When Eric Canosa was a student of English Professor Arthur Athanason, he admired how Athanason wouldn't arrange the classroom's chairs in a long row, but instead form a circle as a way to open up the class for discussion.

"The class was led by itself," Canosa said. "With some teachers you get the feeling they want you to learn something definite. He would jump in and direct sometimes, but he wanted you to learn for yourself."

Students and colleagues remember him as a popular teacher and someone who used unique methods in class.

Athanason, who taught at MSU for 35 years, died Monday in his East Lansing home after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 70.

English Associate Professor Sheila Teahan said Athanason was dedicated to his students and continued to teach full time while receiving daily cancer treatments.

"We would ask him, 'Art, why do this?' and he would say, 'My teaching is what is keeping me going,'" Teahan said. "He was almost someone who lived to teach."

He was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 2004.

Teahan said even though Athanason wore a pack on his hip to self-administer chemotherapy and received radiation treatments five times a week, he only missed one day of work last year.

Athanason received his master's degree from Yale University, Teahan said. The professor wasn't married at the time of his death and received around-the-clock nursing care.

Along with introductory level English classes, Athanason taught theater classes such as, 20th century drama, and was the only MSU professor to teach a playwriting course.

Although he didn't teach this fall, his office in Morrill Hall remained intact on Tuesday with books stacked high.

Undergraduate English department secretary Lisa Noelp worked in the same office as Athanason and said his absence will be felt.

"I'm going to miss having him around - he treated the staff great," she said. "He had been sick for awhile, so we knew it was inevitable."

Teahan said Athanason told very few people of his condition.

Canosa, who had him during his sophomore year, ran into Athanason last spring and said he was unaware Athanason was ill because he looked healthy.

"He seemed very immersed in life still," he said. "MSU has lost one of its greatest professors."