A person’s space often reflects the occupant’s personality and passions. For Continuing Part-time Lecturer in Art Charlie Tefft ‘97, this rings especially true; shelves of mugs, teapots and jars line the walls of his office, while books about clay and ceramics tools pile up on chairs.
Tefft, Guilford’s ceramics guru, didn’t grow up dreaming of being a potter and a professor. Like many children, he dreamt of becoming a veterinarian. However, life had other ideas for him.
“At some point between my first year of first grade and my second year of first grade, I was tested, and my parents found out I was dyslexic,” Tefft said. “I ended up going to a school that had a program for dyslexic students.”
This school introduced Tefft to working with clay, but he did not develop a keen interest in ceramics until later.
“One day in sixth grade — I was probably 12 or 13 — I came into that clay studio and there was a tabletop wheel there,” Tefft said. “I thought, ‘I want to learn that.'”
Tefft continued making pots in high school. As part of an SAT prep course, he took a test which matches a person with possible careers.
“I got helicopter pilot, craftsperson or academic,” Tefft said. “I heard from so many people that it was hard to make a living (as a craftsperson); I thought, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ Academic, I thought, ‘How in the world?’ Being dyslexic, being in academia seemed like torture to me … Here I am, sort of in both of those fields.”
After high school, Tefft attended Guilford as a student, but didn’t initially decide to focus on art. He soon changed his mind.
“I took a clay class first semester sophomore year, and at some point over that semester, I realized there wasn’t anything in school that I was going to work harder at,” said Tefft. “It came naturally. It wasn’t for a grade; it wasn’t because someone was telling me to do it.”
Throughout his high school and college careers, he also played team sports.
“I knew Charlie as a very gifted athlete,” said Mark Dixon ‘96, part-time lecturer in art and former classmate of Tefft’s. “Every time we played soccer, he left us in the dust.”
After graduation, Tefft moved to Atlanta to make pots full-time. After almost two years, he came back to Guilford to fill in as the ceramics professor, which ended up being a long-term position, although he originally intended to only stay for five years.
“Over that five years, though, I spent so much time rebuilding the program, rebuilding kilns and building new kilns,” he said. “You start having ceramics majors and having relationships with them and you think, ‘I can’t just leave in their junior year.'”
I didn’t have to look far to see the evidence of Tefft’s hands-on dedication to his students. As I left the studio, he walked over to a student working with a small ball of clay.
“Okay, now get that spinning on the wheel,” Tefft said as he reached over, dipped his hands in slip and guided her hands over the swiftly-whirling clay.