Bellairs began teaching part-time at Indiana University Northwest in the fall of 1960, commuting an hour or so southeast to teach freshmen English courses such as Composition (W101, W102, and W103) and Literature (L101, L102). Courses were most likely taught in Tamarack Hall, then the fledging campus' only building, according to Indiana University Northwest archivist Stephen McShane.

Little is known about Bellairs’ stint in Gary for obvious reasons – he was but a temporary face on campus and likely did not contribute much as he made the adjustment from student to teacher. What is known of his three years comes from his friends: Bernie Markwell says that Bellairs was astonished at how little students knew. "For a paper on McCarthyism one student seriously wrote: 'Doctoring photographs proved to be a fine way to uncover communists.'"

Fellow University of Chicago graduate student Robert Yaple remembers hearing another tale, this one about the “most dim-witted plagiarist” in the history of allegedly higher education. A student "handed in a term paper that he had taken from a library book - literally. He had simply ripped out one chapter, stapled the pages together, and scribbled his name across the top. And while he did thoughtfully re-number the pages, he didn't bother to trim the ragged edges."

Gary is not known as the most alluring or picturesque place in the country – notice Bellairs’ mild disdain for the area of northern Indiana in his description of the Hagway in The Pedant and the Shuffly – and after three years, possibly once his Ph.D. class requirements were completed, Bellairs left Gary (and Chicago) for his first full-time teaching assignment at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota.