Ronald Spiers '48 on Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey

"We Were Totally Mesmerized."

UGEN ROSENSTOCK-I HUESSEY was a short, stocky: man who was very much a part of the German intellectual tradition of that time. He had been in charge of the railroad networks in the front of Verdun during World War I. He had a Jewish background, and left Germany during Hitler's early days. A large part of the campus was probably unaware even of his presence, but he had a group of students at Dartmouth who were absolutely devoted to him.

I took three or four courses with him, and there was no distinction among them. They had different tides, but they had no themes. They were all simply Rosenstock-Huessey. He would come into the classroom and talk. His monologues flashed with insights. He was beautifully articulate; there was never an incomplete sentence, never a pause. He always seemed to speak in complete paragraphs. In some ways it was like a stream of consciousness: sentence after sentence after sentence that opened new vistas for us and illuminated new subjects. We were totally mesmerized just listening to him. We'd lose all sense of time. It was a constant thrill, but I remember he complained when people said they found him stimulating. He used to say,

"I am not a cup of coffee." He didn't take any particular interest in me. I was an international relations major, which he probably regarded as a sort of trade-school operation. He wasn't one for exchanges.

He was not an integrated part of the campus as many other teachers were. You wouldn't go and drink beer with him in the evening. There were professors I knew much better and had a warmer, closer relationship with, but none of them had the kind of stature or impact that this little guy Rosenstock-Huessey had.

I don't think I ever saw him again after I left Dartmouth. But there is something of a cult now that's built up around him.

There's a man in Florida who has written a book about him. And a few years ago I came across a set of tapes, most of which are just about inaudible, that somebody made of his class lectures. Those tapes are like a treasure to me.

Ronald Spiers

RONALD SPIERS is the Under SecretaryGeneral for Political Affairs at the UnitedNations. His 35-year foreign service career hasincluded the positions of U.S. Ambassador to theBahamas, to Turkey, and to Pakistan.