Gary / Yan

Gary back in Harvard days.

Gary practicing at home

Gary performing in Japan

Yan at his high school graduation, 1971

Yan in 2022

Gary Mathews talks to his old Hotel Continental roommate Yan Chow about how John Finley, the legendary humanities professor, shaped his life path that led him to Noh theater.

Thanks to Hum 3 — John H. Finley Jr.’s survey course on Greek literature, featuring Homer’s The Iliad — Gary Mathews set out on an eclectic life path.

 “I would say I’ve never stopped reading it,” he tells his North House roommate Yan Chow in this episode of PasstheMic75. “It blew me away. The depth of human experience was revelatory to me. I thought, ‘This is what I want my life to be.’”

 Gary’s journey to explore the nature of creative self-expression has taken him from a Comp Lit PhD at Berkeley to teaching, writing, ballet classes, and ultimately to immersion in the study and performance of traditional Japanese Noh drama. After he retires from teaching classics at North Carolina State University, Gary plans on moving with his wife to Japan and hopes that Pae Pong-gi, his Noh play, will be performed there.

 In this conversation, Gary looks back—and forward—to a life filled with questions and answers. All because of a book he read in Hum 3, five decades ago.