Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II Thursday, local professors and teachers weighed in with their thoughts about her passing.
Robert Brescia, who teaches government and politics at Permian High School and was executive director of the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute at University of Texas Permian Basin, said the characteristic that defined Queen Elizabeth mostly was her ability to connect with people.
“… She was royalty, but she has shown herself to be a person who could connect with anybody. Little school kids would write her letters and she would always respond in grand fashion. Things like that were her calling card, really,” Brescia said.
She visited West Germany in the mid-1960s and Brescia said that was significant because it was the first time that a monarch had done that in close to 100 years at the time.
” … That was a symbol of reconciliation,” Brescia said.
He added that when the Royal Family seemed to be breaking up in the early 1990s, the Queen kept her cool.
“… That’s the mark of a great leader: keep your cool and wits about you when all others are not doing that,” Brescia said.
Prince Charles will now take over as King.
UTPB Dean of the College of Engineering George Nnanna, who is from Nigeria, said Queen Elizabeth has been a very strong leader for the Commonwealth.
He said her death will be felt across the world and her shoes will be difficult to fill.
UTPB Associate Professor of History and Dean of Student Success Michael Frawley said the Queen was history — “a living symbol of the World War II era.”
“She was the the face of stability in a changing world,” Frawley said in an email. “We talk so much about valuing the past, but we never realize how alive that past is. World War II, the end of the British Empire, the fall of Communism, and the birth of the social media world, she was there for it all and more, a person beloved by millions around the world. Moreover, people in the local area will follow intently what will come next, glued to the media every minute.”
Derek Catsam, Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at UTPB, said he thinks Americans have a strange relationship with British royalty.
“We rejected it long ago, yet maintain a fascination with the royals. We also have the ‘special relationship’ with the UK, meaning that we pay more attention to what happens there than elsewhere. Elizabeth II, being the longest serving monarch, also means we ‘knew’ her the best, or at least feel like we did,” Catsam said in a text message.
