Member of the Faculty, 1983–2011
Once in a blue moon, colleagues have heard Carly Wade describe a student as “nonpareil— without equal.” A rare compliment, indeed. In Carly’s mind, which is leavened with an irrepressible idealism, achieving that distinction requires a serious quest, powered by disciplined thinking and careful expression. Enticed by that model, hundreds of Milton students lucky enough to spend time in Carly’s classroom have become idea prospectors. “What is the question?” is her mantra. Her students know they must follow with an inquiry and a carefully reasoned synthesis.
Carly arrived at Milton in 1983, having already taught in Vermont, Brooklyn and Spain, kindergarten through adults. She was a seasoned professional with a fresh master’s in American history from Columbia. She soon established herself as a fearless professional who could take on dorm life as head of Hallowell, then Goodwin, as the boys moved from West campus to East. She confronted the old, enduring hazing traditions of that time, and the civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements that were churning up American culture. The latter pushed Carly to fundamentally rethink her own formidable intellectual traditions and social structures; at the same time, she tackled the imminent problems of running a dormitory angling for change.
Many people know that Carly sings like an angel and was the voice of Northfield as a high school chamber singer. The voice that once sang at Carnegie Hall with her Bryn Mawr chorus is not the voice that Milton knows best, however. We know Carly’s teaching voice that she has so finely calibrated during her tenure here. Her mastery of the Socratic-Harkness process is legendary, and her students feel embraced and inevitably drawn into the dialogue. On one hand, she has achieved rigorous command of the material and sets the standard. But she also fascinates students by dramatizing theatrical stories from historical facts. Her quoting a Russian general, complete with the requisite accent, to nail the point about Russian/North Korean cooperation in 1951, will long be remembered.
By the way, Carly learned to speak Russian in her early 40s when she took a series of Russian language and history courses at Harvard. Of course, she was adding her Russian to the German, French, Portuguese and Latin she had already mastered. “It’s like riding a bike,” she claims. Carly has even taught Latin occasionally at Milton, to fill a sabbatical vacancy for the classics department.
Classroom pyrotechnics are, however, not the only arrows in Carly’s quiver. In the history department, Carly has been a leading innovator, modifying and enriching the traditional curriculum. Global crosscurrents from China to Africa and the Americas were important to the development of civilization, Carly discerned, and should balance the old chestnuts like the Renaissance, Enlightenment and French Revolution in our classrooms. Of course, she did not jettison tradition wholesale, but Carly challenged long-held assumptions about such notions as colonialism and Euro-centered world history. The momentum of her inquiry drove the new department course, Modern World History, which now takes its honored place as one of the required department courses. Carly was also the primary motivator in creating the two-year United States in the Modern World course. That course grew from the same integrative instincts. In fact, Carly has had her hand in, and taught, almost every course on the history side of the department from seventh-grade geography to senior electives such as Environmental History and the History of Economic Thought. In the department, we were thrilled but not surprised that Carly energized these courses with her reliable scholarship, innovative thinking and rigor. Carly has maintained her focus and vigor at his extraordinary level, and we have admired that in her for all these years.
The nerve center of the history and social science department is our gracious library on the second floor of Wigg Hall. As department chair, Carly secured that space after negotiating skillfully about a suitable department office. Persistent, clear and persuasive argument is clearly another of Carly’s skills. And the department’s library is a lasting symbol of Carly’s ardent departmental advocacy, intellectual leadership and standard setting. All department members have benefited from her personal and professional support. We are indebted to the steadiness of her moral compass. As the point person for hiring from 1994 to 2007, Carly led the process that brought dynamic young teachers to the department, set to energize the School for years.
Carly’s teaching excellence earned the Laurence M. Lombard, Class of ’13, Teaching Chair in June 2003, and the Talbot Baker Award in June 2000. Time, Newtonian or otherwise, apparently does not stand still. Our graceful friend has demonstrated over her time here at Milton that she is “nonpareil— without equal.” She has set the standard for all of us to uphold long after she moves on to future intellectual horizons.
Larry Pollans
History Department