PIERMONT — Whether it was older adults at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth, students at the University of Connecticut or elementary school children, Joe Medlicott was much admired for his capacity to listen, connect and engage, not just instruct.

“Joe had such a love of learning and teaching,” said Lisa King, the director of Osher since 1995 and a close friend of Medlicott’s. “The way he presented his material made the participants in the class love to learn. He put a lot of time into what he was teaching.”

King said Medlicott would arrive 45 minutes before class to prepare and many students also came early to see him.

“People just wanted to talk to Joe and engage him,” King said. “He was one-of-a-kind.”

Bonnie Cornell met Medlicott while teaching elementary school Lyme.

“He came in every year (for almost 20 years) to talk to my sixth graders about writing,” Cornell recalled in an email. “I’ll never forget the first time he showed up in his tweed coat with handouts for the class. I immediately knew he was the real deal as he quickly won over all of the students and me. Joe was a true gentleman and scholar.”

At Osher, Medlicott earned a loyal following among students as someone who not only imparted his knowledge of classical literature or guided them in memoir writing but connected with them personally and made their  classroom experience memorable.

“Joe was a master teacher,” said Cornell, who took seven Osher courses taught by Medlicott. “He was curious about people and a wonderful listener. He led us through each story by sharing background about the author and what was going on in history at the time the story was written. He shared poetry and songs from the time period. He was able to encourage discussion and yet not let any one person take over.”

Stephanie Reininger, Medlicott’s long-time friend and partner, said the personal connection made “students receptive to whatever he wanted to teach us.”

Reininger remembered how Medlicott could elicit thoughts and questions from students about an author or subject but never dismissed someone’s comment as not intellectually rigorous enough.

“He would pick up on each one and relate it to what he was saying,” Reininger said. “He never thought there could be a ‘dumb’ question so people (in his class) weren’t afraid to speak. He created a community who got to know each other and we adored him.”

In his memoir writing course, Medlicott helped students craft stories of their past.

“He could teach how to write something that was very readable,” Reininger said.

Medlicott, who was preparing to teach another Osher course in the fall, died Oct. 6, 2023, at the age of 96.

King said Medlicott taught a total of 75 courses at Osher beginning with “America Moves West” in the fall of 1991. He developed his own course syllabus, which had to be approved by the institute’s vetting committee.

His courses encompassed a wide variety of authors, including Dickens, Hemingway, Austen, Dickinson, Faulkner, Twain and Cather, along with different topics on literature. And he came up with his own course titles. “I Hate Poetry. I Don’t Understand it: Learning About Verse,” was in 1994. “Murder Most Foul: Classic Detective Novels” and “Scamps, Scoundrels and Scaliwags” were two other examples. Enrollment in his literature courses was limited to 20 but 40 often wanted to get in, King said.

Joseph Tofel, a regular in Medlicott’s courses, said he could bring authors to life, he knew them so well.

“His feeling for authors was almost personal,” said Tofel, who knew Medlicott for about 30 years, took 15 of his courses in addition to being part of a weekly lunch group with Medlicott and others. “Whoever he was talking about, it was as if he spoke with them that morning.”

There was something else about Medlicott that made him unique as an instructor in Tofel’s view.

“He was one of the best listeners I have ever known,” Tofel said. “He was empathetic and listened well and because of that, you listened to him well.”

Alexander “Joe” Medlicott Jr., was born and raised in Longmeadow, Mass. After high school, he enlisted in the Army and trained as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division soon after the end of World War II.

Close friend Bernie Marvin, who served with Medlicott as a library trustee in Piermont, recalled his friend’s wonderful sense of humor, encyclopedic knowledge of authors and his regular participation in local government. Several times, Medlicott joined Marvin when he spoke about being a veteran to classes at Woodsville High School.

“He was like a professor,” Marvin said. “He related to the kids. He drew maps and spoke about (World War II) and progress across Europe.”

After his military service, Medlicott earned an English degree from Dartmouth in 1950. He met Suzanne Rykken while still in high school when she was attending a nearby prep school. They were married in 1949 after her graduation from Smith College.

Medlicott’s first job was selling cars at his father’s Springfield (Mass.) Packard Automobile Dealership.

“There was nothing else at the time and he had a young family,” his son Alex, the oldest of three children, said.

Medlicott, who Alex said never liked selling cars, lost his job when the Packard company went out of business. He enrolled at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and earned a master’s in American Literature and English. To help pay the bills, Medlicott covered the night police beat for the Springfield (Mass.) Union newspaper. Alex said that experience taught his father the importance of writing clearly and concisely, a skill he impressed upon his students throughout his academic career.

“Dad was very focused on clear communication. No frills or flowery stuff. Simple, direct language,” said Alex, who along with brother Peter remembered their father’s sometimes harsh but always fair critique of their writings. “It was a good exercise.”

The Medlicotts moved West in the late 1950s where Joe earned a doctorate at the University of Washington in Seattle and taught English at a private school. Returning East in 1964, Medlicott was hired as assistant professor of English at the University of Connecticut. He subsequently finished his teaching career with 10 years at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He and Suzanne retired to Piermont in the early 1990s and soon after, he volunteered to teach at Osher.

Medlicott’s children said their father took a sincere interest and encouraged them in whatever they wanted to pursue.

At a young age, Peter said he was fascinated by trains and was thrilled with an electric train set one Christmas, which led to something more memorable.

“One thing that really stood out was a ride in the cab of a New York Central diesel locomotive from Springfield to Worcester, Mass.” Peter said in an email from his home in Germany. “It took some doing, but he finally persuaded the New Central management to let me ride in the cab. This was not only a dream come true for me as a young lad, but I suppose it was also something of a public relations coup for the railroad.”

In his later years, when Peter took an interest in German his father financed two trips to Germany during summer breaks from school.

“Those trips truly cemented my interest and fascination with German culture and language,” Peter wrote, adding that his father told him it did not matter what you do, “just as long as you enjoy it and do it well.”

Sue, who lives in Massachusetts, said she had the good fortune to spend a lot of time with her father when he was home during the day studying for his doctorate and writing his thesis.

“I feel lucky that I was able to spend so much time with my Dad,” Sue said in an email. “He helped me learn to read, whittle, and gave me his first baseman’s mitt while we played endless games of catch in the yard. My father always encouraged and supported my independent spirit.”

Medlicott did not always have his nose in a book.

“His academic schedule meant that we had summers free as a family,” Sue said. “It was during these times we learned to love the outdoors with many camping trips and hiking treks.”

Alex said his father cherished rugged backpacking trips in Washington’s Cascade Mountains.

“Hiking and fishing trips in the North Cascades were a big part of his life,” Alex said.

When he and Suzanne, who died in 2020, retired to the Upper Valley, the couple raised German Shepherds and Joe took an active role in helping care for Suzanne’s two horses.

Everett Dowe was a student of Medlicott’s at UCONN in the early 1970s and 50 years later, was thrilled to reconnect with him at an Osher course.

“He was a good teacher and he was a gentleman, forgiving of undergraduate errors,” Dowe said in a letter to Osher that appeared in the institute’s spring newsletter. “Over the years I wondered where he settled, as one might with a favorite teacher.”

Internet searches answered Dowe’s curiosity and he enrolled in an Osher class, driving north each week from Connecticut.

“He is still a good teacher. He is still a gentleman,” Dowe wrote. “You need not take my word for it. His Osher students provide proof sufficient. His classes fill up immediately. He has a loyal cadre of students who follow him from class to class. They clearly respect him, and they appear to have genuine affection for him. It is easy to see why he is still teaching at the age of 96. It has been a delight to meet Joe Medlicott 50 years later. It is a gift not given to most of us.”

Medlicott’s longtime friend Tofel said Medlicott was perhaps one of the easiest people to be with he has ever known and one of the most beloved.

“I’ve never known anyone who was loved by as many people as Joe,” Tofel said.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com