Will Rice

Will Rice’s ‘Doc C’ marks 40 years as resident associate

BY DAVID MEDINA
Special to the Rice News

Gilbert Cuthbertson, known affectionately as “Doc C,” has set a record at Rice that few will ever dare break.
This year the political science professor became the only person to endure 40 years as a resident associate — a feat some consider beyond human capabilities.

“I think it is miraculous,” said Zenaido Camacho, former vice president for student affairs. “Some people after a few years say ‘whoa’ and move on. But students love him, and he has done a great job. It’s a real tribute to him that he has done it that long.”

Last spring, Doc C received a well-deserved tribute as about 200 students and alumni gathered to honor him at Will Rice College.

Gilbert Cuthbertson

His admirers prepared a crawfish boil, cookies and refreshments and handed Doc C a “Thanks for the Memories” book replete with humorous and moving letters.

The biggest present, however, was the dedication of the Will Rice game room to him. The room includes a lasting tribute to Doc C’s legacy at the residential college: a mural painted on one of the game room walls that depicts Doc C and longtime Will Rice College coordinator Babs Willis sitting together on a bench in the college patio.

“Students have been driving me up a wall for 40 years,” Doc C joked, “and now one of our alumni has decided to paint a mural and put me up on the wall.”

But even without his picture on the wall, Doc C would be a permanent part of the history of Will Rice.

“He is an institution,” said Traci Wolfe, Will Rice College master. “He is the college.”

In many ways, Doc C is like the father of Will Rice. The college was in its infancy — only seven years old — when Doc C became a resident associate in 1964. He played a big role in nurturing Will Rice’s growth, personality and tradition. Doc C came to Rice University in 1963 after receiving his doctorate in political science from Harvard University.

When Doc C arrived at Rice, there were only six colleges: Wiess, Baker, Hanszen, Jones, Brown and Will Rice. The campus had so many open spaces that students could hear the lions roar from the Houston Zoo in Hermann Park. The colleges didn’t have air conditioning or refrigerators, and women were not allowed in the men’s colleges and vice versa.

Doc C decided to become a resident associate after having dinner one night at Will Rice. Students wanted to know what kind of questions might be on his final exam the next day and gathered around the table to probe his mind. After some discussion, the group came up with questions that captured the essence of the class, and some of those questions did appear on the test. The students were so grateful that they invited Doc C to become part of the college. “I was the man who came to dinner, and I quickly stayed — or overstayed, as the case may be,” Doc C said.

He remained because he wanted to make a difference in students’ lives. “I feel the colleges are closely connected with the teaching and academic process. I think that my effectiveness as an educator has been developed through the close participation with the students in the college,” he said. “It gives you an opportunity to develop an awareness of student attitude toward both campus and national issues.”

In his four decades at Will Rice, Doc C has lived in only two rooms. He resided on the fourth floor for a few years, but moved after students decided to convert the sundeck into a swimming pool by blocking the drain. “When water from the blocked drain leaked into my room, I decided to move down one flight to save the stairs and not have to worry about swimming pools, sundecks or leakage, not to mention the noise,” he said.

Life at Will Rice is somewhere between an extended family and a soap opera, Doc C said. “I don’t need television entertainment — we always have something going on. But it is a family.”

And like an elder family member who spins a yarn about friends and relatives from his youth, Doc C can tell a story about almost every student who has graced the halls of Will Rice. Babs Willis, who was the college coordinator at Will Rice for 32 years, said, “He knows so many people. He remembers everything. He remembers everybody’s story, their names and faces and where they are from, and the good and the bad things they did while they were here.”

Doc C also remembers the good and the bad from beyond the hedges. For years, he has taken students to Europe, Central America, Mexico, New Mexico and New Orleans for Mardi Gras. He pays for their airfare, hotel and rental car.

“Again, this is a family,” he said. “I suppose they need financing for the trip, and I need supervision. And besides, it is a lot of fun.”

Rice alum Matthew Haynie ’03 traveled to Scotland, England, New Mexico and Arizona with Doc C. The trips were extremely informative, adventurous and entertaining. “He knows everything about these places,” Haynie said. “Whenever we go, it is one long history lesson. Doc C has an endless supply of knowledge about anywhere we go.”

In addition to loving to travel, Doc C has a passion for collecting books, and he can get very competitive in his search for the unique. Robert F. Weisberg ’71 recalled a book sale held by the veterans hospital in which people lined up at 8 a.m. to buy items for a quarter. Doc C was first in line, and when only the top half of the Dutch door opened, he dove over the lower half and ran desperately to get his hands on “Hollinshead’s Chronicles,” published in 1577 and believed to be the source for many of Shakespeare’s historical plays. “Needless to say, Doc C got his antique book for 25 cents,” Weisberg said.

Over the years, Doc C has bought more than 5,000 books and has placed most of them in his office at James A. Baker III Hall. Books cover his office walls from floor to ceiling and run over almost every inch of floor space, leaving only a narrow trail to his desk.

Having served four decades as a resident associate and under every master of Will Rice, Doc C has gotten to know several thousand students, and almost all of them remember him fondly.

He can’t seem to get away from them — including in the operating room. Not long ago, Doc C was having a cataract operation and everyone in the room had been a Will Rice resident. The last thing he remembers before he went under the knife was the anesthesiologist telling him, “I liked most of your lectures, but a few did put me to sleep. Now it’s my turn to put you to sleep.”

Many alumni are beginning to call him “Grandpa Doc,” and some of their children now live at Will Rice. But he has no plans to retire anytime soon as a resident associate.

“Since this is a continuing challenge and, of course, I have a new group of individuals to deal with every year, I like to rise to that challenge and contribute the best I have to offer and help those students as much as I can in surviving the Rice experience,” he said.

—David Medina is the director of minority community relations and senior editor of Sallyport.