Susan Maurer Mudd ’84 with English Professor Dayton Haskin

Dayton Haskin

SUSAN MAURER MUDD: I had Dayton Haskin for a class when I was a freshman, but I didn’t fully realize what an impression he had made on me until years later. I was not a big fan of memorization, but many of the poems and lines from the Bible he had us memorize have stayed with me and have been a source of pleasure to me. Every spring, when I see the daffodils in bloom, I recall Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” Other poems I memorized in that class have been a source of comfort to me. He really put his heart into all he was doing. I remember his meticulous comments on my papers, and how he gently guided us through poems. I’d say he empowered me to draw my own conclusions, to develop my own insights—which has stood me well in everything I have done.

Susan Maurer Mudd is a clinical nutritionist in Fairfield, Connecticut.