After over 25 years of experience here at Hackley, Doc Rob has officially announced that he is leaving the school and will go into retirement. One of the most beloved teachers on the hilltop, Doc Rob talked about his time here, as well as his plans for after teaching. Starting here in 1997, Doc Rob was the English department chair for 20 years. The Princeton grad and PhD. from Virginia has taught every grade level and a wide range of core and elective classes.
Doc Rob said that the biggest way his teaching style has changed is “focusing more and more on putting the focus on the students, their ideas, their use of evidence.”
He said that he had a “much more teacher centered approach to things, and that really has shifted, particularly, say, in the last 15, 18 years, to really focusing on giving the students the maximum chance to come up with their ideas.”
Doc Rob said there are 2 reasons why he continued to stay on the hilltop for so long. “One is that Hackley students are among the most willing to take intellectual chances.”
The other reason is “Hackley students tend to be remarkable in their willingness to support each other and to be nice to people.”
“I also think that I’ve been fabulously lucky to work with some of the smartest adults that I’ve ever known.”
Doc Rob has worked with loads of teachers over his many years here, and he said that he has enjoyed meeting every single one with new personalities and perspectives.
He decided to become an English teacher once he realized that his original path of becoming a lawyer was not the right fit for him. Once he talked to his professors, they brought up the idea of being an English teacher. He took the path of going to grad school in English teaching, and “here I am today.”
The biggest change in his life once he started Hackley was that he “was struck by the fact that teachers’ doors were closed a lot of the time. There was a lot of you had to knock on the door, and you never knew for sure someone’s gonna be there.
And my experience here in Hackley is that doors are open.”
Doc Rob said his favorite thing about teaching English is when “a student says, Wait a minute. I can prove this. I understand that thing. I can use that idea.”
“The moment you see the lights come on, when the student has gotten to a place where they can make an argument on their own, where they have a way of talking about a work of literature that is uniquely theirs, and that it matters to them.” he said
Hackley is a very different place than when he was in high school.
“When I went to high school, it was very much about, this is what the teacher said, the book was about. This is what the teacher expected you write in the essay. And here it’s about helping people to find out things for themselves, and make arguments, and even disagree,” he said.
For the summer and beyond, Doc Rob has a lot of plans for retirement life. He wants to do “a lot of projects.” During this winter break, he did a personal inventory to see what he had and what he wanted to do. He has sketchbooks, unfinished short stories and novels; he is an avid biker and has a bike from the 1970s that needs repairing. He has canvases from 10 years ago that he hasn’t put any paint on. He restores fountain pens. 
“There are a lot of things I really enjoy doing, but the more involved I’ve gotten in what I do as a teacher, the less time I found. And so, I want to make sure that in the life that remains to me, I have a chance to explore those other interests further.”
Another benefit of retiring that Doc Rob mentioned is his ability to hang out with his high school sweetheart, whom he married, and they are both retiring this year.
Doc Rob is loved by many on the hilltop, and all will miss him. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors outside of Hackley.
