Upon Retirement: 30 Years of History with Benjamin Westervelt

After 30 years, Associate Professor of History Benjamin Westervelt is retiring from Lewis & Clark. In the following Q&A, Westervelt looks back on his career with a deep appreciation for getting to do something he loves so much.

What was your path to Lewis & Clark?

I was mostly done with my dissertation at Harvard and on the job market. Lots of jobs at little places I had never heard of and LC (which I had also never heard of)—a one year sabbatical replacement job (for David Savage) in the history department. Unusually, they flew me out for an interview. I later surmised that they were about to announce a tenure track position in my area and I guess I was a silent candidate for that? Anyway, a) I wasn’t exactly sure where Portland was (I thought maybe about where Astoria is) and b) people expressed excitement that I was arriving during the day—“you’ll be able to see the mountain!”—I remember looking out the window and seeing some mountain in the far south, Mt Jefferson or something, and was preparing to be politely excited, when Mt. Hood loomed hugely into the window!

What was your favorite course(s) to teach?

I loved teaching. I had my stable of bread-and-butter courses that I could do in my sleep and then three very topically disparate courses that I designed myself over the years—those were fun and real creative expressions, but also stressful and time-consuming. This will sound peculiar and to some of my colleagues heretical, but I loved teaching in the Core, and especially our fabled bygone Core program, Inventing America, because I learned so much in it myself. It was mocked at the time as encouraging amateurism (“Read Hobbes? I haven’t even taught it!”), but the fact is, I read and learned a lot preparing to teach in that program and I valued the collaborative work with my colleagues.

What did you enjoy most about your work?

Certainly working with the students—seeing the spark in the eyes and the arc between minds when students were getting it individually and collaboratively—and the opportunity for them to teach me about things I had read a score of times…. I have never stopped marveling that I got to do something I love so much, for so long, with such wonderful people. Extraordinary really. A big part of that too was the camaraderie with everyone who collaborates to make the place work. LC faculty and staff really are a family.

What changed the most during your time at the college? What remained constant?

I think the increasing expectation that faculty are involved in the mental health of students and responding to their needs in that area has been the biggest change. The constants have been the continued currency of the words “Retention” and “Endowment.” I probably heard about both in my first week!

What’s something people might not know about you?

In my mid fifties, I became an avid backpacker, completing the Appalachian Trail and so far about half of the Pacific Crest Trail. I also played harmonica in a band. AND I lived in Copeland for my first two years, as faculty member in residence.

What is your favorite place on campus?

I like the bridge across the Ravine, which (the Ravine) always seemed like a wild tear in the fabric of the ordered estate. Though not on campus, I also loved biking through the cemetery, in all weathers and seasons, dark and light, on my way to and from work—introduction and punctuation to every day.

What are you most proud of?

I suppose the respect of colleagues and students. I did a lot of unglamorous service over the years, but I guess that’s on my CV. I don’t know—it’s hard to say!

What’s next for you?

Well, more long distance trails before my knees give out and a couple of books I would like to get out of my system. In the short term, walls to paint and weeds to pull, and of course clearing 30 years of stuff out of my office!