Comments on: Farewell to Fred Stocking ’36

By: Paulo Ortiz

Paulo Ortiz — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:30:12 +0000

[...] este artículo sobre una reportera que cuenta la manera en que fue influenciada por Fred Stocking su maestro de Shakespeare en Williams [...]

By: lgeorge

lgeorge — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:52:49 +0000

Imagine a family history that spanned nearly 150 years at Williams.

And I’ll long remember that cape, and the quick smile. Williams has, indeed, lost one of her best sons.

By: Larry George

Larry George — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:45:47 +0000

Here, in toto, is Interim President Wagner’s memorial to Prof. Stocking:
July 22, 2009
To the Williams Community,

The College has lost one of its oldest and best sons with the death yesterday of Fred Stocking, Morris Professor of Rhetoric, Emeritus.

Few had deeper roots in the local soil. His grandfather, Class of 1869, was minister of the White Oaks Church. His father grew up here and graduated in the Class of 1905. Fred, raised in Detroit, came to Williams as a freshman in the fall of 1932. After graduating in 1936 and graduate school at Michigan, he joined the faculty in 1940, retiring in 1983.

Highly visible on campus and in town (always in bow tie, often in cape) Fred was a delightful teacher and as supportive a colleague as one could hope for.

His writing focused not only on his scholarship in Victorian literature, history, and culture but, as a frequent contributor to local newspapers, on the matters of the day.

All of this — teaching, writing, colleagueship — were marked by by a rare combination of erudition, warmth, and wit.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Best regards,
Bill Wagner,
Interim President

A Memorial Service for Fred Stocking is scheduled for Sunday, August 16, at 11:30 a.m. at the Faculty House, to be followed by a reception. Remembrances can be submitted at http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=47375088317.

By: lgeorge

lgeorge — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:27:06 +0000

There is an online guest book here: http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=47375088317
It will be open until 8/26/09. It has a few comments in it already, which anyone can view. Readers can leave a comment there and I hope that the family will see them.

The best way to send a message to the family would be to send an old-fashioned letter. I’m sure that the President’s Office would see that it went to the right place, if the author clearly indicated that it was for Fred’s family.

By: Henry Bass

Henry Bass — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:45:42 +0000

So sorry to hear of the death of Fred Stocking. Too bad it is not easier to post a comment on his death. Fred Stocking was my faculty advisor back in ’53 plus 4. He was assigned to Lehman West which had two of the most left JAs and many of the students Fred Copeland guessed might be to the left of the then very conservative Williams students.

I never foramlly consulted him for advice. My JAs were more than adequate for advice being head and shoulders above most of the JAs. They actually wrote for COMMENT, the literary magazine, I tried to sell going room to room. While many of the JA’s dismissed with me hostility when I knocked on their doors saying the modern poetry and short stories in COMMENT were crap.

But, Fred Stocking continued to stop me on campus and chat for 4 years always having interesting things to say and to encourage me for my work on the lecture committee and debate team. He always had a pleasant smile. And though he
spoke with great diplomacy he obviously had a radical streak that was not that common at Williams. And he certainly effectively used literature as a liberating force.