CMC Mourns Loss of
Longtime Professor of
Literature, Herbert Hoskins

Memorial services were held Sunday for Professor Emeritus of Literature Herbert W. Hoskins, who died on Tuesday, March 17 at the age of 88. Hoskins joined the literature department at CMC in 1957 and retired in 1989, although he continued teaching several years into his retirement.
Family members say Hoskins appreciated the size of the College, which made possible friendships and close bonds with students and colleagues. Some of those connections were forged from a love for theater. For years, the professor of literature arranged carpools into Los Angeles to watch stage productions with his students. "It wasn't just about seeing a show, his students were learning to study and critique the theater," recalls daughter Janet Hoskins Valeri, a professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California. She says Hoskins also enjoyed close relationships he developed with fellow faculty over three decades, some of whomincluding fellow Professor Emeritus of Literature Langdon Elsbreeattended Sunday's services.
"He was always a remarkably gentle, good-humored, and compassionate man," says professor of literature Nicolas Warner, who met Hoskins in 1980. "He and his wife, Kate, were lively, generous, and warm-hearted hosts who made their home a gathering place for many in the Claremont community. Herb was also a man of wide-ranging interests and talents, being not only a literature professor but an outdoorsman, excellent horseman, and world traveler; the passing of this versatile, charming, and kind human being is a real loss for Claremont."
When Hoskins arrived at CMC in 1957, he carried a vita of East Coast schools and teaching credentialsa resume shaped in part by adversity. Hoskins was a boy when his parents divorced, resulting in his temporary placement in a boarding home with older sister Doris. Schooled together, he was able to keep pace with her academics and graduated both valedictorian and youngest in his class, at age 16, from Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Connecticut. He was only 20 when he graduated from Wesleyan University and enrolled in Harvard University's Graduate School of Businessmoonlighting as an encyclopedia salesman.
Had it not been for the war, Hoskins might never have settled into CMC on the West Coast. He left Harvard after a year to serve as a lieutenant senior-grade in the U.S. Navy. In 1946, he returned to graduate studies under the G.I. Bill. But instead of returning to Harvard, Hoskins followed his love of literature to Columbia University, meeting there the other love of his life: wife, Katharine. "I was looking at something in a window and he spoke to me and invited me to coffee," says Katharine Hoskins, who would also become a college professor. "And things went on from there. He was entertaining and nice and seemed to know his way around New York, which was a strange and wonderful new place for a New Mexico girl like me."
Hoskins taught for two years at the New Jersey College for Women (now Douglas College), then for several years more at alma mater Wesleyan. In 1957, he and Katharine packed the station wagon with daughters Janet, Judy, and Sue and drove across the country to settle in Claremont, and into his new role at CMC. One of Hoskins' initial contributions, family say, was building up the College's debate program with his experience as a star-debater at Wesleyan. His classroom courses over the next 30 years delved into speech and dramatic literature, Shakespeare, and modern drama. One of his favorite writers was British Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter (The Homecoming, The Birthday Party).
When not in the classroom or enjoying theater, the 6-foot-1 Hoskins was an athlete who loved tennis and surfing and taught his daughters and grandchildren to swim. He also enjoyed trail riding in the foothills of Claremont, and looked forward to annual vacations in Baja with his girls and extended family and friends.
"His teaching exemplified the idea that literature opens a window onto another world," recalls Janet Hoskins Valeri. "Students could live vicariously through the pages, and come to know how other people experienced their own lives."
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Hoskins' memory may be made be made to international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/.