila Fisher. "The same devotion and commitment to language and learning which Hugh shared so generously with his students was a gift he gave freely to his colleagues, too."

And now, the first semester in many decades without his influence the Trinity community is left with the necessary task of fittingly honoring Hugh's memory by continuing to remember to live as Hugh had taught: with a greater appreciation for all things.

"We can effectively memorialize Hugh in daily practice, in how we live: by proceeding as though language and literature and poetry matter profoundly to life, not as one of its 'finer things,' though they are that, surely, but as one of its vital necessities," said Fisher.

Hugh's family has set up an endowed poetry prize in his name. "That's a good thing," said Baumgartner. "Hugh would like that far more than any material thing." Ogden taught a first year seminar last semester, of which Baumgartner was the mentor. "We ended up seeing each other as people instead of simply fellow classmates or scholars. And that's what Trinity really needs right now, is community, not percentages or different ethnicities or socioeconomic groups. A fitting legacy to Hugh would be a curricular dedication to the arts, and arts workshops, and community building through self-exploration; discovering their own selves, taking that journey together."

President Jones, while trekking in the Himalayas with 14 Trinity students over break, remembered Hugh while at morning prayers in the Buddhist monastery at Tenboche, the highest trekking lodge in Nepal. In this place, all climbing parties that have attempted to reach the Everest summit since the 1920s have gone to be blessed by the High Lama.

"We had the monks offer prayers for our late colleague and friend," said President Jones. "There, with the Buddha smiling down upon us, the monks chanted, bells ringing, and conch shells blown by apprentice monks, calling people to prayer, we read four of Hugh's poems. It was, I think, the most moving memorial service of my 30 plus years in higher education."

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, members of the College community gathered in Gallows Hill for a poetry reading in memory of Hugh, in a way that he likely would have preferred to anything formal. Lucy Ferris, Trinity's Writer-in-Residence, who hosted the event, made sure to remind everyone to be "not too reverential." Students, faculty members, and anyone touched by Ogden were encouraged to read aloud "poems by Hugh, poems inspired by Hugh, or poems that inspired Hugh."

While most of the participants were Trinity students or faculty members, members of the Hartford community were represented as well. Karen Rossi, a woman who studied with Hugh during high school, remembered him fondly. It was Hugh, she said, that inspired her to enter college.

On Friday, Feb. 9, Trinity will hold a Memorial Service in the College Chapel, open to all, to "truly reflect the vitality and spirit of Professor Ogden."

Hugh Ogden will be remembered warmly at Trinity through the memories of his students, co-workers, friends, and his influential poetry.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools