Title:“Rare Teacher” Influences Students and Georgetown

When Valerie Earle, Ph.D., joined Georgetown University in 1955, the native Texan was a rare presence, figuratively and literally.

She was the first woman appointed to the liberal arts faculty at a time when Georgetown was, in her words, “primarily a school for boys…and the boys wore coats and ties to class.” As a result, Reverend James Horigan, S.J., chairman of the Department of Government, felt compelled to accompany her to all of her classes at the beginning of her first year to introduce her and impart stern warnings to the “boys” to behave.

It wasn’t necessary. Warm, charming and unflinching, Earle easily commanded the attention and respect of all who came into contact with her, from students to university presidents. From her first classes until her death at 85 in August 2004, the professor emeritus profoundly impacted Georgetown in its growth from small institution to major university.

Arriving in Washington after teaching at San Francisco State College and the University of Alabama, Earle established her courses on constitutional law as core elements of the government curriculum. She enjoyed constitutional law because it was about rules — and she liked things to be orderly and tidy. She lectured on the protection of the rights defined in the Constitution with depth and passion.

“She was one of the best professors on campus,” says Peter Kelly (C’59), a founder, director and senior principal of the law firm Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C. “I always relished the opportunity to take her class.”

Earle’s teaching has served Kelly well: Since 1978, he has served in over a dozen National Democratic Party leadership posts, ranging from National Treasurer (1979-81) and National Finance Chairman (1981-85) to senior advisory positions with the 1992 Clinton and 2000 Gore presidential campaigns.

In 2002, Kelly honored his mentor through the Peter G. Kelly John Carroll Scholarship in honor of Valerie Earle, awarded with a preference for political science students with financial need. “You are a rare teacher if your students remember what you taught 40 years later,” he says. “Dr. Earle was that kind of teacher.”

Earle was equally influential in her involvement in department and university affairs, as Georgetown evolved into a complex institution with a diverse student body and instructors who were lay people rather than priests.

“She understood this process of change and was able to take the lead in articulating and shaping the growing awareness among the faculty that they should no longer be merely at the receiving end of university administrative decisions,” says Karl H. Cerny, a fellow professor emeritus, former chairman of the Government Department, and friend.

When a Faculty Senate was created in 1965, Earle drafted its bylaws. A year later the Senate’s predominately male members elected her as its first president. She also served as president of the Faculty Association and member of the prestigious Rank and Tenure Committee, and campaigned successfully for the department to join national political science honorary society Pi Sigma Alpha.

Thanks to her input, the Government Department became the first major university department to introduce faculty input into the determination of annual faculty increases and the choice of incoming faculty. Elected chairperson in 1972, she was the first woman to head a major department of the university.

Earle retired from full-time teaching in 1986 but continued part-time, despite being confined to a wheelchair. In fact, she was busily planning her course for the fall semester of 2004 when she fell ill.

In her will, she left a significant portion of her estate for the establishment of the Valerie and Chester Earle Lectureship in the Government Department. Earle’s husband, Chester, worked at the Department of Agriculture and later taught constitutional law at American University before his death in 1986.

“In a very real sense, Valerie was and will remain Mrs. Georgetown, the conscience of the University and its commitment to academic excellence,” Cerny adds.

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