Mary E. Hazard, English literature professor emeritus at Drexel, poet, and author, has died at 92

Mary E. Hazard, 92, formerly of Philadelphia, professor emeritus of early modern English literature at Drexel University, poet, and author, died Wednesday, June 15, of vascular dementia at an assisted living center in Minneapolis.

Dr. Hazard taught classes in early English literature at Drexel from 1969 to 1993. She earned a doctorate in English at Bryn Mawr College in 1970, published several articles and chapters on William Shakespeare and other literary topics, and wrote the 2000 book Elizabethan Silent Language.

In her book, Dr. Hazard showed how, in addition to their many literary contributions, Elizabethans used monuments, jewelry, costumes, laws, art, and other elements of society to wordlessly communicate their values and concepts. They were, she wrote, forms of a silent language.

Many Drexel students focused on engineering and technical studies during Dr. Hazard’s tenure, and she was challenged to keep them interested in language and literature. “The main course load of required courses was heavy and the students often resistant,” Dr. Hazard wrote in an essay about her life. “But the dedication of many faculty, administrators, and students nurtured the humanities.”

Curious, outspoken, a voracious reader and meticulous researcher, she also lectured at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Moore College of Art, and the University of Delaware.

Later, she wrote poetry, compiling 98 pages of short poems in an unpublished collection called Life Lines. She wrote that she was “virtually thinking in haiku and occasionally writing in some other restrictive forms. I enjoy the integration of demanding form, play upon language through etymology and pun, and often also allusion to earlier poetry.”

Of growing older, she wrote:

Taking Leave. Packing up to go/First off load jewels clothes books/And at last ego.

Last Words. Famously life is/A series of erasures/Said Anonymous.

Postscript. A flaw in the old jade/Increases the facial range/Sculpts a final smile.

Born Oct. 4, 1929, in Detroit, Mary Schneider graduated from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Mich., in 1950 and earned a master’s degree in American Studies at Western Reserve University, now Case Western Reserve University, in Ohio in 1954. She frequented the public library and the Detroit Institute of Arts as a teenager, and a high school teacher helped her gain scholarship money for college.

She also worked as a babysitter, receptionist, laundry clerk, and model during her college years. Later, she won fellowships and worked part time as a substitute teacher, editor, and instructor at the University of Hawaii and Temple University to pay for her postgraduate studies.

She married English professor Patrick Hazard in 1950, and they had son Michael, daughter Catherine, and son Timothy. They divorced in 1970.

Dr. Hazard lived for more than 30 years in the Rittenhouse Savoy building on Rittenhouse Square. Before that, she raised her children in Northeast Philadelphia at Greenbelt Knoll, the first planned racially integrated housing development in the city and one of the first in the nation. She moved to Minneapolis in March to be closer to family.

Dr. Hazard studied Italian later in life, liked to wander through Philadelphia museums, and was a volunteer with the Dolphin Companions visitation program for seniors. Although unsentimental, disciplined and not shy in sharing her dry sense of humor, she made friends easily and kept many of them for life.

In a tribute, her family wrote: “She disdained cellphone use in public as a violation of the social contract. She never met a dog she didn’t like.” Her granddaughter, Sonia Hazard, said: “She was an inspiration to me.”

When she turned 90, Dr. Hazard wrote to her son, Michael: “I can’t go on. I do go on. How? Being the [Studs] Terkel of the Square. Loving the suns and moons out my back windows. Hearing Bach via multiple media. Books. Enjoying the folk in my groups.”

In addition to her children, granddaughter, and former husband, Dr. Hazard is survived by a sister and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A memorial service is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, P.O. Box 7512, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101, and the Dolphin Companions Program at Episcopal Community Services, 225 S. 3rd St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.