By JAMES WENSITS
Tribune Political Writer
SOUTH BEND — To the extent that lawyers and potential Supreme Court justices use Latin, there is no doubt in Jim Coppens’ mind that John Roberts knows that language well.
Coppens, now the executive director of South Bend Civic Theatre, taught Roberts Latin at LaLumiere, the LaPorte County-based Catholic boarding school where Roberts graduated in 1973.
“I remember he was a great kid, “Coppens said of President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court. “You knew he was going to be prepared every single day and he was going to retain every single thing that you taught him. He really kept you on your toes.”
Coppens, who started teaching at the exclusive Catholic prep school in 1968, said he taught four years of Latin to Roberts in three years, as Roberts compressed the first two years into one during his sophomore year.
By the time he was a senior, Roberts was taking an advance placement class and was the only student.
“It was just him and me across the table and me trying to keep up with him, basically, “said Coppens.
In fact, Roberts was so smart that one of the common threads among teachers, Coppens said, “was to find some way to challenge him. He was extremely bright.”
Coppens recalled that the advanced placement curriculum that year centered on Virgil’s “Aeneid”
“It was great, “said Coppens.
“It started out the other way, but by the end of the year he had passed me up in terms of his ability to translate Latin. He just had that kind of a mind.
“I basically gave him everything I knew as a Latin teacher.”
While at LaLumiere, Roberts served on the staff of the student newspaper, The Torch, and once wrote an article in which he opposed the introduction of coeds to what at the time was an all-male campus.
Roberts said he believed “the introduction of coeds will diminish the camaraderie that is essential in a close community such as LaLumiere, “and would “necessitate more severe regulations and stricter enforcement of existing rules regarding movement about campus, lights out, etc.”
Roberts also wrote that “the argument that girls will provide a new viewpoint in the classroom is probably valid, “adding, “I certainly can’t imagine what points will be viewed. I tend to think that the presence of the opposite sex in the classroom will be confining rather than catholicizing.”
Coppens said that Roberts was one of the two brightest students he ever had at LaLumiere, the other being Paris Barclay, the Emmy-award winning former director of the “Hill Street Blues “television program.
While at LaLumiere, Roberts appeared with Barclay in a production of “The Fantasticks.”
Roberts’ success since then provides proof, Coppens joked, “that taking Latin and doing theater will take you far.”
“I also had John Hiler in class as well; he took Latin also, “said Coppens, remembering that the future U.S. congressman graduated in 1971.
“I had three students in the space of a couple years that were all extremely talented and destined for bigger things.”
“Hiler didn’t do theater so he didn’t quite make the Supreme Court. He had to settle for Congress, “Coppens said with a smile.
In addition to theater, Roberts also competed on the wrestling team at the prep school and approached the sport “in a cerebral way, “said Coppens, who remembered that while Roberts may not have been the strongest kid, he was always smarter than his opponent. Roberts compiled a 24-3 record during his junior and senior years, going 12-1 as a senior.
“He knew exactly how he could get in trouble and avoided all of those possibilities, “Coppens said. “He tried to make the other wrestler wrestle the way he wanted him to wrestle.”
Coppens said he was driving home when he heard the news on the radio that Roberts had been nominated to the Supreme Court.
When he heard Bush’s comments about Roberts having been born in Buffalo, N.Y., having been captain of his high school football team and having gone to school in Indiana, “I said, ‘Oh, my God, that’s John Roberts, the John Roberts that I know!’ ”
Coppens said Roberts was conservative as a student and doesn’t think he has changed his politics since then.
“But, just on the basis of his character and his mind, I think he’ll be a great Supreme Court justice, “Coppens said. “And it’s just kind of cool that I actually knew him.”
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