UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 13, Page 7
November 30, 1995
Gary May uses Hollywood background in class

     Gary May, professor of history, tends to get a bit theatrical in
the classroom. "It's because of my Hollywood connection," says May, a
native of Southern California.
     His grandfather was a composer for 25 years at Warner Brothers
and was nominated for two Oscars, an uncle wrote for television in the
'50s and '60s, and his cousin is Jackie Cooper, a child star of the
original Little Rascals fame and later a TV director.
     May, who was one of the recipients of the University's 1995
excellence-in-teaching award, arrived at Delaware in 1975, after a
year at Colgate University in New York. He had received his
bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at the University of
California at Los Angeles.
     The Newark campus looked good to him and his wife, Gail,
especially after their first experience with snow-103 inches in one
winter at Colgate.
     The focus of May's research is American political and diplomatic
history since 1945.
     His latest book, Un-American Activities: The Trials of William
Remington, was published in 1994 by Oxford University Press.
     Currently, he's working on a book about the case of Viola Liuzzo,
a civil rights worker killed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965 during the
voting rights march in Alabama.
     "I like teaching," May says, "but it's hard to define what I like
about it. It reminds me of the famous jazz musician who was asked what
he liked about jazz. 'If you have to ask, you're not going to
understand the answer,' he said. Teaching is a lot like that.
     "I 'm sure it appeals to my passion for the dramatic," May says,
"and I like seeing my students respond. It's satisfying."
     May's presentations and lectures are delivered in a loud,
energetic style.
     "I'm a good storyteller," he says. "History, in many ways, is an
extended story. I've had students tell me that my classes seem to be a
series of stories that they find interesting."
     Documentary video plays an important part in May's classes. He
uses film footage of the Civil Rights movement, student protests and
the Kennedy years.
     "I think it's essential to supplement lectures with film,
especially these days," he says. "This is a generation that has been
shaped significantly by television, movies and music. They understand
events more by seeing than by reading about them."
     May shared an event that occurred at home. One afternoon, he said
he was taking some time to prepare a lecture, and his wife was waiting
for him to finish so they could go out.
     "After waiting a good while," May recalls, "she said, jokingly,
'It's just a lecture; it's not supposed to be interesting!'
     "We just laughed," he says, "but it has to be interesting or I
don't find it valuable. I'm not nervous to stand before 200 students
and present my material and take their questions, some of which I may
not be able to answer. My fear is losing my audience or that they will
find the material dull. For me, that is the greatest sin, making it
dull."
     May explained that historians have a duty to make their material
interesting and to deliver it in an educational but entertaining
manner, so their listeners will be willing to absorb the facts and
learn the significance of important events and decisions.
     "History," May said, "is not dull. It's historians who are all
too often dull."
     He said his goal is to make students think and to push them to go
beyond the facts of history.
     "My goal is to make them find the truth about American history,"
he said, "and it is an uncomfortable process, and it takes a lot of
work."
     May said he was very pleased when he received the University's
excellence-in-teaching award. For him, performing in a large lecture
hall or talking to a smaller group of graduate students in a seminar
is an enjoyable break from extended periods of research and writing.
     "I think the craft of history is, in many ways, a solitary one.
It's you with your documents and computer. So I'm grateful that,
several times a week, I am allowed to break out of that solitary
setting and can join my students in the struggle to understand the
past."
                                                         -Ed Okonowicz

This story is part of a series of articles featuring the 1995
recipients of the University's excellence-in-teaching and excellence-
in-advising awards.