Eliot House

Alan and Arline Heimert

After eight years as master of Eliot House, gruff-voiced Alan E. Heimert '49 has been a House master for longer than anyone but Charles Dunn of Quincy--a fact he finds hard to accept, since when he replaced semi-legendary John H. Finley '25 most of the masters around had been in their positions for 20 years or so.

Eliot House has retained an image of a preppie-jock haven throughout Heimert's tenure, despite the replacement of master's choice with computer programs. Statistically, Heimert says, there is not that much difference between Eliot and any other House, but the image remains. Heimert maintains, however, that a more appropriate picture would be a comparison between the House and a pair of jeans that someone has worn into the shower--"jam-packed, overflowing."

Once a week, Heimert and his wife hold open houses at the master's residence, with cider, donuts, beer and pretzels. "The favorite combination (I hope you're not queasy) is beer and donuts."

As House master, Heimert says, his favorite activity is 'sitting in the dining hall and rapping, meeting a variety of students I couldn't get to know through the department." And he does, in fact, visit the dining room more often than many more remote masters, although his rather boisterous personal style, some House residents say, makes it hard to get to know him really well.

Outside the House, however, Heimert says he spends most of his spare time remodelling his own house in Winchester, Ma., where he spends most weekends and vacations. Heimert has one son, aged five, and a daughter who is almost four.

Heimert stepped down from the chairmanship of the English Department last year, and this year he will teach only two courses, English 70, "American Literature from Beginning to Present," in the fall, and English 270a, "American Literature in the 17th Century," in the spring. His field is colonial American literature.

He sounds pretty happy with the way the house functions overall, and says he doesn't look forward this year to any major changes in the way the House is run. Oh, except for moving the serving line out of the dining hall (a change recommended several years ago, and only instituted this summer), which Heimert says makes Eliot House "look like one of the grownup Houses at last."

Kirkland House

Evon and Catherine Vogt

Evon Z. Vogt III, professor of Social Anthropology, returned to Kirkland House last year, one book ("Tortillas for the Gods"), and, as he tells it, 29 tennis courts (in 18 countries), and one year older than when he left. "Tortillas" is about the rituals of the Maya tribe in Mexico, and it is the most tangible product of the sabbatical that Vogt and his Associate Master/wife Mary H. Vogt took last year. But more than that single tome may ultimately emerge from their trip.

"We were really intrigued by the changes in court customs and practices in the different countries we visited, and we may just write a little paperback about tennis around the world," Evon Vogt explains.

The tennis-playing Vogts feel right at home in the athletic ambience of Kirkland House. "It's a very active House," he says. "It's not that everyone is a varsity athlete, people just seem to be doing things around here."

Vogt was appointed to a six-year term as K-House Master in 1974, but was replaced by Dr. Warren E. Wacker, director of the University Health Services, during his leave.