Barry Qualls is one of Rutgers University’s most beloved and renowned English professors. After 40 years at the university, he will be retiring in 2015. But, before he launched his career as a northeastern intellectual, his interest in literature was sparked here in town, at Plant City High School.
“I had an amazing teacher in high school named Rozale Smith, in ninth grade,” Qualls said. “I remember many of the things she did, but one of the things she did was, she gave us a list of books she thought smart people should read.”
Qualls began working his way through the list, starting with “Vanity Fair,” which he found comical even without realizing its satirical value at the time. But the books that captivated him most were those of 19th-century British fiction, which is his academic specialty today.
Smith’s engaging classroom activities, such as using empty coconut shells to help the students understand rhythms in poetry, were unforgettable for Qualls. He stayed in touch with Smith until she died, and thanked her in the preface of a book he published years ago.
“The teaching was really great at that high school, and I felt like I got a really solid, strong education,” Qualls said.
Qualls graduated from PCHS with his twin brother in 1963. He then went to Florida State University and continued onto graduate school at Northwestern University. He became a professor at Rutgers and also served as the dean of humanities for a time, as well as vice president for undergraduate education.
“But I never stopped teaching in the classroom, because I love teaching,” he said.
For the fall 2014 semester, Qualls offered a new signature course called “Once Upon a Time: Why We Tell Stories.” At Rutgers, signature courses are intended to introduce first-year or transfer students to the variety of cross-disciplinary topics that are offered at Rutgers.
“It wasn’t a short story course. It was a course that put together everything from ‘Genesis’ and ‘The Odyssey,’ to ‘Charlotte’s Web,’” Qualls said. “It was an effort to get to the issues of why storytelling is so essential to human experience.”
The 164 students who signed up for the course came from a variety of backgrounds, including first-year students, an upperclass biology major and even an octogenarian who wanted to audit the course. Qualls wasn’t surprised by the diversity of the students, because stories are able to touch everyone, regardless of age, occupation or ethnicity, he said.
In addition to reading and discussing stories as a large lecture section and in smaller breakout groups, the students in Quall’s class enjoyed videos and guest speakers. One professor from the school’s psychology department spoke to the class about the human need for a belief in the afterlife.
Qualls even had his students consider the stories told by public monuments and memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Qualls said his favorite book of the course was “Charlotte’s Web,” but “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was an important text as well.
“I wanted people to see a novel with a purpose,” Qualls said.
Though Qualls had planned to retire in June 2015, he was asked to teach the storytelling course again in the fall, and is likely to postpone his retirement until December.
For years after moving, Qualls visited Plant City regularly to see family members who had stayed in the area. But, now that they are no longer living, it has been about three years since he has returned. He expects to come back this January to get away from the New Jersey cold.
But, Qualls said, though it has been decades since he was a Plant City resident, the town appears in stories he tells of his past, whether to students, faculty or other members of the university community.
“It was old-fashioned America. It was a thriving downtown,” Qualls said. “Plant City was wonderful, and I certainly decided then that I wanted to be an English teacher.”
PROFESSOR BARRY QUALLS
Courses Currently Taught: Bible and English Literature, Bible as Literature, Introduction to Poetry, 19th-Century British Fiction, Victorian Poetry, Victorian Women Writers
Books Published: “The Secular Pilgrims of Victorian Fiction” (1982), “The Broadview Anthology of British Literature–Vol. 5: The Victorian Era” (2006), “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Secret Sharer, and Transformation: Three Tales of Doubles” (2009)
Most Recent Awards: New Jersey CASE Professor of the Year (2009), Distinguished Florida State University Alum (2009)
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.