Paul Lamar: I’m an adjunct in English. My first teaching experience at Saint Rose was in 2000 (or thereabouts), after which I moved to Cobleskill to be with my partner, Mark, and three children. For over seven years I taught English at SUNY Cobleskill, helped raise kids and a granddaughter, then returned to Albany with Mark (kids were grown by then). I’ve been back here at Saint Rose since the spring of 2010: a great joy.
About:
Where did you attend school? Albany High School, ’63 (that’s 1963! Yes, just had my 50th reunion, which was a smash. Everybody still looked 18–to each other.)
Yale University, ’67: B.A., History of Music
Harvard University, ’70: M.A.T., elementary education, with a concentration in English
Where have you been employed? Emma Willard School, where, for 16 years, I taught English
BOCES, where, for six years, I taught GED to folks in recovery (Saint Peter’s Addiction Recovery Center)
Saint Rose, Sage, SUNY Cobleskill–adjunct
The Daily Gazette (Schenectady): I’ve been a theater reviewer for the paper since 1996.
Did you always want to teach? Nope. I wanted to be an actor, but then I saw real actors and realized that that wasn’t in the cards.
In the summer of 1966, I went to a small town in Mississippi to work for Operation Head Start. The program was just a year or two old (thankfully, it still flourishes). I enjoyed teaching, so I enrolled in the M.A.T. (Masters of Arts in Teaching) program at Harvard.
Teaching young children turned out not to be my strong suit; high school and college teaching has been the real pleasure.
Highlight of academic career, thus far: In every place I’ve taught I have been blessed with remarkably bright and committed colleagues. (I’m still in touch with many friends from my Emma Willard days, though I’ve been gone since 1995.)
The teachers/staff at Saint Rose are very welcoming to adjuncts, and I appreciate the conversations–intellectual and social–I have with so many of them.
And the students? They make it all worthwhile.
What’s your favorite color? Blue
Favorite place to eat in the Capital Region? Breakfast: Pearl Street Diner
Lunch/dinner: Katrinella’s (recently closed, alas!), Lombardo’s, various Indian/Pakistani restaurants, The Hidden Cafe in Delmar
Favorite TV show? Modern Family
Downton Abbey
The Middle
What is the last book you read? Live by Night, a gangster novel by Dennis Lehane.
If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? The power to distribute food and water worldwide!
Bonus!? Four additional passions: playing piano, writing poetry, running, and bowling
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