Allan Saxe, who taught political science at UT Arlington for 55 years, passed away this week. Saxe was 85 and had retired in 2019.
He started as a lecturer at UT Arlington, which was then Arlington State College, in 1965. He had previously spent two years at Oklahoma University, where he attended college.
"It has been the most eventful thing in my life," Saxe told KRLD in an interview when he retired in 2019. "I really have enjoyed the students."
Upon moving from Oklahoma, Saxe said the "old Arlington was a wild place."
"It was a gambling community. It was horse racing," he said.
Saxe said he fit in with Arlington even as the world around him changed.
"All in all, higher education has been amazing for me," he said. "I used to joke, and everybody did, too, that higher education was for misfits. I am definitely a misfit, but today, the colleges are not for misfits anymore. Everybody has to fit in. They're very professional, they know a lot, but I think many of the teachers are less memorable than in my day. But they're good. They're much more responsive to students."
Before retiring, Saxe said he gave a talk to a group of professors from another university. He said he was "very sarcastic and very humorous about the way colleges operate."
"I was hated. They hated me for what I said," Saxe said. "So I found out college professors, of all people, do not understand sarcasm. They don't understand bitter humor, and they cannot take criticism."
Saxe said he donated all he earned during this career and was living off social security. He said he could not take his money with him when he died, so he wanted to "buy [his] immortality" by having buildings, parks and scholarships named for him.
UT Arlington even has a pencil sharpener named for Saxe.
"Live your life. Don't just preach it, live it," he said.
UT Arlington President Jennifer Crowley called Saxe a "Maverick institution."
"He was engaging, smart, funny, and opinionated, and his classes were considered can’t miss by generations of UT Arlington students. He was so popular that when our university magazine asked Mavericks a few years ago to share their favorite Allan Saxe memories, hundreds of alumni submitted entries. His legacy of overwhelming generosity and kindness is visible across our campus and our region—with parks, gardens, softball fields, patios, and traffic circles bearing his name. My condolences go out to his family and friends—of which he had many," she wrote in a statement.
Saxe said the most rewarding part of the job was playing a role in students' lives.
"I delight in the fact many of my students have gone on to become judges, legislators, members of Congress, mayors, and I really enjoy that," he said. "I take all the credit for their success, and I know I deserve none."
Saxe said, "Arlington has been a wonderful place to me." Among donations was money for Levitt Pavilion, the lobby at George W. Hawkes Downtown Library and a dental clinic at Mission Arlington.
"For the most part, it's been a tremendous world," he said. "As a friend of mine joked, where else could you get paid for reading? It's true. I just read and talk, and it's a wonderful world."
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