June 11, 2001 Contact: John Newman (831) 459-2496; jtnewman@cats.ucsc.edu THE DREAM DEFERRED FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SANTA CRUZ, CA--"I was an A-plus student and I wanted with all my heart to go to college," Shirley Primack Azen recalls, "but my father was adamantly opposed to a female having an education beyond high school." There is no hint of bitterness in her voice. Azen, now into her 80s and with a doctorate in comparative literature from UCSC, sounds every bit as sharp as she must have been as a high school student. Few people questioned Azen's father's views on women and education back in the 1930s. Azen's early academic success is all the more remarkable considering the fact that her father, an itinerant rabbi, kept the family on the move throughout most of her childhood--she attended eight different grade schools, in eight different towns, in eight years. Her three brothers were all sent to college with her father's blessing, but when she graduated high school, she was expected to find a job and marry. She did find work, even though the country was in the depths of the Great Depression, and by 1931, in spite of her father's views, she had saved enough money for a year at Purdue University. "It was the happiest year of my life," she says. But when the money ran out, she was forced to give up her scholastic bliss and return to work. It wasn't too long before she was married as well, and once her children arrived, higher education seemed like an increasingly distant dream. Still, Azen never lost her love of learning, even though her husband, an alcoholic, was openly contemptuous of her academic interests. "He wasn't well educated, so I'm sure he felt threatened by my interest in intellectual things," Azen explains. She was forced to keep her interest in learning hidden, and as her husband's disease progressed, his contempt turned into physical abuse. "You just didn't talk about those kinds of things in those days," Azen says. "I just kept that part of me private." Even though she was actively discouraged from pursuing her love of learning, she kept her intellectual interest stimulated by reading, and maintained a connection with the academic community by taking a staff position at UCLA--a position she held for 20 years. By the time she was ready to retire, in 1978, her husband had died and her children were grown. "When I retired, I told my son I was thinking of going back to school," Azen says. "I was half expecting to be discouraged from the idea." But Azen had successfully transmitted her love of education to her children. Her son, himself a professor at USC, was very supportive and encouraged her to apply. She was already familiar with the UCLA campus and programs, of course, having worked there for many years, and she had settled on the UC system, After reviewing all the UC catalogs, she was most intrigued by UCSC. "I really liked the idea of small, individual colleges," Azen says. "And UCSC, more than any of the other UC campuses, seemed to place an emphasis on pure learning." UCSC was the only college to which she applied. In 1978, at the age of 65, she was admitted as an undergraduate. Because of her love of books, she decided to major in comparative literature. According to John Lynch, UCSC professor of classics, Azen not only fit right in--she inspired all the other much-younger students. "It was obvious how much she loved learning," Lynch says. "A student like that helps nurture the whole learning environment." Azen blossomed in the classroom. Her work was always among the best in the class, but far from being competitive, she was very supportive of the other students and helped however she could. "She brought a perspective to the class that you can only get from life experiences," says Lynch. "I think everybody in the class benefited from it." One of the things that Azen had cultivated through her years of experience was a sense of humor--something else that helped make the classes more enjoyable for everyone. She was not only a top student, but a very popular one as well. In 1981 she completed her undergraduate studies and was awarded her degree in comparative literature. But Azen wasn't particularly anxious to leave the academic environment in which she had waited so long to participate. After graduation, she began taking extension courses at UCSC. She enjoyed them, but eventually she decided she might just as well enroll in graduate school. Her years in graduate school were much like her undergraduate days; a precise and very systematic student, she impressed her professors with determination, hard work, and humor. Humor, in fact, was the theme of her graduate thesis--a comparison of humor in the work of Aristophanes and contemporary Jewish American authors. Azen was awarded her Ph.D. in 1991 at the age of 78. It was an accomplishment she was proud of, but she accepted her degree with mixed feelings--having deferred it for so long, she was in no hurry for her life of scholarship to be over. For a while, even after she got her degree, she continued to revise her dissertation. Then, slowly, a new project began to take shape in her imagination. "Her scholarship was always very good," notes Lynch, "but I think she really wanted to do something creative." Not content to analyze literature, in the fall of 1999 Azen went to work on her own memoirs. "I thought it might take me a few months at the most," she says. "It ended up taking almost a year." Azen's book about her colorful life is titled Moving Tales: From Victim to Victor. It is due out in September from Xlibris Press. While she awaits the release of her first book, Azen contemplates her next move. "I've always loved short stories," she says.   ##### Press Release Home | Search Press Releases | Press Release Archive | Services for Journalists
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