Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Ozzie became a dear teacher friend of my youth as soon as he arrived at Middlesex. His candor and passionate concern with teaching distinguished him from the start. During my junior year, Ozzie taught a drama course that met in a room with a desk on a raised dais in front of the blackboard. Once, in moving back and forth between the board and the dais, he stumbled slightly because he forgot the step down off the dais. When several students laughed, Ozzie looked out at the class and remarked, “The next time I’ll break my leg, and that will really amuse you.” In the moral order of things, you might say, he didn’t miss a step. He recognized laughter at the misfortune of another (himself in this case, but that’s beside the point) for the cruelty it is, and he knew how it can spread in a class or a crowd. He clearly called it out, almost instinctively. Ozzie inspired me in many ways, and he continues to do so. I was lucky to have him as a friend and a teacher.
