NECTFL: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

The Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

In Memoriam

Remigio Ugo Pane
5 February 1912 - 4 April 2000

April 1960, the seventh Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages opens in the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City under the able chairmanship of Remigio Pane, surely the largest group of language teachers ever to gather on the boardwalk in off-season! Conference attendance had reached 1,000, a number that college campuses could not handle. Our theme, Culture in Language Learning, was to explore the anthropologists' assessment of language as a cultural phenomenon. As Conference Chair, Professor Pane had taken a deep interest in the topic and contributed importantly to the discussion of each working committee. His enthusiasm for the whole concept of the Northeast Conference was contagious. From that point on, he attended our meetings year after year, invariably coming forward at a critical point in our deliberations to put important light on some aspect of the problem under consideration. Indeed, it was through the working committees that he met his beloved Josephine Bruno Pane, then at Tufts. She, too, was a leader on many occasions at the Northeast Conference over the years. Jo preceded her husband in death by several months. Ray, as we knew him, had come to this country from Southern Italy at the age of 17 to join his shoemaker father in Trenton. Soon graduating from the old Trenton Night High School, Ray worked his way through Rutgers, finishing with the class of 1938. He began graduate study at Columbia. In 1939, he was appointed to teach Italian at Rutgers which he did for the next 42 years!

In 1952, he was elected chair of a deeply divided and fractious Department of Romance Languages. His wisdom, ingenuity, patience, and good will earned his reelection as chair for the next 18 years as the Department grew from 11 to over 70 full-time positions, a magnificent achievement of academic leadership.

Prior to Viet Nam, completing four semesters of one foreign language was a graduation requirement. On occasion, distraught parents of disbelieving students would come to seek dispensation which was, of course, never granted. Once the family of a young man who had failed the first semester of three different languages sought out Ray's advice. He assured them that their son could meet the requirement and, after extended conversation, was at a loss for further argument when he came out with, "I'm sure your son can do it; even parrots can speak a few words." Under the circumstances, none but an authentic man of the people could have used that phrase without landing in court!

Professor Pane's passion for the world of language and literature and his total commitment to its advancement in the interest of humankind extended the horizons of all who came in contact with him. For 61 years, he urged upon us the wisdom of the humanities, as he worked an astonishing number of extracurricular vineyards:

* 1963-67 Director of summer NDEA institutes for teachers of language.

* 1964-67 Chairman of the College Board Examining Committee in Italian.

* 1965-71 Assistant editor of the Modern Language Journal.

* 1968-72 President of the American Association of Teachers of Italian.

* 1969-70 President of the New Jersey Modern Language Association.

* 1971-73 Founder and Director of the Rutgers Junior Year in Italy.

* 1977-81 Associate Dean for Faculty Personnel, Rutgers College.

An inveterate popularizer, in 1955 he gave a series of lectures over public television on Italian Culture. At the university, he developed a course using opera libretti as the texts and followed with bus trips to the Metropolitan open to the community. Over and over, he took summer trips to Italy to experience at first hand the culture he so dearly loved. Invariably asked to speak to some community group on Columbus Day, he served as Vice Chair of the New Jersey Columbus Quincentennnial Observance Committee. For 30 years, retiring only in 1994, he served on the Scholarship Committee of the Ladies Garment Workers Union. Member of the Executive Committee of the American-Italian Historical Association, he hosted their national conference at Rutgers in 1979. He was a member of the Middlesex County Culture and Heritage Committee from 1984-1994 and the New Jersey Historical Society from 1991-1997.

Ray was a teacher's teacher to the core. His enthusiasm for the world of language and literature and his total commitment to it inspired generations of students, faculty, new comers to this country, and the public at large to take seriously the mandate of our several linguistic and literary heritages. A man of gentle good humor, enormous compassion, and simple good faith, he loved people. He has enriched our days and shown us a life lived to good purpose. As we look back at the record and wonder where he found all that energy, he seems larger than life, and yet he was one of us.

To his children and grandchildren we send our deepest sympathies.

G. Reginald Bishop, Jr.
Rutgers University

Stephen A. Freeman

It is 1954, and Hunter Kellenberger is Chair of the Northeast Conference, which takes place at Brown University. There are 75 Advisory Council members, 61 of which are colleges and universities, while 13 others are professional associations. One lone K-12 institution, the Lincoln School of Providence RI, sends a representative to the Advisory Council that year. The Northeast Conference volumes cost $1.50 each and are 85 pages in length. They consist of six reports, each produced by a Working Committee that includes both K-12 and postsecondary authors. One report is titled simply "Tests," while another is devoted to "Foreign Language Instruction in Elementary Schools." The Secretary of the MLA makes a speech at the conference in which he states, "I believe that every institution of higher learning should have a foreign language entrance requirement, expressed, not in terms of units or credits, but in terms of meaningful proficiency. I believe that foreign language study should begin in kindergarten or the first grade, and should be pursued to the point that it becomes functional and constitutes a challenge to the teachers of all other subjects."

Stephen Freeman attended this conference, the first of many that would see him play multiple roles in our organization. He was the Advisory Council representative from Middlebury College, and he chaired the Working Committee on "The Qualifications of Foreign Language Teachers." In 1965, Mr. Freeman was chair of the Working Committee on Study Abroad, whose report urged NECTFL to confront the "problem" of overseas programs, recognizing and dealing with both the "dangers" and the "opportunities" inherent in the experience of acculturation.

Mr. Freeman was elected to the Board of Directors of NECTFL in 1957 and served until 1960. In 1968, he provided monies to fund an annual award "to be presented to a class-room teacher for the best 'bright idea' for stimulating better class-room performance," as noted in the October 5 Board meeting minutes. Since 1969, outstanding published articles have been selected by NECTFL for the Freeman award, and their authors recognized at the annual conference.

In 1969, Stephen Freeman was asked to present an address at the 15th Northeast Conference, held in New York City. "Let Us Build Bridges" is one of the most lyrical, yet also pragmatic, speeches published in the NECTFL archives. (We have reprinted the address, in its entirety, in the Articles section of the Spring 2000 issue of the NECTFL Review, and we strongly encourage readers to offer themselves the pleasure of reading it.) The spirit of Mr. Freeman's writing was evidenced in all his many contributions to our organization and to the profession at large. He was a Northeast Conference giant, setting a different kind of standard for this age of standards: the standard of grace, the standard of unquenchable intellectual thirst, the standard of generosity, the standard of joy in one's work, the standard of accountability.

We shall miss him terribly. At the age of 101, and hoping fervently to see his third century, Mr. Freeman died on Saturday, July 10, in Salisbury VT. He had taught at Middlebury for 45 years, during 24 of which he was Director of the Language Schools. In his capacity as Director, he oversaw the establishment of the Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese schools. He served as Vice President of the College for 20 years, and accepted the mantle of Acting President three times. Middlebury's International Center was named for him. Mr. Freeman received his B. A., M. A. and Ph. D. from Harvard, and was a scholar of international renown.

Mr. Freeman served as president of the AATF from 1940-1944 and as president of the NFMLTA from 1948-1954. He was made Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor in 1949 and Commandeur in the Order of the Palmes Académiques in 1968. He had received five honorary degrees, as well as the Bicentennial Award of the National Education Association.

After his retirement in 1973, Mr. Freeman wrote a history of the language schools, and was active in the Congregational Church, the Addison County Grammar School Corporation, the Friends of the Ilsley Library, and the Middlebury Rotary Club. An aviator during World War I, he continued to wear the aviator uniform of his youth in annual Middlebury Memorial Day parades well into his 90s. The tales of shared jokes, a weakness for chocolate brownies, and a talent for presenting life's lessons in palatable form testified, at his memorial service, to his indelible influence on colleagues, friends and family.

We extend our heartfelt sympathies to his children and grandchildren.

Rebecca R. Kline, Northeast Conference

Yvonne Rochette Ozzello

The Northeast Conference was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Yvonne Ozzello, a favorite of conference attendees for many years. As a preconference workshop presenter, Yvonne guided Northeast Conference teachers through the intricacies and pleasures of teaching French literature to young people. We were honored to have her with us, we were delighted by her, and we shall miss her.

Richard Goodkin, a devoted colleague of Yvonne's, was kind enough to provide us with this information and these reflections on his dear friend. We extend to him, to Yvonne's partner, Elaine Marks, and to all her family, friends and students our sincere sympathy.

Yvonne Rochette Ozzello of Madison, Wisconsin and Etel, France, died at home in Madison on November 19, 1999 of metastatic colon cancer. She was born on June 20, 1933 in Versailles, France, the youngest of the four children of Marcelle LeBerd Rochette and Johannes Rochette. She attended the Lycée de Jeunes Filles in Versailles, and after completing her licence at the Sorbonne in 1954, she came to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a Fulbright; she later returned in 1969 in what would turn out to be a permanent move. After finishing her Ph. D. in linguistics in 1978, Yvonne Ozzello worked her way through the ranks of the Department of French and Italian, and in 1988 she became a full professor. She served as Departmental Chair from 1988-1992, and in 1994 was named Associate Dean for the Humanities in the College of Letters and Science, a position in which she served for four years. In 1996 she had the honor of receiving the title of "Officier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques" from the French government in recognition of the manifold contributions she had made to French culture and its dissemination in the United States.

A dynamic, much-beloved teacher, Yvonne Ozzello contributed to the teaching of French language and literature in many different ways, including the development of curriculum and the formation of future teachers. Her talent and conscientiousness as an educator were recognized by no fewer than four teaching prizes: the Wisconsin AATF Distinguished Educator Award, in 1984; the UW-Madison Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award and the Wisconsin AFLT Distinguished Foreign Language Educator Award, both in 1988; and the UW-Madison Letters and Science Outstanding Teaching Award, in 1992.

An extremely active member of the profession, Yvonne Ozzello chaired the Advisory Committee on Foreign Languages and Literatures of the Modern Language Association from 1993-1995; chaired the French Advanced Placement Test Development Committee of the College Board from 1984-1991; and served as a member of the Graduate Fellowship Selection Committee of the Mellon Foundation from 1993-95. In the area of publication, she co-authored two textbooks, including Paroles, a first-year French textbook published in 1999. She penned a number of teacher's guides for advanced placement courses, and published articles on a wide variety of topics relating to the study of and the teaching of literature and culture as well as to language pedagogy.

A polyglot as well as a polymath, Yvonne Ozzello had boundless intellectual curiosity, and she was extremely generous with her knowledge, her time, and her wisdom. She will be greatly missed by her countless friends, both in Madison and elsewhere. She is survived by her partner, Elaine Marks; her children, Paul Ozzello of San Francisco and Brigitte Ozzello of New York City; her sister, Françoise Rochette of Montpellier and Erdeven, France; and her brother, Jean-Claude Rochette of Paris and Etel, France.

Richard Goodkin, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Theodore Higgs

Through his teaching at Penn State and New York University, but even more through the research he so carefully and generously interpreted for practitioners and applied in useful ways, Ted Higgs was a true "Northeast Conferencer." We are indebted to Dr. Mary Ann Lyman-Hager, Director of the National Foreign Language Resource Center at San Diego State University, for supplying us with the following information.

Professor Theodore Higgs, Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at San Diego State University, passed away at home on August 3, 1999, following the recurrence of a cancer he had been fighting for several years. Memorial Services were held on August 17.

In 1968, Ted received his Ph. D. from Georgetown University and taught at Penn State and NYU before coming to San Diego State. His many publications in linguistics and language acquisition earned Ted an international reputation. He enjoyed a long and productive association with the National Language Resource Center at San Diego State University as Principal Investigator of the VOCI (visual/video oral communication instrument).

We will all miss Ted very much. He has inspired many a colleague and student with his humor, quick wit, intelligence and kindness.

Mary Ann Lyman-Hager, LARC, San Diego State University

Jane Graveen

The National Network for Early Language Learning has informed NECTFL of the sad news that Jane Graveen, lead teacher for the nationally-recognized FLES program in Glastonbury CT, died last year after a short battle with cancer. At NECTFL, Jane was renowned-indeed, perhaps, notorious!-for producing winners in our elementary school poster contest. Year after year, Jane's students came out on top of blind competitions, sometimes taking both first and second place at a given conference. When asked how she accomplished this, she merely smiled that lovely smile. The Northeast Conference is deeply saddened by her passing. We thank NNELL for the opportunity to share memories of Jane with NECTFL Review readers through this piece that appeared in the fall 1999 issue of Learning Languages.

In 1949, Jane began her education career at Miami University, where she studied Spanish and education. After receiving her bachelor's degree, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to obtain her master's degree. Upon completing her master's, Jane taught Spanish at the secondary level in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In 1981, Jane went to Glastonbury and began teaching foreign language in the elementary school. Jane became a lead teacher for the language program in 1989 and remained so until her retirement in 1996.

From 1983 to her retirement, Jane held positions on several education boards, including Public Relations Chair for the National Network for Early Language Learning, Secretary for COLT (Connecticut Organization of Language Teachers), and Newsletter Editor for COLT. In 1990, she received a Connecticut Celebration of Excellence Award for her classroom creativity.

Jane has done so much for elementary school foreign language learning that her memory and enthusiasm will never be forgotten. Although the work that she began will be carried on, Jane Graveen will be greatly missed in the profession.