So many wonderful Marc memories. He was an inspiring, kind, and thoughtful person who changed my life. He would go to Stop and Shop to buy discount holiday candy very early in the morning the day after every holiday and give it out in class, especially when we were learning about tough theorists. We were eating Reese’s Easter eggs all semester! He had the funniest t-shirts that read things like like “I am a Social Construct” and “Primates for Peace.”
Once at the end of year Sociology Department party, we had Indian food and it clogged the sink. Marc reached his whole arm down there and unclogged it. He was always biking around campus or to the YMCA with a helmet and telling us to wear our helmets! Marc cared about us improving our writing and would read drafts of essays and provide extensive feedback and supportive comments like “astute observation!” in addition to an entire page of typed comments he’d staple to the back of the essay. Often in class, he would ask his students to take a poll on who did the readings. He would go out in the hallway and have one student count how many of us had read. If he came back into the classroom and found that not many people did, he wouldn’t be mad or disappointed, but would adjust the lesson so everyone could understand and participate.
Marc would always go to Smith admissions events and talk to prospective students even though they had no idea what sociology was. In 2015 I worked for the admissions office as a blogger for prospective students, and he let me do a silly “meet a Smith professor” interview for the blog. He shared some fun facts with me like he has a pocket watch collection and a favorite walking blue pig stuffed animal 🙂 I looked back and found the interview here https://smithieleigh.tumblr.com/post/132876063309/interview-with-my-sociology-professor-marc
Once, I told Marc about something frustrating that was going on in another class with a different professor, and he called my dean and advocated for me until he thought I got justice. On the first or second class of every semester, he would bring his digital camera and take pictures of students holding cards with our names and pronouns. He would then make these photographs his desktop screensaver until he had all of our names memorized because he really cared. He’s the reason I had such a positive academic experience at Smith. In the year since I graduated, we kept in good touch, and I would always excitedly email him when I saw something in the real world that reminded me of what we’d learned in class. He gave me a lot of great reading recommendations, and I have a list of books he suggested that I haven’t gotten to yet. When I get to them, I know I’m going to want nothing more than to discuss them with him. Marc gave me a new way to look at the world. I am going to miss him so much.