It is rare for an undergraduate teacher to receive a festschrift, said William Tudor '65, who also studied under Pock and is a professor of sociology at Reed.

Pock's ability to connect with students and channel their energy to learn the tools that will help them understand the social construct of the world is what attracted many students to the field of sociology, Tudor says. Pock's attitude that "it's up to you to go on and use the tools to make something of yourself" engaged students. Tudor added that students were encouraged to consider their futures when he also promoted the impression that becoming an academic is not a bad way of life--"you get paid to ask stupid questions about things that the public takes for granted."

But the generations of Pock-trained sociologists won't end with his retirement from Reed. Pock intends to submit a course on the foundations of social science to graduate schools; the course will examine why social science developed rather than the issues social science examines.

"I don't intend to retire, whatever that means," says Pock, who will continue to have an office at Reed, although he won't be teaching. "I still have a lot of loose ends to take care of." He will remain active in national and regional professional associations and will review manuscripts for several professional journals and evaluate research proposals for funding agencies. He is currently on the editorial board of Sociological Inquiry, the journal of the national sociological honor society, having previously served as editor of Sociological Perspectives, the official journal of the Pacific Sociological Association.




The most significant change during his many years at Reed for Charles D. Svitavsky, professor of English and humanities, was the boost in the student body. When he arrived at the college in 1961 from the University of Wisconsin, there were about 600 students at Reed. Now, the population is about 1,250.

"It has a lot of implications," says Svitavsky. "One ceases to know all his colleagues. At one time I could identify most of the student body by sight. There was little administration; the faculty used to govern itself."



Still, he adds, Reed is still relatively smaller than other schools, and it still retains some of the immediate and intimate contact that small schools enjoy. "I think Reed is one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country. I feel the general structure of academic life at Reed is excellent."






Next Page
Next Page