BACK TO SCHOOL FOR MIDDLEKAUFF

Robert Middlekauff says we can blame Caltech for his decision to resign as director of the Huntington and return to academic life. Recalling the stimulation of teaching an American history class while running the Huntington, he said, “I used to come out of Caltech feeling just marvelous. The undergraduates ask the most fundamental questions. They really keep you on your toes.”

Huntington Board Chairman R. Stanton Avery puts Middlekauff’s recently announced resignation in a slightly different light: “At 57, he (Middlekauff) felt he had to make up his mind between administration and the teaching and research that are his first love.”

No matter how the decision is accounted for, the result is the same: On Jan. 1, 1988, Middlekauff will leave his post as director of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino and become a professor of history at UC Berkeley.

After four years at the Southern California institution, he will return to the university where he previously spent 21 years as a professor and administrator, serving as dean of social sciences (1974-77), chairman of the history department (1978-81) and provost and dean of the College of Letters and Science (1981-83).

“I left one administrative position for another, thinking there would be more time here for scholarship,” Middlekauff said during an interview in his office. “But I am returning to Berkeley with the proviso that I will not be involved in administration.

“I hadn’t realized I would miss teaching so much. Even when I was provost, I gave a course each year,” he said. Middlekauff has “never looked upon teaching as work,” but he will go back to the classroom with a light load that provides time for his own writing.

The author of six books on American history, he has two others in mind. The first, a study of American narrative historians Samuel Elliot Morison, Allan Nevins and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., will examine the work of three men who have “reconstructed the past in a way that can be understood and read by the general public,” he said.

The second returns Middlekauff to Puritanism, a subject he addressed in his 1971 Bancroft Prize-winning study, “The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728.” This time he will look into the “first years of the American republic” to study the origins of the country’s political stability. He intends to examine why America’s revolution did not follow the volatile pattern of continuing revolutions that “eat their young.”

This line of inquiry came from questions posed at Middlekauff’s Caltech class, providing the devoted teacher with “a perfect example” of why “the separation of teaching and research is a great mistake.”

Middlekauff, who was educated at the University of Washington and Yale University, made his first contact with the Huntington as a scholar in New England, writing to the library for copies of Puritan tracts. In 1977, he settled into the library’s tranquil research wing for six months as a visiting scholar. “It was a wonderful stay,” he recalled.

In those years he knew the Huntington primarily for its “splendid collections” and its professional services. As director he has become actively involved in the institution’s public side. “I’ve learned about its broader mission, its role in the community. We try to make the Huntington accessible to a broad spectrum of the public through publications, classes, tours and the bookstore.”

Noting that 30,000 schoolchildren visit the Huntington each year and that 300 docents lead educational tours, he cited a need for more adult education. “The depth of information provided in tours is not great, but we hope to incite people’s interest so that they’ll come back,” he said.

Both public and professional use of the Huntington’s facilities have grown enormously in the last 20 years. Public attendance doubled from the ‘60s to the ‘80s and now “holds steady” at around 500,000 a year, according to Katherine Wilson, head of public information.

The number of scholars also has doubled. “Between 1,500 and 2,000 scholars use the library every year,” Middlekauff said. “We have a large and lively group from all over the world.” A program of seminars attracts “first-rate” graduate students, visiting scholars and professionals employed by local institutions, he said.

He expected to accelerate the Huntington’s research program when he became director, but he hadn’t anticipated devoting so much of his time to fund-raising when the institution launched its endowment campaign. “I was something of an innocent in that regard,” he said.

Though a typical day in the life of the director brings a changing array of “problems and questions,” the subject of money is a constant presence, he said.

And not without results. In a letter from Avery to “the Huntington family” announcing Middlekauff’s resignation and acknowledging his leadership in expanding services to both public and private sectors, the chairman stated that under Middlekauff’s tenure the Huntington has retired its debt and raised $6 million in cash and pledges, plus $7.5 million in deferred gifts.

“If we could clone Middlekauff, we would,” Avery said during a telephone interview. “Everyone just loves the guy and is shocked that he would leave.” Avery hopes to find another distinguished scholar “who has the ability to administer.”

Middlekauff’s successor will take charge of a unique institution that focuses its attention on art, books and plants. Major coming projects include developing a master plan and possibly building a research structure for the botanical gardens to include laboratories, a reference library, a herbarium and a classroom or two.

Reminding a visitor that he has almost a year left at the Huntington, Middlekauff said, “I don’t regret a moment here. I have enjoyed every bit of it.” He does, however, have regrets about leaving San Marino.

“I’ll miss the people more than anything,” he said. “And the beauty of the place--the gardens and galleries. I’ve learned enormously from them. And--this isn’t as whimsical as it sounds--I’m going to miss the birds.”