HAROLD O. GRAUEL, LONGTIME SOUTHEAST PROFESSOR, DIES AT 94

Dr. Harold O. Grauel, a longtime professor at Southeast Missouri State University with a love for literature, died Wednesday, Nov. 15, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was 94.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel.

Grauel lived at 722 Normal in the shadow of the university where he taught English for 43 years.

A charismatic individual, Grauel taught at Southeast from 1928 to 1971.

For many years he headed the English department and later the division of English, foreign languages, philosophy and speech.

In 1975, the university's then-new language arts building was named in his honor.

He was active in the Masons, serving in a number of leadership positions over the years.

Grauel was slowed by illness in recent years. But to his friends and former students, he was forever The Professor.

Mark Scully, former Southeast president, was a student of Grauel's. Both as a student and later as Southeast's president, Scully admired Grauel's skill as a teacher.

Scully said Grauel was the best teacher he ever knew.

"He was kind, sympathetic, understanding and a really scholarly person," said Scully. "He loved teaching. I wouldn't have missed his class for anything in the world."

Jane Stacy, director of alumni services, was a friend of Grauel's.

"I think he was a most remarkable man. He touched people's lives in a way that no other professor did," she said.

"He was the original Curious George," said Stacy. "His mind never stopped. He was curious about every facet of life."

Students John Bierk and Jennie Cooper returned to Southeast to teach in the English department that Grauel chaired. Bierk, a longtime companion and colleague of Grauel's, said Grauel enjoyed teaching and communicated that love to his students.

He wanted his students to be observant and constantly asked them questions.

Grauel once asked students how many columns were on the front of Academic Hall. None of the students knew the answer.

Another time, he instructed his students to go to the circus that was in town and write about seeing an elephant for the first time.

Cooper, who teaches English at Southeast, said Grauel was an inspiring teacher. "He called on every student by name every day," said Cooper. "I remember he would ask impossible questions on any subject."

Cooper had him for two Shakespeare classes. Today, she teaches Shakespeare.

Cooper remembers Grauel's energy as a teacher. "I never saw him come into a classroom without enthusiasm and vigor.'

Another former student, Fred Goodwin, returned to Southeast to teach speech classes. When Grauel retired, Goodwin succeeded him as head of the humanities division, which later became the College of Humanities. Goodwin retired in 1988.

Goodwin said Grauel brought astute scholarship and a sense of humor into the classroom.

"He was one of a small handful of people that really shaped the university," he said.

Grauel grew up in Findlay, Ohio. When beginning his teaching career at Southeast at the age of 27, he stood out because he was considerably younger than most of the faculty, Bierk said.

Grauel's book of essays, "The Inimitable Professor H.O. Grauel: His Essays on This and That," was published three years ago. It provided a glimpse of the legendary professor's life and personality.

In the book, Grauel recalls writing a university fight song for the dedication of Houck Stadium in October 1930.

Another essay recalled Grauel's effort to get rid of a bad case of dandruff. A concoction, mixed together by Grauel and another man, turned the professor's black hair to a reddish color and later orange.

During a football game, someone in the crowd yelled, "Sit down pumpkin head."

Grauel wrote that he had to live with the problem for 10 months, from March 1932 to January 1933, when his hair color returned to normal.

The book also recounts the lifting of the ban on dancing at Southeast in 1932. Some school officials thought the female students should be informed of the need to wear girdles and refrain from choosing low-cut or backless gowns. Grauel defended the attire.

Grauel wrote that the event was significant because "dancing finally came out of the dark on the campus of Southeast Missouri State Teachers College, and with its entrance, the entire atmosphere of the college became more enlightened."