h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of my design teachers from Radford University (back when it only had college status) died ten days ago. This morning Lord Scott called my attention to an article about her in the Roanoke Times.

http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story163416.html

I remember her very much as the article describes her, but every student has their own special memories of her, and I'm no exception.

She was definitely a very demanding teacher, and she expected things to be done *right*. Some students would come into her class very self-assured and leave as quivering messes. The worst instances occurred when students who had never learned to sew would sign up for her design classes thinking that dress design would be a fluffy, easy class. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Sure, they could draw their designs on paper, and they might have even had some *great* design ideas, but then they had to actually draft the pattern or drape the fabric on a dummy and construct the final article of clothing in her class. Pattern drafting and draping were the primary subjects she taught... she expected you to already *know* how to sew, and you'd better already be a *very* experienced sewer before ever attempting one of her classes, because she wasn't about to take the time to teach you how to install a zipper, set in a sleeve or attach a lining. I'd been sewing my own clothing since I was 12 (doll clothes before that), but I was one of her few students who'd had that much previous experience. Seemed like there were always a few students who would leave her classes in tears because they had no idea how to put together what they'd designed once they sat down at the sewing machine, and she'd always make them rip it out and do it right. Repeatedly. Until they finally got it right.

I made my share of mistakes in her classes though. In the draping class, I had once designed a dress with a shawl collar, but when I dragged my dummy over to her office to check on the progress of the draping, she asked me what kind of collar I was planning to have on it... I reminded her that my drawing showed it would be a shawl collar, and she informed me in her very thick Begian accent that it most definitely was not going to be a shawl collar, because I'd already cut the bodice, and a shawl collar is cut in one piece with the bodice... Which I knew because she'd *just* taught us about how shawl collars are cut in one piece with the bodice, but of course in my rush to get this design draped and constructed, I'd forgotten and had already cut the fabric without the collar. Not nearly enough fabric leftover to redo it, and I'd bought the last of that fabric the store had, so I was stuck with it like that. So I did an applied collar instead, which of course didn't lay nearly the same way as a shawl collar would have. Still, I think I probably ended up with an A- in that class, because she was happy with the rest of my work, but just had to take a few points off because of that collar. Lesson learned though - and I've never forgotten it. Other students undoubtedly learned indelible lessons from their mistakes in her classes too, because she had a way of pointing out your mistakes that would assure you remembered the lesson.

The dress with the collar mistake is still packed away in the attic, along with some of my other original creations from her classes.

The article describes her as cold, but I have to disagree. I think she was more reserved and ultra-professional than cold, because she truly cared that her students learn as much as they were capable of learning from her.

She lived just a block or so from the campus, and when Lord Scott and I first married right before my final year at Radford, we lived in the next block from her, so I walked past her apartment every day on the way to campus. I often wondered why in the world someone with so much talent of her own would choose to teach at an obscure state supported school so far from her own home (she was from Belgium originally), rather than try to become a renowned designer in her own right.

Some of the other instructors used to call her "Frenchy", which of course wasn't entirely accurate because she was from Belgium, not France, and she seemed to think this was funny.

She may have been a very difficult and demanding teacher, but as in much of life, the most difficult experiences are often the ones from which you learn the most. I learned much from her, and am very sorry that the world has lost such an excellent design teacher.

Thanks for sharing your knowlege with me, Dr. Gard.

Thanks, Nyssa. I didn't really expect anyone to respond to this, I just wanted to document Dr. Gard's influence.

I happened to remember something else kinda funny that happened too - At the end of my advanced pattern drafting class, Dr. Gard sent me and one other student to Mrs. Tilley's office (the same B.J. Tilley mentioned in the article, she actually preferred to be called Mrs. Tilley rather than by her official Dr. designation - she was much prouder of her Mrs. than her Phd.) to "model" our creations. Mrs. Tilley took one look, an adoring smile crossed her face and she said "Oh, isn't that sweet! I wish I could get away with wearing such a dainty print."

Another lesson learned, this time about proportions and repetition of pattern prints... I'm much closer in size to what Mrs. Tilley was in those days, and needless to say, I could never wear that print at my current size.

Mrs. Tilley was an interesting teacher too... Maybe some day I'll do a journal entry about my memories of her.

*My* dresses never turned out right.

My sewing has always hopeless. I can manage to sew a button on, but that's about it.

You'd have had *serious* trouble in her classes!

You're the kind of student that she'd have had ground up in her breakfast cereal.


Oh yeah... I forgot to mention that in the early 70's when I was at Radford, it was an all girls school, so it wouldn't have mattered *what* your sewing was like - you wouldn't have been welcome there anyway!

Perhaps. But if he *had* been allowed in, he would have been the most popular student on campus!






















Multiply the above reaction by the entire student population of Radford, with Paul as the designated object of their affection ... just imagine the commotion he'd cause!

The school went co-ed in...






*counts back*

...along about 1973, but that first year there were only about 24 male students to about 1500 female students. I know they thought they had it really good, but most of us wouldn't give them the time of day.

We were *soooo* cruel.

But let's face it, the only guys who went there those first couple of years were the ones who were desperate for a girlfriend, and figured that the sheer ratio of male to female students would give them an edge.

Of course they weren't considering that *most* of the females there already had a boyfriend - at Va Tech, which was just down the road.... Just far enough away to not be a distraction when you were trying to study, but close enough to go out with frequently.