Early in Dick’s career, he realized that the stories we tell – whether as literature, song, or in other media, including the stage, television and movies – strongly influence the behavior and choices of individuals and societies. One of his principal objectives as a teacher was to increase his students’ understanding of how they might be influenced by media. Dick’s courses were regarded by most students as demanding, but well worth the effort they required. In 1996 he received Cal Poly’s Distinguished Teaching Award, a distinction of which he was particularly proud. As Chair of Humanities, Dick worked for many years for the establishment of faculty prizes with significant cash awards in Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts. These efforts recently came to fruition, with the establishment of three prizes to be awarded annually – one for outstanding teaching, one for outstanding scholarship or creative activity, and one for outstanding service. Two weeks before his death, the College Council decided to name those prizes for him.

It was in the summer of 1964, while he was a student with a summer job earning money to help pay for his college education, that Dick was exposed to the asbestos that would ultimately cost his life. He was working for the Philadelphia Electric Co.

The Simon-Waddell family would like to thank the Cal Poly English Department and College of Liberal Arts for organizing and sponsoring this gathering.

A Celebration and Remembrance

of the life of

RICHARD KELLER SIMON

November 19, 1944 – April 4, 2005

The Rotunda (Room 03-213)

The Business Building

California Polytechnic State University

San Luis Obispo, California

Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 10:00 am

A native of Philadelphia, PA, Richard Keller Simon attended that city’s public schools and graduated from Central High School, where he was editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, the Centralizer. He won an alumni scholarship to the University of Michigan and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English there; he was also the recipient of two prestigious Hopwood Awards. After teaching first at Northern Michigan University and then at Western Michigan University, he earned a Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University in 1977. He taught at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Texas before joining Cal Poly’s English Department in 1988.

Dick’s principal interest as a scholar and teacher was modern popular culture. He wrote Trash Culture (University of California Press, 1999), a study of the ways in which great books and popular entertainments are surprisingly similar (though not identical) to each other, and an argument that we must study the popular entertainments with the same care and precision with which we study the great books. An earlier book, The Labyrinth of the Comic: Theory and Practice from Fielding to Freud, (University Press of Florida, 1985) is a study of the concepts of comedy, the comic, laughter, and humor in literature, philosophy, experimental psychology, and psychoanalysis. He also gave many lectures at other colleges and published numerous scholarly articles exploring various aspects of popular culture and modern thought.

Dick’s interest in teaching popular culture first appeared in early 1969, when he faced the challenge of presenting a lecture to the entire freshman class at Northern Michigan University, an extremely diverse group of 1000 students. His lecture, which used sound clips from rock’n’roll and other popular music of the ‘50s and ‘60s to illustrate recurring literary themes, was an instant hit, and led to many opportunities to lecture on the subject. It was at one such lecture, at Stanford University in 1973, that he met Kathleen Waddell, a psychology intern at Stanford and the Veterans’ Administration hospital. They were married in 1974. Their son, Noah, was born in 1982. Dr. Waddell is now in private practice in San Luis Obispo; Noah is a film student at the University of Texas.

1. Linda Halisky, Dean, College of Liberal Arts

2. David Kann, Chair, English Department

3. George Cotkin, History

4. Harry Hellenbrand, former Dean, CLA, read by Linda Halisky

5. Carolyn Stefanco, Chair, History

6. Kevin Clark, English

7. William “Memo” Martinez, Foreign Languages & Literature

8. Steven Marx, English

9. Courtney Brogno, English

10. Bill Simon, Dick’s brother

11. Noah Simon Waddell, Dick’s son

After the scheduled speakers, you are invited to share a memory.

Reception in the Rose Garden