Mary Sully Hayward

 

                                                    Mary Sully Hayward

Since I already spent a lot of time reading and had read a few works by well-known authors (Poe, Verne, etc.) it was natural that I should take up a study of great literature. (I’ll defer a discussion of just what makes a literary work “great”.) It was, perhaps coincidentally, just at this point that I encountered one of the few people that would be a major influence in my life.

I was entering into my junior year in high school and beginning a required course in English, which was actually a course in literature. The teacher was Mary Sully Hayward, a middle-aged lady who was, if not outright ugly, at least “beauty challenged”. In fact, it was difficult to believe the rumors that in her younger days she had been something of a “looker” and had led a rather sprightly life. In the course of my education, which spanned many years and included twelve years of grade school, college, and many post-graduate courses, I was taught by numerous teachers, instructors, and professors, a few of which helped and encouraged me; but she was the only one that actually inspired me, and to some extent molded me.

She led the class into an in-depth study of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III. Her enthusiasm for Shakespeare was founded on an appreciation of his ability to express profound concepts in effective literary language, his knowledge of human psychology, his understanding of the esoteric. Of course, we studied other great authors, but I left that course with a firm conviction that Shakespeare was by far the greatest English language writer. Later, in college, I studied Shakespeare, but the professor’s lectures were mundane - even shallow – compared to her teaching.

Whenever she sensed a certain potential in one of her students, she would spend some time with him/her to develop that potential. She recognized the ability of certain literature to influence young lives. One work that left its mark on me was Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance. After studying it, I began to take seriously the realization that I needed to start thinking of myself as an adult with adult responsibilities, that I would soon be required to become self-supporting and eventually to be capable of caring for a family. But on a more direct level, the essay taught me that my thinking should not be influenced by crowd, or majority, thinking, but only by what knowledge and principles that my search for understanding revealed to me.

Miss Hayward suggested that Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People, which also emphasized the importance of independent thinking, even in the face of the furor that such thinking arouses in the majority. This principle was further etched into me by the movie version of Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead. In this story, the hero becomes an expert and innovative architect, establishes the highest professional standards and integrity, and fights various attacks on that integrity. This kind of literature helped me in my forthcoming career as a scientist, but unfortunately it did not save me from a later challenge to my scientific integrity.

Miss Hayward's inspiring teaching and literary encouragement not only gave me an appreciation for great literature, but also led me to set higher goals in other aspects of my life. And her influence didn’t end there. She perceived that I was naturally shy and lacked self-confidence and began to treat that problem in an indirect way. She was the director-adviser of the Journalism Club; and she advised me to join. Our school had a large student body, and consequently easily supported three publications: a weekly newspaper, a biannual literary magazine, and an Annual. I had no interest in journalism, but I took her advice, and that decision enabled her to maintain her influence in my life throughout the next (senior) school year. She appointed me the editor of the Annual – which position required a lot of work but no special intellectual ability. It involved a lot of responsibility in meeting deadlines, conferring with the publisher, etc.; but it also endowed me with considerable power, because I could extract any student from a classroom at almost any time simply by handing the teacher a note saying that the student’s presence was required for a group photo for the annual. My self-confidence began to grow.

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