Classics instructor inspired students

When Vanessa Cominsky walked into room 206 in the Cathedral of Learning for her first… When Vanessa Cominsky walked into room 206 in the Cathedral of Learning for her first college class as a freshman, all she wanted was a good teacher.

That morning at 10 a.m., Cominsky would meet the best teacher she had ever had – and she counted herself lucky to have known her, if only for one semester.

Karen Hoover, a graduate student who taught classes in Pitt’s classics department, died early last week from health complications.

“She was one of the most uplifting people I’ve ever met in my life,” Cominsky said. “Every day I wanted to go to class.”

Hoover, 47, had taught classes at Pitt since 1991, including beginning Latin, intermediate Greek prose, classical mythology and literature and Greek civilization, among others. This semester, she was teaching beginning ancient Greek 2.

Hoover, who earned a bachelor’s degree in studio arts and art history from Kutztown University and a master’s degree in history from Duquesne University, worked in a gallery in New York City before she took an interest in the classics.

Her favorite art medium was sculpture, but both the competition and the expenses were too much for Hoover, who then turned her attention toward Romance languages. It was during this time period that she taught herself how to speak Greek.

Cominsky was taking Hoover’s class this semester and also had her as a teacher last fall for beginning ancient Greek 1.

“It was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, but it was the most enjoyable,” Cominsky said. “She made something as hard as learning ancient Greek really fun.”

Her examples and silly sentence translations made the classroom environment both entertaining and conducive to learning, Cominsky said. Always willing to tutor students individually, she constantly worked hard to make the language clear.

Hoover’s concern for her students did not end at 10:50 a.m. along with the class.

Hoover would stand outside the Cathedral with her students and talk with them for hours about what was going on in their lives, Cominsky said.

Brenton Hollis, a senior, also remembers the numerous conversations about “anything and everything” that he had with Hoover before the start of each lesson.

“We were a family,” Hollis said, referring to the class.

Lauren Collister, a Pitt graduate student who also took beginning ancient Greek 1, remembered Hoover for her love for animals.

As Collister headed to class one morning last semester, she saw a woman standing by the elevators with a box full of kittens. Even though she had a quiz that morning, Collister had to stop and look at them.

When she finally got to class, Hoover handed her the quiz, and Collister headed over to her desk to join the rest of her classmates.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “There’s kittens downstairs.”

Not long after, Hoover left the room. After the students finished taking the quiz, they found Hoover downstairs with the kittens, telling everyone that they needed a home.

And one of them eventually found a home with Collister.

Hoover, who had been concerned about the welfare of the kittens, took a white Calico cat with a gray triangle on its forehead (for which it would later be named Isosceles) back to her apartment. Collister then picked it up later that night, and the two women sat together and talked over coffee.

Hoover became the owner of Golden-Retriever mix, Nikomedes, in a similar situation.

After seeing a photo of a formerly abused dog on an animal shelter’s Web site last October, Hoover drove to Cleveland to rescue it. When she first brought it home, it was “standoffish with men,” but Nikomedes eventually grew into a very well-behaved dog and even learned his new commands in Greek.

“She just cared so much for everything,” Brenton said.

For Collister, most of the inspiration that came from Hoover manifested in her actions and her insatiable interest in a broad range of topics.

“She said that no matter what, don’t let yourself get bogged down with school,” Collister said. “Get out and experience things – be balanced.”

Brenton nodded. “She said that a lot in life is education, but if you can’t go out and have fun, it’s nothing.”