In 1970, he taught at California State College in Hayward, California. He joined the English faculty at Brown University, where he taught literature courses and poetry workshops to undergraduates. He was chair for some years of the Masters in Creative Writing program. One of his student research assistants was Denice Joan Deitch, a student in the graduate program and Academy of American Poets awardee, 1977 (now Rev. Jade D. Benson, Unitarian Universalist minister and poet/short story writer). He also taught Michael Gizzi, Bob Kessler, Julia Thacker, and others who went on to write, teach, or serve the arts in other ways. Students referred to him as "MSH", "the Chief", and "the Big Man". He remained there until retiring in December 2013 and was the longest serving professor of English and Literary Arts at that institution.