Leighton Brett Cooke – 50th Reunion Essay

Leighton Brett Cooke

902 Royal Adelade Dr.

College Station, TX 77845-4530

brett-cooke@tamu.edu

979-575-5224

Spouse(s): Olga Muller Cooke (1975)

Child(ren): Sasha (1982); Sonya (1985); Nick (1992)

Grandchild(ren): Evi (2011); Julia (2016)

Education: University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. 1983

Career: Professor of Russian, Texas A&M University

Avocations: Arts, especially literature and classical music.

College: Pierson

Seth Singleton, dean of Pierson College while we were at Yale, once told me that the university will have failed if it did not prompt students to change their major a couple of times. I did not keep count, but very clearly my time at Yale changed me. I entered a prospective archaeologist, but then very nearly flunked first-year Latin (I escaped with a 60). And I never followed up on my interest in English history; there were too many distracting courses (I recall thumbing slowly through all the temptations in the course catalog). Rather, Crime and Punishment in freshman English made me into the lifelong lover and scholar of Russian literature that I still am. Michael Holquist introduced me to the exciting prospects for an anthropology (which I now pursue as a Darwinist “biopoetics”) of literature, while Robert Bailey led me into intensive study of the greatest operas. (Although one semester he gave precisely the same lectures on the same days in both Dramatic Music and Music of the Nineteenth Century. As the only student in both of his courses, I happily listened to both—too bad I lost my notes in a house fire three years ago.)

But the greatest impetus came from you, my “can-do” classmates, especially at mealtimes: speaking as a professor, I affirm that Yale is distinguished less by its teachers than by its enormously creative students—what a shame I have seen so few of you over the past half century. As for other life-changing influences, I wish I did not have to quit soccer at 40; I loved playing bare-footed goalie for Pierson, largely because the incredible central defense of Jess Lawson kept me and the goal from nearly all harm (I, nevertheless, got kicked in the head at least once each season). I wonder if the regulation that was specially enacted to force me to wear shoes on the field is still in effect, long after the “Lew Alcindor Rule” against dunking in basketball wisely was rescinded.

My wife, Olga, and I comprise most of the Russian program at Texas A&M University. We have spent many summers taking Aggies to theater and concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I worry that this will keep us from our 50th reunion. We met at Berkeley where I got my doctorate, then lived in Warsaw and London; I ran an informal soccer team while she got her degree. I briefly taught in Edmonton, Alberta, and Riverside, California, before moving to Texas 33 years ago. Our elder daughter, Sasha Cooke, is a prominent opera singer, like our son-in-law Kelly Markgraf, while Sonya runs Seven Pillars Acting School in Hollywood with her rock comedian husband Brett Duggan. Our son, Nick, a specialist in human resources, keeps me connected to the fleshpots and sports teams of nearby Houston. Now that we have been blessed with two granddaughters, Evi and Julia, nearby, we expect to stay in College Station after retirement (in a few years), writing about literature and opera.