One of Those Good Ones: Dr. Bob Hatfield
While perusing the local library this evening, I received a phone call from my wife telling me that Dr. Robert Hatfield had died. Then, she added, that he had died over three years ago. Certainly, this is an odd bit of news to receive on a wet Wednesday evening but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how “Dr. Bob”, as he was known, and his class affected my and my wife’s lives.
Dr. Hatfield taught the Human Sexuality class at the University of Cincinnati, a class that everyone on campus wanted to take. And why not? Dr. Bob’s humor and candor turned a subject ripe for dry academic dissertations and schoolyard snickering into a fascinating, frank, and mature learning experience. He made talking about sex comfortable and he did it in front of thousands of horny, awkward college students.
As one of his former TA recounted in this article:
Bob’s class was the largest undergraduate Human Sexuality class in the United States, with enrollment between 450 and 750 each quarter. Every Tuesday and Thursday students would pack Zimmer Auditorium to listen to “Dr. Bob” as they called him, see his movies, (which were legend on campus) and write anonymous questions he would answer during class. Dr. Bob made his students feel like no subject was off limits. He strived for and succeeded in establishing a comfortable atmosphere in which his students were encouraged to learn, think about, and ask questions about sexuality.
He took a sensitive subject and made it humorous without being crass. At times, it’d be quite disarming. One example was in the way he would describe male ejaculation. Dr. Bob deconstructed the process quite thoroughly from erection to stimulation to, shall we say, the “money shot”. He climaxed (sorry) the explanation by saying that the semen was then ejected from the urethra via rhythmic contractions, out of the penis and “into the waiting Kleenex”.
Any male worth his wank knew what he meant.
Alas, I was surprised to hear that he had passed on. Though I hadn’t thought of him in years, the experience of being in his class stayed with me, my wife, and all of those who took his class.
So it goes.
Further recollections can be found over on freelance writer Joe Wessel’s site. He concludes his thoughts with Dr. Bob’s 12 Tips For A Healthy Intimate Relationship. I can think of no better legacy for the good doctor than that.
