Alumni Take 5: Tim Revell ‘03

After IMS, Tim continued to play ice hockey, eventually playing in New York and Los Angeles, where he also briefly entered the film industry. Additionally, Tim coached the Pasadena Maple Leafs in California and also spent time coaching in Switzerland. Afterward, Tim returned to post-secondary education at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, studying the history of art. In 2015-16, Tim was a Baden-Württemberg scholar at the Universität Heidelberg in Germany. As part of the exhibition Women Cross Media at the State Collections of Dresden, Tim published an article on eighteenth-century Chinese porcelain. He is currently working on an article for upcoming publication on the famed British artist William Hogarth. Tim has recently been accepted to continue his graduate studies at the University of Oxford in England.

My father often used to remind me of the particularly poignant Alexander Pope quote, “To err is human, but to forgive is divine.” I’ve always tried to remember (and sometimes I’ve learnt the hard way) that while mistakes are ubiquitous, forgiveness and empathy are rare and at times, very difficult, but ultimately are much more rewarding than the trivialities of anger and animosity.

Time! Not to perpetually live on but to read all the books in my overcrowded bookshelves!

Homer’s Odyssey of course. I vividly remember looking forward to evening study hall (it must have been good), during which I would read in rapture of Odysseus’ new adventures. I cannot remember who taught this particular English class – Homer was the star.

I was blessed with the opportunity to do on-site research in Germany last year, and during the Christmas semester holiday, I traveled to France before embarking on a three-week research-based trip through Germany. I had become so obsessed with cassoulet in France, that friends had gifted me cans of it to take back to Germany. I normally travel light, but could not leave the (rather heavy) cans of cassoulet at home. I would later come to regret this after carrying them through multiple crowded cities, train stations, and metros. However, on Christmas Eve, I travelled from Munich to Dresden (with only one can of cassoulet left) and I was so starved from the enduring journey aboard bustling German holiday trains that I will never forget finally arriving in that small humble brick-walled flat in Dresden, where I opened the (formerly burdensome but now ambrosial) cassoulet and devoured the Christmas meal par excellence.

I have always listened to music rather episodically. For example, the gym where I workout plays horrendously loud “tunes” and I’ve been forced to wear headphones, on which I’ve been playing the upbeat marching symphonies of Sir Edward Elgar. However, during the evening I often listen to the cool ballads of Irving Berlin, sung by the unrivaled voice of Pat Boone, and on a fanciful Friday evening, I have been known to put on a record of the whimsical taps and stylish nuance of Fred Astaire.