‘Betsy’ Hulick is studying Russian at Hunter…and she’s in her 70s

Hunter has an incredibly diverse student body. People of all different backgrounds and from various walks of life converge in these halls. Hunter welcomes all, from freshman newbies to auditors and transfer students to post-bacs.

I sat down with a known and beloved auditor student at the Russian Department to find out what brought her to Hunter College.

Betsy

Elizabeth Hulick, better known as Betsy, is recognized in the department as a cheery, fur-coat loving, dedicated student of the Russian language. She is in her 70s, but she’s so youthful her age is barely discernible. She said: “Yeah OK, I am in my 70s, but I regard myself as 40.”

When asked about her past and why she chose to pursue Russian, she related a story about her high school days when she attended a boarding school in Virginia.

“There was a Russian woman who taught French by the name of Gagarin, which is a common name in Russia not just the name of the famous astronaut. I liked her, she had more character than anybody at the school.”

A younger Betsy

That was one of her earliest encounters with Russian, which she claims drew her to the language. Yet, with a smirk she added: “Many things contributed to my interest in Russian, but I am not going to tell you the real reason”.

Additionally, she posited that her interest stemmed from an attempt to understand the “huge counter forces” that were prevalent at the time. She said: “I was interested in the language of the enemy on an unconscious level, and at that time it was Russian and German. If I were to start over it would be Arabic and Chinese.”

Betsy also established that she has no Russian family, but did have to clarify her family history after some misconceptions.

When asked, Professor Julia Trubikhina, a Russian Department professor and close friend of Betsy’s, remarked: “I believe that on her mother’s side Betsy descends from an important family who’s signature was on the Declaration of Independence.”

Professor Julia Trubikhina (left) and Betsy (right)

After asking Betsy whether that was true, she explained: “My mother came from a Virginia family that includes in its ancestry Merriweather Lewis, who was Jefferson’s secretary and is also the well-known Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

“And Washington’s sister married Fielding Lewis,” another prominent Lewis on her mother’s side of the family. So Professor Trubikhina is not wrong in believing that Betsy’s ancestors were of the well-established elite who were important to the founding of our nation.

In response to further questions about her past she recalls majoring in theater in college, pursuing acting as a career and then getting into translation after someone told her that they believed she could do it.

She recounted: “I could not get a publisher to print some of my Gogol translations] because there were already so many competing versions in print, although mine is better than what is around because it is not funny in any other translation that I know and the play is meant to be funny.”

Her self-assessment is accurate. Her acting background benefited her greatly, as she’s succeeded in translating various plays. Her translation of Gogol’s Inspector General (Revizor) was even produced on Broadway.

Professor Trubikhina commented: “She understands what works well on stage and has a gift for rendering what is funny in the original as funny in English, which is very hard to do. Not many have done it successfully.”

After encountering trouble publishing some of her translations Betsy remembered: “I was talking to people at Random Press and…as a matter of fact they needed someone to do Chekov. So I published a book of translations of Chekov’s plays. At that time I thought to myself gee I don’t even really speak Russian this is not such a good idea, I have got to do something.”

So eventually she ended up at Hunter and has been taking Russian grammar courses ever since.

This has also led to friendship and collaboration with Professor Trubikhina. They have a book of poetry by Russian poet Vladimir Aristov set to release in 2016. In her final comments on the subject, Betsy said: “We have fun she [Professor Trubikhina] does the literal stuff and I put it into English. I mean her English is very good, but it is a question of rhythm and diction. Sometimes you get the right word for the translation, but it doesn’t work with the rhythm.”