$ 10,000 Apple for Teacher

Every college graduate recalls a favorite professor whose words and ideas ring across the years. But few old grads even write to old profs, much less dump $10,000 in their laps. Such is the unique gesture of Chicago Lawyer Leo T. Norville, 56. His startled beneficiary: History Professor Preston W. Slosson, 68, who in 40 years at the University of Michigan taught 18,000 students. Says Norville: "It was a token of affection, esteem and appreciation for what he tried to teach all of us."

When Professor Slosson retired this June, he was such a legend at Ann Arbor that fathers automatically passed him on to sons. "There isn't a kid on campus who doesn't know the name of Professor Slosson," says one current undergraduate, who last year tried vainly to get into Slosson's oversubscribed classes. Wise, witty, lucid, Slosson lectured without notes, never failed to light the present with the past. Author of more than a dozen history texts (the best: Europe Since 1815), he was an intrepid writer of letters-to-the-editor, had a passion for publicly debating political extremists from left to right (e.g., Gerald L. K. Smith), and once unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district. Slosson was one professor who professed.

Deeply impressed was Student Norville, the hard-pressed son of a North Carolina tobacco farmer, who finally hit college and Slosson at the age of 21. Working his way through Michigan ('30) as a headwaiter, a janitor and a chauffeur, Norville was so stimulated by Slosson's lectures that he has wallowed in history ever since. Now senior partner in his own prosperous Chicago law firm. Norville has read "several hundred" history books, from Churchill to Toynbee, and naturally his two daughters have taken Slosson, too. "The fellow was just terrific," says Norville. "With the possible exception of Will Rogers, he was more interesting than any speaker I've ever heard."

Teacher Slosson never even knew Student Norville personally. Now he thinks Norville is a pretty terrific fellow himself. "Gifts are often given in a professor's name," he says, "but for a specific educational purpose. This is for me." Slosson intends to "plow this gift back into education"--the college education of his nine grandchildren. Best of all. says he, "Norville has set a precedent. His generosity might make it possible for other professors to receive such gifts."

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