A message from President Durden

Enrique J. Martinez-Vidal, professor emeritus of romance languages, passed away on March 23, 2012. As many of you know, Enrique had been battling a rare form of blood cancer for several years and recently had been experiencing increasing heart failure.

Born on December 9, 1932 in Lyon, France where he and his Spanish-Catalan parents lived through the trying period of WWII, Enrique and his family were forced to return to Spain when he was 11 years old. Back in post-civil war Spain, Enrique immediately resumed his education (made easier by his bilingual upbringing in French and Spanish) completing his high school years at the Institute Maragall in Barcelona and then pursuing his undergraduate degree in history at the University of Barcelona. He then emigrated to the U.S. settling in Philadelphia where he worked as an instructor and then assistant professor at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa. Continuing with his lifelong commitment to learning, he enrolled in and received advanced degrees from both Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Temple University. Afterwards he began a doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his Ph.D. in romance languages in 1970.

During the time of his doctoral program at Penn, Enrique came to Dickinson as an assistant professor of Spanish to begin his long and celebrated career here. From all accounts, the Spanish department was quite small at the time of Enrique’s arrival on campus—fewer than five majors. Enrique and his long-time friend and department colleague, Arturo Fox, who was hired one year later, laid the groundwork for the department to flourish, ultimately making it among the largest departments on campus at the time of Enrique’s retirement in 1996.

Initially a Spanish Golden Age scholar, Enrique broadened his field of expertise, well beyond the norm, to serve the needs of the curriculum. In the late 1970s when an outside evaluation of the Latin American studies program pointed out the absence of Portuguese course offerings, Enrique quickly learned the language and soon began teaching courses in Portuguese. This ultimately led to the renaming of the department to include both languages. Other examples of his wide-ranging versatility, as well as his commitment to the then-burgeoning interdisciplinary approach to the curriculum, include his offerings beyond his own department on French literature and cultures, Sephardic culture and civilization, Freshman Seminars on the Mediterranean world, and even an anthropology course when a faculty member became ill and couldn’t finish the semester. His willingness to continue to teach new content continued into his last semesters as a full-time faculty member when he taught seminars on the Latin American theatre and also on women writers of the Spanish post-civil war. One retirement testimonial stated that when Enrique came to Dickinson, he could have taught virtually every course listed in the catalog under “Spanish” and the same was true at the end of his career, despite the significantly expanded departmental offerings. This range of teaching provided invaluable flexibility to his department throughout the years.

In keeping with his pedagogical range, Enrique’s list of publications also demonstrated his breadth of interests. His scholarly work addressed the theatre of the Spanish civil war, the Sufi influence in the poetry of the Troubadours, the picaresque novel, Cervantes’ theatre and Brazilian literature, including a book on Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado which he edited and co-authored. His scholarship on Brazil was undoubtedly enhanced by a Fulbright grant to that country in 1982. And it follows that he belonged to multiple professional organizations and societies including the North Eastern Modern Language Association, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, the North American Catalan Society, and the Middle Atlantic Association of Luso-Brazilianists and was a Fellow of the Hispanic Society of America.

Committed to global education, Enrique was among those who helped to found Dickinson’s Malaga program which just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. Serving as an early director of the program, he and Grace Jarvis, among others, established the Malaga center as one of the hallmarks of the college’s nationally recognized global education program.

On campus, Enrique played an active role in collegial governance by serving on many all-college committees over the years and as chair of his department multiple times. But to Enrique, it was teaching and his students that truly inspired him. In his own words, as quoted in the citation read upon his selection as the 1995 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient, “the secret of good teaching depends on the fact that one has to love the subject matter, love the moment in the classroom when good rapport has taken place and that the students feel a genuine care, respect and understanding.” He indicated a desire to be remembered among those teachers who never lost their zest and enthusiasm in the classroom—I think all who knew Enrique will agree that he undoubtedly accomplished this. Indeed his enthusiasm for the classroom prompted him to continue teaching part-time well beyond his retirement.

On a more personal note, I first got to know Enrique as a student during my senior year—he was one of the faculty mentors to a group of us who were selected to be TAs for the then-named Freshman Seminars. He also reminded me recently that we had bumped into one another in Freiburg, Germany and had a meal together with some other Dickinson students and faculty members. I was on my Fulbright in Basel, Germany (just a short distance away) and Enrique was visiting our then Freiburg IES program.

And I will long-remember him approaching me on the steps of the HUB 13 years ago, in his inimitable and charismatic way, with the notion of starting an association for retired faculty and administrators as a way to keep himself and others connected to each other and to the college as a whole. Serving as its first chair, Enrique spearheaded the effort to establish officially the Retired Professionals of Dickinson College which continues to thrive today. Additionally in his retirement, I should note that in 2007, Enrique was a recipient of the Savvy, Growing and Enlightened (S.A.G.E.) Award for his continued and vital commitment to nearby Messiah Village’s Pathways Institute for Lifelong Learning—an example of his service to humanity even in his senior years. He also participated as a Distinguished Guest Lecturer on three National Geographic Society trips where his fluency in multiple languages and his vast historical and cultural knowledge were of great benefit to participants during trips to France, Portugal and Spain, as well as the Canary Islands.

But perhaps my fondest memories will be of together watching numerous soccer and basketball games where I could always count on his animated color commentary—in earlier years, he had even coached the men’s soccer team! He was, indeed, a true presence in the Dickinson community—full of life and a variety of experiences that yielded distinctive, delightfully shared perspectives on all that he engaged.

A private interment service will be held at the convenience of the family. There will also be a memorial service at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 16 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that memorial contributions be sent to any of the following organizations: the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society or Dickinson’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Enrique is survived by his four children: Elena, class of 1976, Enrique, class of 1979, Adriana, and Alexander. If you would like to send a card or note to the family, please send them to his son, Enrique, and he will share them with the rest of the family. He can be reached at: Enrique E. Martinez-Vidal, 18640 Queen Elizabeth Drive, Brookeville, MD  20833 or you can e-mail him at emartinezvidal@gmail.com.


The Dickinson community has certainly lost a treasured friend, but I know Enrique’s memory will remain alive for so many of us for years to come.

Bill Durden ’71

President