Howard Dean, Nemesis to Robert Pirsig While Teaching In The MSC English Department.

By Dennis Gary, Graduate BS English, Montana State College, 1960; MS, University of Oregon, 1964

Howard Dean headed the freshman English course, Oral and Written Communication, and authored its textbook, Effective Communication published by Prentice Hall and findable on Amazon.com Click Here. (You will find later editions also bearing Ken Bryson's name as well as Dean's).
… This almost certainly is the textbook which totally frustrated Robert Pirsig in school years 1959 – 1962, who then was also teaching English Composition in the Montana State College.

'Below find photo of the cover of Howard Dean’s book => 'EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION:''

…

Howard Dean was very intense, and despite Pirsig’s negative statements, re Howard Dean’s Book, I thought Dean an excellent teacher in his courses, such as Introduction to Literature and the Modern Novel: I especially appreciated his explication of William Faulkner's stream of consciousness novel The Sound and the Fury. Howard Dean was a proponent of I. A. Richard's New Criticism concept which emphasized explanation and discussion of the author’s text, but as a matter of standard practice, ignored the historical context of this piece of literature and the author's life The New Criticism, was perhaps a much needed correction of the prior Literary Criticism, in which emphasis was mostly on the author – with any study of the text itself be damned!!

But Dean and fellow English Teacher Jack Barsness had their differences, For example, Jack Barsness protested that the New Criticism was not what literature was all about. On the other hand, Jack said that when Howard got that damned computer-like brain of his clicking, Jack was powerless against it.

Dean had a PhB (Bachelor of Philosophy) from the University of Chicago, not a PhD. Cliff Davis who taught Zoology had earned his doctorate from Chicago, quoted one of his Zoology professors there as defining life as "one damn thing after another."

Photos Of Howard Dean.
1a) Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960
AFTER this Page Of Photos comes up, Do > Top > Edit > Find Howard Dean. The 3rd of 4 will be a Portrait of Howard Dean.

1b) Further Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960
AFTER this Page Of Photos comes up, Do > Top > Edit > Find Howard Dean. The 2nd thru 6th of 7 will include images of Howard Dean.

Howard Dean’s Name Is Mentioned In Neither Of Robert Pirsig’s Books: ZMM Nor Lila, But Pirsig Does Specifically Mention Him, By Name, In The Following Conference Presentation: This larger explanation fits closely the same story line in ZMM.

From The Transcript Of The “Metaphysics of Quality: A New Paradigm for Values & Healing” discussion featuring Robert Pirsig with Leland ‘Chip’ Baggett.

“THE HEART OF THE MATTER: VALUES FOR A WORLD COMMUNITY”CONFERENCE”.

July 29th - August 1st, 1993 San Diego, California. Recorded by Michael Bran 'From the 1993 Conference of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, a pre-Conference Institute with Robert Pirsig and Chip Baggett On “The Metaphysics of Quality: A New Paradigm for Values and Healing”.

[Excerpt: Robert Pirsig’s statements to the Conference Audience, Concerning Howard Dean. ]

He [Phaedrus] was a new instructor and the [other English] Faculty was there a long time and they were asking reasonable and logical questions. Some of them were University of Chicago graduates [ie Howard Dean] and they had heard this old business about values for a long time and they asked the almost classic question: "Alright, are these values you're talking about in the subject or are they in the object?"

The fellow who asked had the name Howard Dean. He was the de-facto Head of the Department and he wanted an answer to that question. He said: "You go into your classroom and you go talking about values, all right, come up [and] deliver with us too. I mean you may buffalo your freshman students but we got a little more sophistication here." So he [Phaedrus] was really in a spot… I was really on a spot! Well, they gave [Phaedrus] a dilemma here.

He [Phaedrus] said: "Because if Quality lies in the object, you got to ask yourself: 'If this is a high quality watch I have to be able to say where it is in scientific terms, I am going to find the Quality in the watch and you'll find that if you examine it too closely the Quality isn't in the watch, the quality is in my relationship to the watch and other people might have a different relationship.'"

So the question came up: "Is it subjective? If it's subjective, is it whatever you like?" And that was unsatisfactory. [Phaedrus] went between the horns of this dilemma, he went through it and he said: "Quality is not subjective, Quality is not objective, Quality is a third entity, which is neither one. It is independent of both subjects and objects." Now you wouldn't normally assume that's so, but in logic it's a completely permissible equation to take that third alternative, and he took it. And that was the beginning of this long structure: the MOQ.
[END Robert Pirsig’s Excerpts, Concerning Howard Dean.:]
…

…I suppose Pirsig calls Howard Dean, a defacto department head because the actual head, Paul Grieder was usually quite lackadaisical.
… However, once when Mr. Dean broke into an appointment I had with Grieder, saying, "Paul, this can't wait," Grieder told him it would have to, that this time was reserved for me. As Dean withdrew, a startled look of disbelief on his face, a document of some sort gripped firmly in his hand, I told Grieder he didn't have to do that, but Grieder said he did. "This hour is for you."

…Howard always seemed very intense, a perpetual scowl on his face and would flex his lips as if chewing on something even when he was simply thinking. When driving home a particularly important point, Dean would frequently strike the black board so hard with a stick of chalk, that the chalk would shatter!! Dean then looking back and forth frantically seeking another piece of chalk!

In ZMM, Robert Pirsig’s Discussion of Howard Dean’s Composition Textbook ' EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION, As You See Below, Dean’s Name Is Nested Within Professor Sarah Vinke’s Urgings "Are you really teaching Quality this quarter?" '' (For the full explanation and context, see pages 160 – 162 (Bantam Paperback Edition) of Pirsig's book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.:)

[Start ZMM Excerpt That Mentions Howard Dean’s Text Book On Composition. ]
.. “I know that she came by a second time and asked, "Are you really teaching Quality this quarter?" and he nodded and looked back from his chair for a second and said, "Definitely!" and she trotted on. He was working on lecture notes at the time and was in a state of complete depression about them.”

.. “What was depressing was that the text was one of the most rational texts available on the subject of rhetoric and it still didn’t seem right. Moreover he had access to the authors, who were members of the department. [Editor's Note: these being Howard Dean and Dr. Kenneth Bryson, also of the MSC English Department.] He had asked and listened and talked and agreed with their answers in a rational way but somehow still wasn’t satisfied with them. .”

.. “The text started with the premise that if rhetoric is to be taught at all at a University level it should be taught as a branch of reason, not as a mystic art. Therefore it emphasized a mastery of the rational foundations of communication in order to understand rhetoric. Elementary logic was introduced, elementary stimulus-response theory was brought in, and from these a progression was made to an understanding of how to develop an essay. .”

.. “For the first year of teaching Phædrus had been fairly content with this framework. He felt there was something wrong with it, but that the wrongness was not in this application of reason to rhetoric. The wrongness was in the old ghost of his dreams—rationality itself. He recognized it as the same wrongness that had been troubling him for years, and for which he had no solutions. He just felt that no writer ever learned to write by this squarish, by-the-numbers, objective, methodical approach. Yet that was all rationality offered and there was nothing to do about it without being irrational And if there was one thing he had a clear mandate to do in this Church of Reason it was to be rational, so he had to let it go at that. .”
[Site Master's Note: Michael Polanyi’s point that “objective knowledge ideal” controls all our society.].

.. “A few days later when Sarah trotted by again she stopped and said, "I’m so happy you’re teaching Quality this quarter. Hardly anybody is these days." .”
"Well, I am," he said. "I’m definitely making a point of it." .” ''

.. “ "Good!" she said, and trotted on. .”

.. “He returned to his notes but it wasn’t long before thought about them was interrupted by a recall of her strange remark. What the hell was she talking about? Quality? Of course he was teaching Quality. Who wasn’t? He continued with the notes. .”

.. “Another thing that depressed him was prescriptive rhetoric, which supposedly had been done away with but was still around. This was the old slap-on-the-fingers- if-your-modifiers-were-caught-dangling stuff. Correct spelling, correct punctuation, correct grammar. Hundreds of rules for itsy-bitsy people. No one could remember all that stuff and concentrate on what he was trying to write about. It was all table manners, not derived from any sense of kindness or decency or humanity, but originally from an egotistic desire to look like gentlemen and ladies. Gentlemen and ladies had good table manners and spoke and wrote grammatically. It was what identified one with the upper classes. In Montana, however, it didn’t have this effect at all. It identified one, instead, as a stuck-up Eastern ass. There was a minimum prescriptive-rhetoric requirement in the department, but like the other teachers he scrupulously avoided any defense of prescriptive rhetoric other than as a "requirement of the college." .”
[Editor's Note: Quite often Sarah Vinke would assign students to read a chapter of “Effective Communication”, but then not mention it in her next writing assignment.]

.. “Soon the thought interrupted again. Quality? There was something irritating, even angering about that question. He thought about it, and then thought some more, and then looked out the window, and then thought about it some more. Quality? .”

.. “Four hours later he still sat there with his feet on the window ledge and stared out into what had become a dark sky. The phone rang, and it was his wife calling to find out what had happened. He told her he would be home soon, but then forgot about this and everything else. It wasn’t until three o’clock in the morning that he wearily confessed to himself that he didn’t have a clue as to what Quality was, picked up his briefcase and headed home. .”
[End ZMM Excerpt]

…After Pirsig's experience with Howard Dean one wonders why Pirsig would choose the University of Chicago, detailed in the later chapters of ZMM after leaving MSC. Go to ZMM page 344 and following pages.

…For Sarah Vinke's way of dealing with EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION's presentation of Logic, see ”The Sarah Vinke I Knew” first paragraph. But then Sarah had sufficient standing in the English Dept. to do so.

ZMM Enthusiasts Emailed Reactions To The Above:

1) Lee Glover's reaction to Howard Dean as Nemisis to Robert Pirsig in an email to Henry Gurr, May 14, 2014:

…I thought a brief comment was in order since you asked for feedback on this topic.

…I find it highly unlikely that Howard Dean played a significant, if any, role in Pirsig's mental collapse. I suppose Dean may have played a significant role in Pirsig's general dissatisfaction with MSC which he certainly spoke candidly and publicly about but I doubt it went any further than Bozeman.

…A question I wrestled with for years before coming up with a satisfactory (actually a very good) explanation was Pirsig's comments in the 25th anniversary edition. He said in the introduction, "Phaedrus was dominated by intellectual values. He didn't give a damn who liked or didn't like him. He was single-mindedly pursuing a truth he felt was of staggering importance to the world. The world had no idea what he was trying to do and it was trying to kill him for his trouble..."

…I read ZMM several times and could not find anything of "staggering importance to the world" or worth sacrificing your sanity and your family for.

…Then one day I figured it out (or at least think I did). It is what ties everything together and I believe it was/is of staggering importance. Without a doubt it was of staggering importance in 1961. If it were possible to go back in time and reveal in 1961 exactly what Pirsig put together, it would be very interesting to see the effect it would have. When everything is put together (all of the pieces are in the book) what stands out to me is the genius of Robert Pirsig is almost otherworldly. I am dumbfounded that he was able to figure out what he did because it is extraordinarily brilliant, almost beyond belief. I would put his discovery on par with the theory of relativity any day of the week.

…But then he hid it in the book rather than come right out and reveal it. If I take his own words as true, the reason was either fear of the consequences, his own internal conflict, the much different social climate in the early 1970's or some combination of these or other factors.

…My opinion is 80-90% of the cause of Pirsig's collapse was the heavy burden of what he knew and his inability or fear in revealing it. The stress and fatigue were big factors but that alone was not a satisfactory explanation for me. The internal struggle he faced was leaving Bozeman with knowledge of staggering importance that no one else on the planet possessed. There is nothing in ZMM that indicates an attempt on his part to reveal what he knew. As he said, he wanted to write a great book which at the time he probably planned on explaining it all. He certainly was not going to reveal it to others and reduce the potential value of a book.

…I don't have the time to explain what this all means in an email. Henry, it is what I started telling you the other day but we were not able to finish the conversation.

…Once you understand it, you will never look at our world the same way, it is that huge. Trying to explain it all is my current project and it is a VERY difficult task. I can see how impossible it must have seemed to Pirsig at the beginning of the 60's. Once you see what he put together it is really obvious and relatively simple to understand.

…Sorry to be cryptic but it would take a very lengthy email to explain. You kind of have to turn ZMM upside down to see it.

2) Ian Glending Email Response To Henry Gurr, May 15, 2014:

…I'd guess Dean as "de-facto manager" personified the educational
management system he was railing against. [Campus wide, The Montana State U Administration was then] trying to establish objective definitions of academic performance, as they groomed the college to achieve an advanced university status. But Robert Pirsig thought the administration’s methods were in error, because he knew quality was something else. (We've all been there.)

…Pirsig was quite an "activist" against the established abministration management, when he was there, And Howard Dean would have been part of the opposition.
… Sven Lindkvist, the Swedish journalist, dug out plenty on his political activities inside the college, from the college archives. [And found clear evidence that]-Pirsig was marked as a trouble-maker - remember the state governor's list of 20 radicals).
{END Lee Glover Email.]
To Learn More About Swedish Journalist Sven Lindkvist, Click Here. And AFTER The Page Comes Up, Scroll down to Sven Lindkvist.

Dennis Gary's Reaction To The Above Glover & Glendinning Emails:

…I tend toward Lee Glover's interpretation, though I have not studied [the above mentioned] Pirsig’s AHP Presentation completely, nor for years studied ZMM. This is what Phaedrus felt, but others may not have.

…I, for one, blossomed under my Montana State College course, “Oral & Written Communication”, although as taught by Ms. Dalrymple and Mrs. Professor Sarah Vinke, and not Prof Howard Dean. The creativity came later then, under Jack Barsness. Even then, he would at times prescribed the writing rules [that we should] follow.

…On the other hand, I did at times feel the pressure of other English teachers to conform, (in my teaching career years later), when on the faculty of Klamath Union High School in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

…Luckily, however, I was supported by Mrs. Bernadine Noggle, the Head of the English Dept., whom I mention in Bernadine Noggle, a Sarah Vinke “Vinkesque” Character in My Life..

…For example: During one English Dept. meeting at KUHS, Dorothy Adams and Starla Thomas stated I was not teaching English correctly, per this list of grievances:

…Well, as I have already indicated in my MEMORIES2 WebPage, Mrs. Noggle blew her top, as she sprang to my defense, saying =>
… “For Christ's sake, Dorothy Adams, & Starla Thomas, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If American Literature is reserved for the Junior Year and British Literature for the Senior Year, what in the Hell are the Freshman going to be taught – Australian Literature?
. Click Here And AFTER This Page Comes Up, Scroll Down To .. Bernadine Noggle.
… “You had a chance to teach Huckleberry Finn and you chose the Red Badge of Courage instead.

… “What was wrong with the Red Badge of Courage?” my opponents asked.

… “Nothing,” replied Mrs. Noggle. “It's an excellent choice, but the long and the short of it is, you thought that Huckleberry Finn would be too damn hard.”

…On the other hand, I saw in an old KUHS yearbook, a picture of Dorothy Adams retiring after 30 years and I left KUHS after two years and teaching altogether six years later after suffering a nervous breakdown. So . . .

…Then again, several independent thinker types, over coffee in a coffee shop told me, “The American school system had to get rid of a teacher like you! It can't tolerate independent thinkers who don't hesitate to speak their piece. Actually, I was told something similar when I was an employee at Crocker Bank, now defunct, being taken over by Wells Fargo when it was discovered that it, one of the fifteen largest banks in the United States, was losing money.

…So I can relate to feeling pressure, but I doubt that either the MSC English Department or the University of Chicago Philosophy people, were purposely villainous. It was just part of their culture.

We Are Saddened To Report That Robert Dennis Gary Passed Away In Jan 9, 2020, Likely From Covid19. You May Read About His Life => A Robert Dennis Gary Memorial Tribute Page & Autobiography : ALSO PLEASE SEND EMAIL To HenryG__USCA.edu With Your Memories Of Dennis. Click Here.

Links For Further Discussion Of The Above =>

APPENDIX I: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION.

APPENDIX II: The Communication Course: A Ten-Year Perspective, Howard H. Dean, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 10, No. 2 (May, 1959), pp. 80-85. Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Links To Additional Reading Related To The Above Memories =>

1a) Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

1b) Further Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

2) Following the Footsteps of My Mentor, Professor Sarah Vinke: My Life as an English Teacher, and Other Memories

3) Dennis Gary’s Values in Thought and Action: My Standards at School and in My Career

4) Memories of Deer Creek Mountain Ranch (an MSC Faculty Outing)

5) Henry Gurr’s Montana State University Archives Page

6) Archives Commentary and Connections to Memories of Sarah Vinke, Louis Vinke, Allan Kittell, and Robert Pirsig

7) “Books I’ve Enjoyed” by Sarah Jennings Vinke, with added commentary by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr (Originally published, 1960, in the Montana Library Association Journal)

8) Commentary Regarding "Book I've Enjoyed" Sarah Jennings Vinke and Information About Viewing on the Internet by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr

9) Pirsig Memory, “The Divine Sarah”

10) Vinke, Pirsig, and the Origins of “Quality” and MOQ

11) Shirley Luhrsen and Sarah Vinke: Letters to and from Bozeman

12) Anthony McWatt's Robert Pirsig Site

13) Peter Voulkos's website Voulkos & Co.

14) “THREATS TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT MONTANA STATE COLLEGE” -- a monograph by Robert G. Dunbar.

15) A Student’s Memories of “Mrs.” Professor Sarah Vinke and Her English Department at Montana State College, Bozeman MT (1956-1960)

16) Binding the Dichotomy: A Reconciliation of Opposites, By Jeremiah Lewis

Written and Edited by Dennis Gary. July 2014. Numerous suggestions by Henry Gurr. RevHSG1&6Nov23.
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