Magid remembered as a mentor by several professional writers

Nora Magid's legend at the University results from more than her role in running the University's unofficial, one-woman journalism department. Magid, whose work has appeared in a legion of magazines and newspapers, admitted she gained more pleasure from editing her students' essays than in writing her own. They praised her ability to put them at ease both in her classroom and in her office. Students said she encouraged them to drop by her office and her house and said she had gone out of her way to make them part of her life. Former students, who number among the top magazine writers and editors in the nation, often asked for her guidance in their decisions, saying her clear thinking helped them immensely. Magid, who would have been 66 today, died last Thursday after a month-long bout with the flu, during which she refused to see a doctor. Magid, who was born in Montreal, came to the University in 1970 after a career which included college teaching, advising the Kennedy Administration, and working for 14 years as literary editor of the now-defunct Reporter Magazine. Magid had also contributed to several magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Philadephia Inquirer, The New Republic and The New Yorker. She had been named the top student in Quebec upon graduating high school. She started teaching freshman English but was "arm-twisted" by two of her freshman students into teaching an advanced non-fiction writing course. Students said her unique manner of teaching her classes gave them confidence in their writing abilities. "For all of us she had a huge impact," Philadelphia Magazine Senior Editor and College graduate Stephen Fried said yesterday. "Besides teaching us how to write very well, she gave us an incredible ammount of confidence. . . . She taught us to think like writers." During class she would sit cross-legged on her desk, smoking thin cigars which she would stamp out either on the soles of her shoe or on the cigar case. She could be found during office hours sitting on the floor writing comments on essays with felt-tipped pens she carried in a basket. Students said she molded her classes to remind her of the magazines she had worked for -- she edited stories rather than graded them, giving students little impression of their progress in the class. "Class was not unlike the best editorial meetings at the most ambitious [publications]," Fried said. "She edited papers. She took what the students wrote very seriously. She treated us like we were already professionals." Unlike most professors, students said, she was very demanding, often asking students to revise their weekly non-fiction essays up to three times. But she dispensed criticism with a "loving touch" and treasured the "one funny line" in a sea of grammatical mistakes. But students also pointed to her eccentricities, such as her casual dress and her collection of hippopotamuses. They said she made many people feel comfortable but other students would literally run out of her class after their first encounter with her. Gentlemen's Quarterly Managing Editor Eliot Kaplan said last night that Magid sent his wife a birthday card every year because it coincided with her own. He said Magid kept a note he left her telling her about his first magazine job. Kevin Vaughn, 27th Ward Democratic committee chairperson, said when he was in a car accident, Magid appeared on his doorstep with bread and jelly to make sandwiches for lunch. She became entranced with photography after she was given a camera as a gift, and Fried said a group of "Noraites" came together after her camera was stolen to buy her a new one. She was proud of her photography, Vaughn said, having won two city awards for it in the early 1980s. Her office is lined with Polaroid snapshots of many of her students. As a result of her dedication, her students battled with the University to get Magid's teaching abilities recognized. In 1988, the University created the Provost's Teaching Award, to honor distinguished teaching from non-tenure-track faculty. Magid was the first recipient of the award. Former students say they want to organize some kind of memorial of Magid during Alumni Weekend. English Professor Robert Lucid described Magid as "irreplacable," adding most faculty in the department were in awe of the following she had with her students. Plans are not certain for who will take over her classes.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.