“Learning is a lovely addiction.”
This is the life-long philosophy of Mike Curley, a retiree auditing classes at Framingham State.
Even though he often chooses to stay in the background of the classes he audits, Curley’s kindness, humor, and passion for learning are traits that are familiar to the students in his classes.
On a recent afternoon before English Professor Desmond McCarthy’s Contemporary American Fiction class, Curley walks into the classroom in a grey, plaid, tweed suit over a red sweater.
When a classmate complimented the suit, Curley brushed his palms over the jacket. “It’s rented,” he replied with deadpan humor. “I rented it especially for today.”
He draped the jacket over his chair before settling in, crossing an ankle over a knee and folding his hands in his lap, his kind smile indicative of his warm personality.
“Are you going to ask me where I grew up? Because I never grew up,” he said.
Curley grew up in Newton and spent his high school years at Newton North, where he played basketball.
He claims he was not the best student, but after a stint playing basketball at a “now-defunct” junior college, Curley said he went to UMass Boston, where he graduated hoping to become a teacher.
He chuckled as he admitted that his teaching plans did not pan out.
“I got a job in a bookstore. From there, I landed a job here, managing the college bookstore in the early ’70s,” he said.
From then on, Curley stayed in the University’s orbit and returned to study counseling while he worked for the state helping young adults find jobs while they studied for their GEDs.
Curley worked for the state program until funding was rescinded in 1983 and he settled in to work for a Boston book publisher.
Eventually rising to the director of customer service position, Curley worked with the publisher for 27 years.
“I'm proud of what I did there and I certainly grew up a lot. … I’ll be 15 years retired on March 1,” he said.
As he prepared for retirement, “I was sitting in my office and thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’” he said.
“I had a great interest in movies … I had taught an adult education course, but I wanted to study in a formal academic setting, so I came up here one day in the summer to check things out,” he said.
This was 15 years ago and today, Mike is known as a veteran University auditor.
University auditors observe courses for a reduced fee. They are not required to take exams or give presentations and do not receive grades.
In McCarthy’s American fiction class, Curley said he is currently learning about identity and the self in the postmodern literary era. He connected the course themes to the way he felt after his retirement.
“So who am I? Who am I after I’m now retired? What I discovered, what I learned is my identity then became ‘student.’
“So boom, I’m here. … It’s infectious,” Curley said.
Curley said the more he learns, the more he realizes he does not know, enhancing his quest for knowledge. He also thoroughly enjoys the course material in the classes he audits, so much so that he often repeats them.
Curley’s first class was Language of Film, taught by since retired film professor Claudia Springer.
“I remember sitting in the back of the room, and she was taking attendance, and she said, ‘Anyone’s name I didn’t call?’ so I raised my hand and, you know, I stick out like a sore thumb.
“So I go up, the class is over, I see her and I said, ‘Well, I’m auditing this class,’” Mike recalled.
Springer told Curley she had had a bad experience with an auditor who sat in the front row of one of her past classes and raised their hand for every question.
“Don’t worry,” Curley told her. “I’ll be back in my man cave.”
Curley’s figurative “man cave” is always the back row of the classes he audits.
He sits with rapt attention, a notebook, pen, and the required reading laid out on the desk before him. His glasses often hang from a chain around his neck.
He rarely participates, but his jovial chuckle often fills the classroom to punctuate a humorous moment between professor and students. When he does raise his hand, his excitement for the material is often palpable in his voice.
English professor Carolyn Maibor, with whom Curley has taken his fair share of classes, said, “He's so respectful. I always see him kind of hang back and look around, and if there's a student who's at all interested in speaking, he always lets them take the lead. … He's so kind and so respectful, and I think in ways that people aren't necessarily aware of.”
Curley is auditing Maibor’s African American Literature course this semester.
He said he values the course’s insights about slavery and racism.
“The thing I like about her is I'll read the material and think, ‘Well, I understand this.’ Then she'll ask these probing questions and I think, ‘Why didn't I think of that? That's very interesting.’ Her depth and breadth of knowledge are very impressive, and she's able to elicit that from the students through conversation,” he added.
In addition to feeding his insatiable curiosity, Curley said his time at Framingham State has given him a “sense of community.
“As much as I say I stick out like a sore thumb, I do feel like I belong here, and I want to come here four days a week,” he added.
Curley said he is always impressed by the “friendliness” of his classmates, and he enjoys the sense of community in the classroom and admires how personable students are.
Adriana Baldelli, a junior English major, has taken three classes with Curley.
“When I noticed Mike in my first class that I attended at FSU, I immediately felt welcome. His bright smile was something that really inspired me,” Baldelli said.
She noted his contagious passion for learning “is something that I admire and hope to have when I’m his age.
“He will be someone that I never forget and I’m so lucky to have been able to talk with him - discussing books and life in general,” Baldelli said.
Curley said he has taken approximately 60 courses over the past 15 years and has begun struggling to find new liberal arts classes that interest him.
He said he often kids with his friends, telling them, “‘I’m running out of classes. … I’m going to take nursing,’ and they believe me,” he said with a laugh.
Curley is fond of repeating classes he enjoys. This is his second time taking McCarthy’s Contemporary American Fiction class. According to McCarthy, Curley has taken six literature classes with him, most of them more than once.
Curley asked, “The way I put this is, if you went to the Museum of Fine Arts and looked at the Egyptian exhibit, for example, wouldn't you want to go back and look again?”
Curley said McCarthy’s teaching style resonates with him because “he's funny, he's smart, he's kind, he's devoted to students and I'm always impressed by that.
“When you take a class with him, you're not only taking contemporary literature, but you're taking ‘Desmond 101.’ He’s teaching you empathy - that literature is about understanding different perspectives.
McCarthy’s class just finished reading “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.
“This one made me weep,” Curley said.
McCarthy said the feeling of admiration is mutual. He regards Curley as “a role model for everyone at Framingham State.
“He embodies what a lifelong love of learning should be,” McCarthy said.
According to McCarthy, he and Curley have known each other since Curley started taking classes 15 years ago.
“Having Mike Curley in the back of the room learning along with me as he's reading some of these books a second or third time is such a privilege and is incredibly inspiring,” he said.
McCarthy noted how much Curley’s “quiet, empathetic presence” has added to every classroom they have shared. “One thing I love about Mike is that quietly at the back of the room, he is paying attention to everyone. He is rooting for every student's success,” he said.
Outside of the classroom, Curley said he maintains a sense of community through his softball league.
Curley has been playing softball for over 25 years and said he now plays for a senior league three seasons out of the year.
He said once a month, he meets teammates for a lunch in Natick.
He also gardens with his wife, exercises, and enjoys rooting for the Boston Red Sox and reading in his spare time. His favorite book is James Joyce’s novella, “The Dead.”
Curley said even after all this time at Framingham State, he is “so grateful” and “as long as I can get up that hill, I’ll keep going.”
With his signature smile and deadpan humor, he leaned forward and said, “Now I’m just waiting for when they build the statue.”
[ Editor's Note: Desmond McCarthy is the advisor of The Gatepost. ]