Professor, English Department
n.d.
Bio:
Professor Craine joined the University of Detroit as an Assistant Professor in the English Department in 1938. A Michigan Press (East Lansing Michigan) article of August 13, 1954 announced that Clyde P. Craine was promoted to “Associate Professor in the English Department of the University of Detroit, according to an announcement by the Rev. Hugh F. Smith, U. of D. Vice President.” Fr. Laurence V. Britt, S.J., in a University of Detroit press released of Sept. 14, 1961 announced that Professor Craine had been named Chairman of the Department of English. He served in the chairman’s position until fall 1964.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame University in 1934 and a master’s degree in 1938 from Oxford University, England. He also attended the University of Michigan Law School and Graduate School.
Detroit Sunday Times article dated March 9, 1958 article notes “This man with many interest would rather teach than do anything else. That anything else included a three-year stretch as secretary-treasurer of a diamond tool company founded by his father, the late Clyde P. Craine, Sr. socially prominent steel magnate. A socialite with a modified Ivy look, Craine passed up the high income of an executive for the pay of a teacher…He was among the top members of the class of 1934 at Notre Dame University. A few years later he earned a master’s degree at Oxford. He received an award for the best essay. He was a member of the school’s playreading society. Between classes he earned some recognition as a pitcher of javelins for the track team.”
In 1958, Professor Craine taught a televised course Survey of English Literature. The survey course was a regular college level course where students registered for credit and would come to the U. of D. campus for weekly quiz and discussion periods.
Another unidentified newspaper article in Craine’s archive file indicates that he taught an eight week non-credit course on “the American movie, from its origin to the present day,” which was “designed to stimulate adult thinking.” The course included “brief discussions around films which will range from the days of the first Edison camera through D. W. Griffith’s ‘Birth of a Nation.”
A December 11, 1964 Michigan Press Clipping Bureau release spoke to the English Department’s Great Books Program with Brother Rice and Marian high schools. Professor Crain met with thirty-three Brother Rice students and thirty students from Marian to discuss “A Canticle for Leibowitz.” The purpose of the program was to give the students “an opportunity to express their views on certain books and to compare them to those of the faculty and guest moderators.”
A 1964 university press release announced that Professor Craine was elected president of the newly organized Quodlibet Faculty Club at the University. The press release included this information “The name of the club, ‘Quodlibet,’ is a compound Latin word meaning ‘as you please.’ It was the term used by schoolmen of the Middle Ages to designate the subtle questions in cauistry in which they delighted to exercise their dialectical skills.” At one time, he also served as president of the U. of D. Friends of the Library.
There is no documentation in Professor Craine’s archive file as to when he was given the Professor Emeritus honor or the date of his retirement.