President shares life stories, talks movies
In an effort to highlight the personality of our president and uncover the layers that often shade upper administration positions, the Word interviewed Douglas Carleton Bennett. Bennett discusses his previous “caustic” attitude toward administrative positions, his eventual change of heart, how he came to meet his wife and one of his life passions—movies. Hopefully this brief interview will offer insight into the character of Doug Bennett beyond his role as president of Earlham.
Earlham Word (EW): Where did you grow up?
Doug Bennett (DB): I grew up in Rochester, NY: home of seriously bad weather. My dad graduated from college and went to work for Eastman Kodak the day after he graduated, and has never lived anywhere else.
EW: What is your mother’s occupation?
DB: My mother is still alive and just had her 90th birthday. She was a homemaker and when we [the children] went off to school she started teaching nursery school, but she was also trained as an occupational therapist and a weaver.
EW: How would you describe your childhood?
DB: Happy, normal, pretty typical of the 1950s childhood. I grew up in a middle class suburb within walking distance of the elementary school I went to, with a lot of kids in the neighborhood. It was pretty idyllic. We played a lot of games and had a lot of fun. There are always growing pains in growing up, but I was a little protected in a community that valued education and left a big mark on me. I can’t remember ever thinking that I wouldn’t go to college, and from some age it was pretty clear to me that I would get a Ph.D.
EW: What was your major in college?
DB: Political science with a minor in art history.
EW: Did you always know that you wanted to be president of a college?
DB: When I went to graduate school it was pretty clear that I was going to be a university professor and that I would teach and write. I’m awkwardly fond of remembering that I was the sort of faculty member who thought very little of administrators and used to say mean and caustic things about the moral pygmies that govern universities. Although late in my 30s I had a kind of epiphany and went over to the dark side.
EW: Can you elaborate on the dark side?
DB: That is, the dark side of organizational leadership — knowing full well that if I did, people on the other side would think the less of me. Part of the epiphany was the realization that I had worked my way into a place where I was endlessly a critic, and I wanted to work constructively on possibilities.
EW: How did you and your wife meet?
DB: Ellen and I first met in the context of a meeting called Project Kaleidoscope, which is a movement to improve science education in colleges and universities. Ellen was involved in science education. Over a process of months we ended up doing workshops together called “Science for All Students.” As we tease about it, our relationship grew unprofessional. We got married a week before we came to Earlham.
EW: Can you tell us about your children?
DB: I have a nearly 25-year-old son who is a graduate of Swarthmore and has just this fall started law school at New York University. He is a very intellectually alert young man, socially conscious and has become a baseball fan as about as big as his dad is. Tommy is the son by my first marriage. Ellen and I adopted Robbie, who is now 6. He is a 1st grader at Richmond Friends School.
EW: You are notorious for being a movie buff. What’s the last movie you saw?
DB: Aside from a snippet of a movie I was watching this morning (I watch a snippet of a movie every morning) — besides that, the last whole movie I saw was “Man of the West.” I get up and row on a rowing machine every morning and watch a snippet of whatever is showing on cable. Sometimes over four or five mornings in a row I’ll watch the course of an entire movie.
EW: For New Student Orientation, you showed “Whiskey Galore.” Was there a particular reason why you chose this?
DB: It is an international film, in a language that everybody can understand. It is about a small community a long way from anywhere, that also has an alcohol problem. Doesn’t this sound like Earlham? Also, it is dryly funny.
EW: Is there anything else you would like to share with the Earlham community?
DB: We were talking in the beginning about my coming to do this kind of work. I’m fond of saying this because it’s true that I probably have the best job I could have on the planet and not many people get that opportunity. It’s something that is an extraordinary good fortune. I’m a Quaker; I didn’t grow up a Quaker, but I became a Quaker. To be a Quaker educator, to be president of the most important institution in Quakerism, to help steer and preserve this jewel of an institution is an extraordinary honor.
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