Havilah Babcock, a True Southern Gentleman
Quote
"Educator, author, and outdoorsman, Havilah Babcock was born on March 6, 1898 in Appomattox, Virginia, a son of H.C. and Blanche Moore Babcock. He married Alice Hudson Cheatham in 1919. They had one son, Hudson Homer Havilah. He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1918 and a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1919 from Elon College in North Carolina. His Master of Arts was from the University of Virginia. Babcock received his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1927. Prior to that he had served as professor and head of the department of English at Elon College and associate professor and head of the department of Journalism at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
Whether in good health or bad, Babcock could not resist the pleasures of hunting, fishing and gardening, which occasionally came into conflict with his teaching duties. During one hunting season, Babcock’s enterprising and fore-sighted secretary posted on the bulletin board, “Dr. Babcock will be sick all next week.” This great love of outdoors provided the inspiration for many of his essays and short stories."
My bet is he scheduled his infirmity for the opening week of quail season. As Jimmy Buffet so eloquently stated "Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late, the cannons don't thunder theres nothing to plunder I'm an over 40 victem of fate." That feeling rings true to me when I read of Babcock, or the Lewis and Clark expedition. How would it have been to participate in such an epic adventure as the exploration of the land West of the Contenintal Divide, or to spend a day shooting Quail with a man such as Mr Babcock? One can only imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment