Remembering Professor Bob Shorter
We feel deeply the loss of Dr. Robert N. Shorter, professor emeritus of English, who died on Saturday, July 10, 2021. Professor Shorter was a beloved professor of medieval literature at Wake Forest for 41 years, from 1958 until 1999, and Chair of the English department for 12 years. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School.
Professor Shorter is remembered by faculty and students as a wise, gentle teacher and colleague who possessed a wonderfully dry sense of humor. As Chair, he championed emerging fields of literary study, including Women’s Studies, African American Studies, and Environmental Studies, and fostered an atmosphere of inclusivity and collaboration within the department.
Some of Professor Shorter’s colleagues have shared memories of him below. If you have stories or memories you’d like to share about Professor Shorter, please send them to english@wfu.edu. We’d love to hear from you.
“I thought about him as a gentle giant.”
I remember so vividly walking into the office of the Chair of the Department of English at Wake Forest. Both uncertain and hopeful, I saw a tall, bearded, rather imposing man, reading over what I knew to be my rather unconventional CV. Professor Shorter looked me in the eye and said, “I never heard of the woman writer you wrote your dissertation about.” Then he smiled and added “she sounds so interesting.” Following that, we had a wonderful conversation about my work, his work, teaching, and Wake Forest. Leaving his office, I was struck by his generosity and wisdom.
That meeting made my decision rather difficult. My husband and I both had stable positions in different cities. I had a tenured position at LeMoyne College in Syracuse. My husband, Mark Espeland, had been offered a new position in a not yet created department at the medical school. I was being offered a limited, visiting position in the English department.
So Bob Shorter and I had a second, then a third discussion and he offered to introduce me to three other members of the department, Dolly McPherson, Elizabeth Phillips, and Ed Wilson (who was both in the department and provost). I found myself drawn to these four people and their commitment to Wake Forest. When I told my chair at Lemoyne that I felt I had to take a chance and accept the offer, he arranged that I would be given a leave of absence: “Just try it for a year, and then come back.” That was in 1986.
Bob Shorter supported me throughout my time at Wake Forest, as he did so many others. At a time when Wake Forest was not very inclusive and the department politics were rather turbulent, Bob championed Women’s Studies, African American Studies, environmental studies, as well as all areas of literary studies, and encouraged and mentored the younger people who were committed to working in these areas. He led our department in a measured and understated way to create an atmosphere of collaboration and inclusivity. I thought about him as a gentle giant.
In 1988, when my son was born, Bob and Nancy gave me what they said was Bob’s favorite children’s book, Ferdinand, the Bull, the story of a strong and imposing bull, led into a bull ring and endlessly provoked, a bull who preferred to smell flowers than to fight. Bob always fought the good fight. He was always a gentle and kind man.
—Professor Anne Boyle, Literature and Writing
“I will be forever grateful for his wisdom and generosity.”
Bob Shorter’s leadership, vision, and kindness were instrumental in my decision to join the Wake Forest faculty in 1982. As a young feminist committed to integrating gender into the literary curriculum, I knew my efforts would require support from the English Department Chair. Bob responded enthusiastically, and over the years we became strong allies and close friends. I will be forever grateful for his wisdom and generosity.
—Professor Emeritus Mary Deshazer, Literature and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
“An abiding influence in my own pedagogy and mentoring through his deep investment and profound learning in poetry, history, culture, and philosophy.”
During the second semester of my senior year at Wake Forest, I had the incredible good fortune to take Bob Shorter’s upper-level course on Chaucer. It was the spring of 1999 and, I came to learn, Dr. Shorter’s final time teaching Chaucer before his retirement. Perhaps like many English majors, I went into the class with a heavy amount of reluctance in taking a course in medieval literature. And as an undergraduate already invested in poetry, politics, colonialism, and postcolonialism, I wondered whether Chaucer would speak to me. Little did I know (or even come to expect) the extent to which Bob Shorter’s style of teaching his most beloved poet would come to inspire me.
I have several memories from that formative semester. After having read Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy side-by-side “The Knight’s Tale,” I approached Dr. Shorter at the end of class to ask if I could “write a 15 page paper comparing Boethius and Chaucer’s tale, examining the tension between predestination and free will” (a preposterously broad topic, clearly biting off way more than I could chew). With gentle, dry humor he said: “That sounds like a good start, Omaar. But what will you say on page 2?” He encouraged, advised, and fostered my writing in ways that I had not foreseen. Another memory from the entirety of his course was coming to learn the extent to which Chaucer, in his own time and place, was deeply invested in poetry and politics, gender and sexuality, and the possibilities and limitations of creating collective life from within a deeply divided and unequal world. Because of Dr. Shorter’s approach, Chaucer spoke to me. And something else that has stuck with me was Dr. Shorter’s requirement that, when we were to submit our papers, they must be attached by a simple paperclip. Not a staple. Not folded. Just a paperclip. As trivial as it may sound, every time I have looked upon a paperclip, it has reminded me of Dr. Shorter: the simple looping design of elasticity and friction that holds separate entities together in provisional unity. Finally, I want to express how much I appreciated Dr. Shorter’s genuine interest in my own interests whether in the classroom, during office hours, or running into him around campus and Reynolda Gardens on his walks with Nancy Cotton. Bob Shorter has been an abiding influence in my own pedagogy and mentoring through his deep investment and profound learning in poetry, history, culture, and philosophy as well as the ways in which he treated others through his kindness, compassion, and humility. The paperclip remains.
—Associate Professor Omaar Hena, Literature
“A wonderful person and a special part of the English Department’s history.”
Bob Shorter was the Chair who hired me in 1986, so I owe my career at Wake Forest to Bob. I remember him as a soft-spoken man with a good sense of humor. When I interviewed in February 1986, I flew in from Michigan where it was snowing. Bob teased me about my heavy winter coat and said, “If you lived here, you’d never need to wear a coat like this.” That remark was very persuasive, especially after I flew back to Detroit to find my car buried in a blizzard! After I joined the faculty, Bob and Nancy were very kind and included me in their outings to local theater productions. Throughout the years, I enjoyed chatting with him, often while he stood outside Tribble or Reynolda Hall enjoying a cigarette break. In Bob, we have lost a wonderful person and a special part of the English Department’s history.
—Professor Claudia Kairoff, Literature
“I soon found out that there was a gentle soul residing within that large frame.”
Among the first people I met upon my joining the Wake Forest University music faculty in 1976 was Bob Shorter, who was at the time Chair of the Department of English. As a tyro instructor, I felt myself somewhat intimidated by his larger than life presence. I soon found out that there was a gentle soul residing within that large frame. A few years later, University Professor J. Al Martin called a meeting with Bob, Professor of Art, Bob Knott, and me to discuss the idea of an honors seminar on “Forms and Expressions of Love.” Bob was, of course, a medievalist, and I was deeply interested in Richard Wagner’s opera, “Tristan und Isolde,” which is rooted in courtly medieval Celtic, French, and Germanic literature. As a result, the syllabus for the seminar included a study of Gottfried von Strassburg’s prose version, as well as Wagner’s opera. Our students benefited greatly from Bob’s vast store of knowledge about medieval culture. So did I. For this gift I will always be grateful.
—Professor David B. Levy, Music
“Gentle, calm, and reassuring.”
Bob was a medieval scholar and teacher and department chair much beloved by students and colleagues alike. His gentle, calm, and reassuring presence as chair was especially appreciated by those of us old enough to remember.
—Professor Barry Maine, Literature
Categories: Faculty News