Sixty Years, 10,000 Duke Students, One Last Lesson for English Professor

With Victor Strandberg set to retire in June, he reflects on a lifetime of teaching, knowing his students and opening minds

a collage of photos of Duke Professor of English Victor Strandberg
Professor of English Victor Strandberg will retire this year after 60 years of teaching at Duke University. Photos courtesy of Victor Strandberg

Victor Strandberg arrived at Duke University in 1966 from Vermont with two kids to support, a published book to his name and a wife who told him not to apply for a job anywhere in the South.

Sixty years later, he is leaving as something rare in academia: A “legend,” according to some of his students.

The Professor of English, who is retiring from Duke on June 30 at age 91, taught more than 10,000 students during his career. He filled classrooms and auditoriums with young people hungry to understand William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, Toni Morrison and Ernest Hemingway.

And he’s not quite done teaching in Durham.

Here’s what Strandberg has learned over 60 years – in his own words.

My wife told me to avoid the South. In 1966, it was in turmoil. Racial segregation and Jim Crow were in full sway. She said, “It's a lousy place. Don't apply anywhere in the South.” I told her, “Well, Duke has a ‘Grade A’ rating for salaries.” She said, "We'll make one exception, then, and apply to Duke." And that's how I got here.

Strandberg
Victor Strandberg in 1974

My salary at the University of Vermont was about $7,600 a year. And Duke raised it by $2,000. At that time, it was a big, big raise. I had published some things, including a book, which opened the door for me at Duke.

It’s always been a prestigious campus, but since I came here, the series of university presidents, their leadership has led Duke to rise to the middle of the Ivy League, and I've been a witness to it. Duke is rated just below Harvard, Yale, Princeton, which is a remarkable achievement on the part of what was once a very fine regional university.

In my career, I’ve always tried to get to know my students. Even when I had 200 students in a class, I always had interviews with each student. I required that. And I might have, let's say, three at a time for 20 minutes. I would ask for personal information — their hometown, their previous school, their major and above all, their extracurricular activities. Things like playing in the orchestra, playing in a club sport, whatever it was. Just to get to know them better.

Victor Strandberg
Victor Strandberg in 1980

When the digital camera came along, I made it a point to take a photo of each student and a video clip of a few seconds, and I put them in my files. And even in a large class, I would go over it and over it and over it until I got to remember each student. And I did manage to do that, even with those large classes of 150, 200 students. I would say it was indispensable. I've got thousands of those original index cards. In my retirement, I'll thumb through them.

The most satisfying part of my career over these 60 years has been throwing open new horizons of understanding great literature for students. I think I was quite successful at that. I've taught altogether more than 10,000 students at Duke. The classes I had were never required courses. Students volunteered to take them. And when they took them in those numbers, I've been told by my students, a number of them, that I have become “a legend.” And I appreciated that.

I think Faulkner is America's greatest writer. I can use Faulkner as an index to changes in the student body. It was my theory that Duke could not be a great university if it did not have a course in Faulkner every two years. My enrollments maxed out at 125 around the year 2000. That's a lot of students who want to read Faulkner. Then three years ago, I offered a course in Faulkner, and I got zero.

Victor Strandberg
Victor Strandberg in 2009

A great artist like Faulkner seems to have gone into eclipse, but it won't be permanent. When you're that great an artist, at some point in the future, people will open these covers and discover what a magnificent reading experience this is.

I see myself as a catalyst. I wanted the students to walk out with a better understanding of Faulkner or T.S. Eliot. That's all that matters to me. And if they remember me too, well, that's good. But I want you to remember writers like Faulkner and T.S. Eliot, that's the main thing.

It has been a great privilege to teach at Duke University. It's my great good fortune to have been here for 60 years. A splendid student body, a splendid faculty. We've had excellent presidential leadership. And since I came here, the campus has been renovated, the faculty has added Nobel Prize winners and Duke has become something its founders could not have imagined.

I’m not done teaching. Over 60 years, I've accumulated an enormous range of knowledge of the literature I teach and I'd like to use it. I consider it precious, valuable knowledge and I'd like to share it. I plan to go on teaching as a volunteer — probably in OLLI, and there is a Duke book club, students who want to study books outside of class, just for the love of learning. Sharing it with people who are not worried about exams and term papers. It would be a great pleasure.

Read Victor Strandberg's "Farewell Letter" here.

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