Kickin' it old school

In a small brick house at 1212 Maxwell Lane, Professor Henry Hayman Herman Remak steps out and begins his daily walk through campus. The trip to his cluttered office in Ballantine Hall 605 isn't a long one -- it's only six blocks.\nEven though Professor Remak is 85-years-old, he refuses to drive to campus. \n"What do you mean? I haven't driven a car since 1963," Remak said. "It's a wonderful walk. The trees and gardens and the fences…and you have friendly dogs and you meet people on the street."\nProfessor Emeritus Remak is the oldest professor teaching at IU and is fluent in five languages. Remak is a professor of Germanic and European studies and comparative literature. \nRemak started at IU in 1938 as a teaching assistant, has been a full-time professor since 1939 and hasn't left Bloomington since. He was born and schooled in Berlin, Germany.\n"I got the equivalent of a junior standing in a German high school, except it was a French high school," Remak said. "Every subject was taught in French. Of course, when you have that, you become fluent without even knowing it."\nHis parents lived in America for part of his childhood; his father was an engineer. \n"What happened to me is in 1933, when I was on my next to my last year of high school, Hitler came to power. And we're of the Jewish faith," Remak said. "It was clear that we would have a very difficult future in Germany."\nRealizing the need to flee Nazi Germany, Remak finished his high school education in France, where "the wine was good."\nWhile Remak was finishing up his high school degree, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was organizing a program to send German students to America because of the threat of Nazi Germany.\n"They arranged something amazing," Remak said. "They got in touch with fraternities in the United States who had houses and room and board. Mine happened to be Sigma Alpha Mu.\n"They sectored no less than 26 German-Jewish students and invited them to come to their chapter houses and live free room and board with $30 pocket money. Of course they had seen our credentials."\nIn a thick German accent, Remak happily reminisces about the day his fraternity brother first showed him around campus.\n"He took me across Dunn Meadow. The first thing I saw were some dancers and ladies playing hockey, and they looked very attractive to me. We crossed the river Jordan, went up the hill and was in the wood, the central wood, and I got very worried. I told my fraternity brother, 'I'm sorry, I think I'm in the wrong place. I was supposed to go to a university, this is a resort.' \nHe just laughed and said, 'Don't worry. There are some buildings behind the trees.' It was September 20, so a beautiful time of the year. 'There are some buildings there where they do teach. So, don't worry, this is a university.' So I thought to myself, I'm never going to leave here."\nAnd he hasn't. His small house on Maxwell Lane has been the residence of Henry and Ingrid Remak for 52 of their 55 years of marriage.\n"You don't have to feel sorry for me, because this is a wonderful place," Remak said. "Ever since 1946, my career has basically been at Indiana University."\nSince then, Remak has taught and mentored literally thousands of students on what he calls "the great books."\nRemak teaches and compares American, German and French culture and uses "the great books" by authors such as Mann, Shelley and Nietzsche. He also studies the Old Testament and the Declaration of Independence.\n"I bought the Koran," he said. "I haven't had a chance to read it yet."\nIn 1987, Professor Remak turned 70, which meant a forced retirement by the University. But he wouldn't quit and was offered a virtually unpaid teaching job by the Honors College.\n"They give you a symbolic salary just so that they wouldn't have to say, 'Well, we don't pay people because they're old,'" Remak said. "But they give you a very generous research account on which you don't have to pay taxes."\nThe account pays for any meetings, books or research expenses.\n"I have no intentions of retiring from teaching," he said. "I love teaching. Why should I retire from something I love?"\nAnd his love of teaching shows.\n"You can see it glowing from his eyes," junior Line Espedal said.\nEspedal had Remak in a "global class" this semester, which transformed three classrooms at IU, IUPUI and Humboldt University in Berlin into one "classroom" via the Internet and teleconferencing systems. \nRemak's passion for his students has transformed his teaching style.\n"I don't give grades." Remak said. "Why should I give grades?"\nThe difference between an A- and a C+ isn't apparent to Remak.\n"I write what I hope are intelligent comments on their particular ideas, which is what you need, right? And then I give them a total evaluation in English language," Remak explained. \n"Grades are the least important thing that he does," said Mark Krol, an IDS employee who is also a senior majoring in psychology and history.\n"It's such a breath of fresh air. Half the time you go to his office hours and you wind up talking about things outside the boundaries of the class and you learn more from those talks than you do in class."\nGrades aren't the only thing Remak has given up on.\n"I have e-mail, but I discourage people from using it," Remak said. "It think it's awful.\n"I find people who send me an e-mail three office doors away. Now this is dehumanization. So I said you can come to my office and open the door and talk to me, you can use the telephone, you can call me at home," Remak said. "So, I do get e-mail, but I tell everybody who likes me, if you want to continue to be loved, don't send me e-mail."\nAnd he doesn't like cars, either.\n"As long as I live, I want to look at the world. I want to look at a tree there and I want to greet a person there," Remak said, as he waves his hands around the air.\nAs Henry Hayman Herman Remak makes his walk back from his Ballantine Hall office, he looks at the trees, greets everyone he sees and realizes that he can't practice his passion forever.\n"I'm 85 years old," Remak said. "I can't have any illusions. I can't go on forever. But as long as I feel that I am in reasonably good health and that I can do it intellectually and the Honors College wants me, who am I to contradict them"