Fred Babbin spent his life helping others understand the world, first as a high school biology teacher, then as a teacher of English to immigrants and Buddhism to religious seekers, and finally in hundreds of poems he posted to an online website.
“His passion was teaching,” said his daughter, Helen. “Even in retirement, he made teaching and learning a central part of his life.”
Mr. Babbin’s interest in learning fueled post-retirement travel to such destinations as Thailand and the Galapagos Islands. His passion for teaching led him to teach English to Cambodian and Tibetan immigrants.
He also taught about Buddhism as the longtime vice president for religious education at the Buddhist Temple of Chicago.
Mr. Babbin, 86, died of prostate cancer Friday, Dec. 9, at Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, where he had lived for about two years. He moved to Evanston in the early 1960s.
Mr. Babbin wrote a few poems as a young man, but he became quite prolific after discovering the website PoemHunter.com.
In a biographical note for the site, he wrote in 2007 that “my poems are rather gritty for the most part, because my life has been rather gritty.” In the years since, he posted more than 200 poems to the site.
Mr. Babbin’s poetry ranged from observations of nature to clear-eyed looks at Chicago history and neighborhoods to unsentimental reflections on aging. One poem about walking over fallen leaves compares the sounds to crunching cornflakes and snare drums.
“Poetry was a new chapter in his life,” said his son, Jon. “It gave him a focus.”
Mr. Babbin particularly enjoyed conversing with other poets using the site. The experience opened a whole new world for him.
“Even though he had dealt with young people as a teacher, now his interaction with young people was in a different context,” his son said.
Mr. Babbin also shared his poetry with others in Presbyterian Homes, according to a neighbor there, Betty Jane Wagner.
“I was always delighted by the way he helped create community here,” Wagner said. “He did it by writing a poem — about aging, about the weather — that was read every Monday morning at breakfast in the dining room.”
Mr. Babbin was born and grew up in Chicago, an only child. His mother died when he was 10, and his father sent him to live in the Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home in Chicago, his daughter said.
It was a time when children with one parent still living were sometimes considered orphans, particularly if the remaining parent couldn’t adequately care for the child.
After leaving the home when he was 18, he lived and worked in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood for several years. He attended Roosevelt University, getting a bachelor’s degree in 1956.
By 1961, Mr. Babbin was teaching high school biology to freshmen at what is now Wells Community Academy High School in Chicago. He moved to what is now Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in 1965 and continued to teach freshman biology there until he retired in 1983.
His approach to teaching was always inclusive, his son said.
“He created a biology class for non-English-speaking students at Von Steuben,” his son said.
Mr. Babbin also focused on teaching English and reading skills to immigrants from Cambodia and Tibet, his daughter said.
As a teacher of Buddhism, “He was very open-minded, very kind to people who wanted to learn,” said the Rev. Yukei Ashikaga, head of the Buddhist Temple of Chicago.
Ashikaga said Mr. Babbin first encountered Buddhism in the late 1950s or early 1960s, when the Chicago temple was on the city’s South Side and held a celebration of Buddha’s birthday in Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago.
“He had a Jewish background, but he came to Buddhism,” Ashikaga said, adding that Mr. Babbin went through an official ceremony to become a Buddhist in 2005.
“I told him, ‘You don’t have to go through a ceremony — you’re Buddhist already,'” Ashikaga said.
Mr. Babbin’s first wife, Florence, died in 1984. A couple of years later, he married Ruth Levin, who survives him.
Other survivors include two grandchildren.
Visitation will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Buddhist Temple of Chicago, 1151 W. Leland Ave. A memorial service will follow at 7 p.m.
