I was a student of his at Dartmouth in the early 1990s, toward the end of his career. I not only enjoyed his classes, but his conversation, his stories of fishing trips to places like Peru and Northern Quebec, and his omnipresent Labrador. At Dartmouth, he was known as quite a character. He loved to see himself as vinegary curmudgeon--in class he loved celebrating the gouty old gentlemen of early British novels--, but of course he was himself the exact opposite in temperament: generous, open-minded, and extremely good-natured. He was a great teacher who was extremely invested in his students. Years after I had graduated, and after he had retired, he continued to offer plenty of career advice. He was also extremely funny. I once saw a lecture in California, and it turned out that the profssor giving the lecture was a friend of Chauncey's from Korean war. The lecturer told me that he had recently seen Chauncey give a paper at conference and wondered how Chauncey was able to remain polite as academic after academic got up to critique the paper. Chauncey told him, "It's easy these days, I just turn off my hearing aid."
I will miss him a lot, as I'm sure will countless others. But his character will certainly live on through the ideals-- literary, historic, philanthropic, eccentric--that he has inspired in so many students.
"As the shadow of the kingfisher moved up the stream, a big trout shot upstream in a long angle, only his shadow marking the angle, then lost his shadow as he came through the surface of the water, caught the sun, and then, as he went back into the stream under the surface, his shadow seemed to float down the stream with the current unresisting, to his post under the bridge where he tightened facing up into the current."
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STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Chauncey Chester Loomis Jr., 78, of Glendale Middle Road died from cancer at Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington on Tuesday, March 17, 2009.
Born in New York on June 1, 1930, son of Chauncey and Elizabeth McLanahan Loomis, he attended the Stockbridge schools and Phillips Exeter Academy. He earned his bachelor's degree and later his doctorate, in 1952, from Princeton University and his master of arts from Columbia University.
An Army veteran, he served during the Korean War before entering Columbia.
A professor of English, Mr. Loomis taught at Dartmouth University from 1963 until retiring in 1997. He also briefly taught at the University of Vermont.
In 1968, he led an expedition investigating the mysterious death of the early American explorer Charles Francis Hall, who was buried in Northern Greenland during an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole. That trip resulted in his book "Weird and Tragic Shores," recently republished by the Modern Library in the Expedition Series and which became the basis for a PBS documentary. He wrote many book reviews and articles including his innovative consideration of Arctic landscapes in his essay "Arctic Sublime," published in the "Nature and the Victorian Imagination."
Throughout his life, Mr. Loomis followed his passion for exploration, conservation, photography and fly fishing. He filmed musk oxen off the coast of Alaska, searched for lost Inca civilizations in Peru, and caught (and mostly released) trout and salmon on many continents. He was always involved in his various communities and served on the boards of local and national institutions, including the Housatonic Valley Association, Phillips Exeter Academy, the Hotchkiss School, the Norman Rockwell Museum and Chesterwood.
For all his protestations, he was welcoming and generous, said loved ones, "he taught us much about thinking and living, about honesty and kindness."
He leaves his nephew, Craig Loomis; a grandniece, Vivian Loomis; stepnieces and -nephews Claudine Scoville, Reg Gignoux, Tom Gignoux and Thayer Gignoux, and their children Denny, Simone, Alex, Christopher and Madeleine Gignoux.
He was predeceased by his older brothers John "Jack" Loomis and Stanley Loomis.
FUNERAL NOTICE — A memorial service for Mr. Loomis will be held at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge on May 9 at 4.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial gifts may be made to the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, which administers a fund established by Mr. Loomis to help Berkshire County high school students attend college. Donations may be sent to through Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230.