The Hercules of History

In the midst of ruins covered in entwining vines, crumbling pillars and weathered statues, Roger Woodard stood in the Roman Forum where centuries ago Roman public life thrived with elections, speeches, and gladiator matches.

Where children once played, merchants toiled and emperors ruled. Late in the day, the shadows stretch themselves and he can almost feel the ghosts of the past dancing around him.

He researches history. Not just ink on the pages of a textbook, but the life of its people; men and women reading The Iliad for the first time, Roman high priests holding processions through cobbled streets. He rediscovers the ancient ancestors of humanity that worshipped gods that are no longer revered, in languages that are no longer spoken.

Roger Woodard, Ph.D., a classics professor at UB, is known throughout campus as the man with the golden voice, the firm handshake, and the fascinating class. With over 30 years of teaching under his belt, and more than 10 of his own books published, Woodard is a professor, an explorer, and a performer.

He grew up in Raleigh, N.C. in a working class home, reading Mark Twain and Sherlock Holmes novels, admiring John F. Kennedy and Albert Einstein. Even during his childhood, Woodard was fascinated with history novels, but he had no intention of making a career out of them.

Woodard was a part of the first generation of his family to go to college, brought up with the idea that in order to get ahead and be successful in life, he had to go into the science field. As an undergraduate student at North Carolina State, Woodard graduated in pre-medicine and was accepted into a medical school. He was faced with a crossroads that many of his students today are facing: to choose a path and determine his future.

But Woodard couldn't bring himself to follow through with medical school. In the end, he decided that while it was a great life, it wasn't right for him. For the next three years, Woodard spent time at seminary school, trying to figure out what he was going to do next.

The work was grueling, demanding, and intensive, according to Woodward. He studied history, archaeology, language and literature. He allowed himself only four hours of sleep each night, going to sleep at 10 p.m. and waking up at 2 a.m.

Although the work was overwhelming, Woodard considered it a liberating experience. For the first time in his life, he was able to study something for which he had a passion.

"In order to witness clearly the march of humanity from its inception to the present moment, an understanding of how humankind has held encounter with the divine as central is crucial," Woodard said. "Ancient humanity provides us with an excellent laboratory for gaining such an understanding."

With his passion in history reborn, those three years gave him what he was searching for: a life that was for him.

Ever since Woodard obtained his doctorate from the University of North Carolina in 1986, he has been a historian and a professor, teaching all over the country from sunny California to snowy Buffalo, N.Y.

It is not just his passion that makes his teaching unique, but how he utilizes that passion. In a classroom that seats about 400, Woodard hypnotizes his students enough to keep their attention focused on him more than on their laptops, cellular phones, and iPods.

"[A student of mine] was saying that he just loves going to Roger's class and hearing him talk," said Stephen Dyson, a professor of classics and colleague of Woodard's. "It's not like he's talking about sex and violence in fifth century Athens. He gives them rather rigorous stuff and it goes over in a generally effective way. The numbers show it. Before he came, those courses were very small. Nothing like the numbers he has [now]."

He does not speak in monotone, he does not drone, and he does not need to resort to using pop culture references. His unique cadence and old-fashioned charisma transforms his college lectures into kindergarten story-time.

"He has a very dramatic and theatrical way of teaching which truly makes class seem like a story," said Sharjeel Akhtar, a teaching assistant of Woodard's. "He is extremely eloquent and descriptive which, in my opinion, is the requirement of a great professor."

Akhtar, a junior business management major, was told by his adviser that Professor Woodard was one of the best professors at UB, and that being his TA would be a great experience.

With plans to be a professor himself, Akhtar has looked up to Woodard for his experience, his enthusiasm, his character, but mostly his kindness.

Akhtar, originally from Pakistan, was struck with news that his father passed away last year, while he was a TA for Woodard's Myth and Religion class. Woodard's understanding and compassion during such a difficult time truly impacted Akhtar; currently, Woodard is using his language proficiency to help Akhtar translate his father's autobiography.

"[Professor Woodard] greatly helped eradicate my initial nervousness regarding my own work," Akhtar said. "In my experience here at UB, Professor Woodard is most certainly one of the nicest men I have come across."

Any student who has taken a class with Woodard can describe how it is unique from others. One such thing is before every class, Woodard walks through the rows of chair, shaking the hands of his students as he greets them with a soft-spoken voice, contrary to his booming lecture voice.

The tradition of shaking hands began almost 20 years ago when Woodard was a professor at the University of Southern California. At the time, Woodard taught in a spacious yet acoustically poor lecture hall. It was something Woodard was determined to break.

"I tried using a microphone, in those days a large handheld device," Woodard said. "It only added a sense of Las Vegas weirdness to the scene."

So he decided that before class he would walk through rows of disordered chairs, shaking hands and greeting his students in order to destroy the barrier that was separating him from his class, and the members of the class from each other. His experiment was surprisingly successful, and Woodard was able to finally form connections with his students.

That's the most important part of teaching, according to Woodard: instilling knowledge and wisdom.

Throughout the years of his teaching career, Woodard has had the opportunity to travel across the world as a visiting scholar to universities in London, Rome, and Germany, and to go to the places where ancient civilizations thrived.

As an associate professor in Baltimore, Woodard met another professor of classics, Maurizio Bettini, who was visiting from Siena, Italy. Immediately Bettini became close friends with Woodard, his wife, and his at-the-time infant son.

"I was struck by the erudition, the humanity, the scholarly passion that animated Roger, and still does," Bettini said. "It is so easy [to communicate] when you deal with true scholars and real friends like Roger."

Woodard often asks his class, "What is our aim?"

"Academic excellence," the students reply.

In research, in teaching, and in his personal life, Woodard demonstrates the importance of dedication. While he considers himself driven, his friends would more likely call him a workaholic.

"He reminds me of the professors that taught me decades ago, when [wearing a white shirt and tie to teach] was normal," Dyson said. "It's a certain dignity or, ‘dignitas,' as the Romans would put it."

Students talk about Professor Woodard as the man with the voice that can project throughout Knox 20 with a cadence that could rival William Shatner. It entraps his listeners; pulling them out of a lecture hall and throwing them head first into stories of heroes, gods, and monsters.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com