All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

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Honoring George Drury (1917-2010):
Reflections From Colleagues
George Drury was born in St. Louis, Mo.
in 1917 and grew up in Chicago, where he
earned his bachelor’s degree at St. Mary of
the Lake College, his master’s degree from
Loyola University, and his doctorate in
philosophy from the University of Chicago.
For several years in the 1940s, he directed
the Sheil School of Social Studies. He later
taught for ten years at Loyola University.
In 1959, he moved to Detroit to become
one of the charter faculty of Monteith
College, an experimental small college
for working-class undergraduate students
within the larger structure of Wayne State
University. (David Riesman, Joseph Gusfield
and Zelda Gamson wrote at length about
Monteith’s history in Academic Values
and Mass Education: The Early Years of
Oakland and Moneteith, published in 1970
by Doubleday.) In 1972, George came to
Rochester to become a founding mentor on
the faculty of the Genesee Valley Center at
Empire State College where he remained
until his retirement in 1987. He was active
in center and collegewide governance and
as co-convenor of the Cultural Studies
area of study group. Throughout his
years at Empire State College, he wrote
and distributed a series of philosophical
dialogues on education as we might practice
it progressively at the college. These were
collected as The Prince Street Dialogues in
1987. He died in Ellsworth, Maine on May
13, 2010 at the age of 92.
What follows are reflections from
colleagues. Thanks to Jim Anderson, Ken
Cohen and Lloyd Lill for their words.
Thanks, especially, to Wayne Willis for his
thoughts, his research and for all of his care
and work in creating this opportunity to
honor George.
Jim Anderson
Photo of George Drury with one of his students, taken through the window of
the Genesee Valley Learning Center. This photograph appeared on the cover of
The Prince Street Dialogues, written by Drury and published in honor of the
college’s 10th anniversary in Rochester, N.Y.
For me, George Drury exemplified the role
of mentor. I often suggested to my students
that they do a learning contract with him.
“What does he teach” they would ask.
“Just make an appointment with him,”
I would say. The student would meet with
George and return with a topic for study,
often one they never had thought of interest
before. They would not have a learning
contract with purpose, learning activities
and criteria for evaluation spelled out –
only a topic and some suggested reading to
get started. The learning activities would
emerge in discussions between George and
the student. The exact direction of the
contract would evolve from the exchanges
between them. This caused headaches for
administrators who wanted contracts filed
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011