Marilyn was simply the best teacher I ever saw. At Boston College, Lehigh, Massasoit and the University of Texas at Austin, I have been privileged to see many excellent teachers in action, but she stands alone, combining elements of head and heart in a way unique in my experience and totally dedicated to ensuring that each of her students learn as much as he or she can. Marilyn Maxwell was Massasoit at its best, welcoming each student one at a time, appreciating each student's singular abilities and dreams in a way instructive to all of her colleagues as well.

Her classrooms weren't neat and orderly; indeed, they were the opposite.... messy and frenetic. I recall visiting one of her Latch composition classes and being struck by the sheer chaos of it all: students working in groups, conversations covering conversations, and this seemingly shy woman moving among them.... urging, cajoling, pushing, and pulling..., giving each student exactly what he or she needed at that particular time to get the most out of that particular class. She was simply artless, and she was totally effective: so far ahead of her time (this was long before anyone else began concentrating on different learning styles) that she was truly timeless.

Those who didn't know Marilyn saw her as the Mother of All Teachers. They rightly described her as caring, supportive, nurturing, warm.. .which she was.... but in doing so they missed half of what she offered. Her intellect was so keen as to be frightening. I remember when she shared her study questions for The Canterbury Tales with me (and I had written a Masters thesis on Chaucer and used him as a major figure for my doctoral exams, so I thought I knew him. Silly me). Her questions were deceptively simple (a child could understand them), but if one answered them in all their implications, one would know Chaucer, really know Chaucer. She was brilliant.

Indeed, when I think of Marilyn, I also think of Chaucer's clerk, the only pilgrim who received the narrator's unqualified praise. He said of him as we say of Marilyn, "And gladly would (s)he learn and gladly teach!" Marilyn was happiest when helping others learn, which she did all the time in many ways, not only in the classroom. I know that I was happiest when she was here.

Carl Kowalski