WESTFIELD-History has played an important role in Les Hutton’s life – since fifth grade.
“I first chose teaching as a lifelong goal when I heard my fifth grade teacher telling us about ‘citizenship’ in a democracy,” said Hutton.
Hutton added that teaching was the “most important job in a democracy because without educated citizens there could be no democracy.”
“My conclusion, not my teacher’s,” he said.
As Hutton’s early years past, he said his interest in history gradually grew after observing human activities, some “extremely immoral and harmful” including wars and murders, and some “very positive,” from selfless charitable work and nursing to peacemaking.
“My career choice narrowed to Russian history as a result of the increasing tensions and threats of the Cold War in the late 1950s and early 1960s when I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago,” said Hutton.
In 1960, the university created a new course, “Russian Civilization,” which would fulfill a basic requirement for Hutton to graduate.
“The course opened the door for me to eventually get a Ph.D. in Russian history at the University of Illinois,” he said.
In 1970, Hutton accepted a teaching job at Westfield State College and, as they say, the rest is history.
After teaching the history of Western Civilization for first-year students at Westfield State, and Russian Civilization for upperclassmen as two-semester courses for more than 34 years, Hutton retired in 2004.
While Hutton stays active in his retirement, he has also taken the reins of an informative “Historical Perspectives” discussion group conducted monthly at the Westfield Senior Center.
“I approached Les to facilitate the group because I knew that he is a retired Westfield State University history professor,” said Tina Gorman, executive director, Westfield Council on Aging. “I thought that he would have a lot of ideas regarding topics of discussion.”
Gorman added that her hope with the discussion group is that Hutton can “set the stage” and create a context for the discussion of some of the historical events that the group will cover.
“He does a marvelous job facilitating and coordinating the Senior Center chess group, which is obviously very cerebral,” said Gorman. “So I thought that the Historical Perspectives group would be right up his alley.”
“After careful consideration, I agreed to ‘try it for a while’ to see what kind of interest there might be in discussing civil and human rights and the need for civilized discussion of their meaning for America,” said Hutton.
The first gathering was April 3 and titled “Perspectives on the American Revolution from 1776 to the Present.”
“The group who participated in the discussion were enthusiastic and looking forward to the next meeting,” said Hutton, noting the first 60 minutes focused on the “Bill of Rights” and why it was “so important” to the revolution’s leaders.
“In the last 30 minutes we raised several questions about what was not mentioned in the ten amendments, such as voting rights and who exactly did they mean by ‘the people,’” said Hutton.
Monthly gatherings will take place the first Wednesday of the month from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The next gathering is set for May 1 and will continue the discussion from the April meeting. The group is open to the public. Pre-registration is not required to attend the session.
“There will be mention of contemporary politics, especially the words ‘Republicans, Democrats, and Mr. Trump,’” said Hutton.
