John and Judy Magee
619 Union
Ada, Ohio 45810
Phone: (419) 634-2585
Email: xxxx@xxxxxx.xxx

Forty Five Years and Counting

Shortly after graduation I entered the Army for three years (RA all the way!). As soon as I was discharged I entered what was then Oregon College of Education and in 1962 graduated with a degree in English. Along the way I met Judy, married in 1960 (my marriage to her and having joined the Army the two most important decisions in my life), and nine months and a few days later Summer, our first child, was born. So much for Vatican roulette!

In 1962, I began a masters in English at the University of Oregon. Beginning in 1963, I taught high school for three years in Creswell, Oregon. After my masters in English from the University of Oregon in 1965, I returned to OCE in 1966 to teach English. After two years there, my family and I, now numbering four with our first son, John, moved to Muncie, Indiana, where I pursued a doctorate in English.

Three years in Muncie ("Middletown, USA") at Ball State University proved to be enough. So with degree in hand we moved to Canton, Ohio, home of the famed Football Hall of Fame, where I taught at Walsh College for five years. In 1973, our third child, and second son, Nevil, was born. He was a surprise, I assure you, but a welcome surprise nonetheless. We often thought about returning to our beloved Oregon, for Judy was born in Clatskanie and grew up on a mint farm on the Columbia River, so we both missed our birth state, but gradually we became accustomed to Ohio and have since grown to appreciate it a great deal.

We moved to Ada, Ohio, in 1976, where we still live. I taught English at Ohio Northern University (ONU), located in Ada, until 1997, when I took early retirement. By then the nest was empty, Judy was working as a nurse in nearby Lima, Ohio, so why not, John?, take advantage of the early retirement package and live the sweet life. And so far early retirement has been more sweet than sour. We had raised three children by 1997, they were all out on their own and doing well, so sit back, dad, and take it easy. Live the good life.

A few highlights in my career. One, I was vice-principal one year at Creswell High School and the academic dean at Walsh College for one year. I wasn't cut out for administration. Two, while at ONU when the Chaucer person retired I took a sabbatical to study Chaucer and ended my career as the "Chaucer person" in the English department. That was a very positive highlight. Three, I was also the "Shakespeare person" at ONU for five years. That too was a high highlight, and the combination, teaching both Shakespeare and Chaucer, the number one and two respectively in English literature, was, though a lot of hard work, exciting. Finally, during my last seven years at ONU I fortunately came across the author, Raymand Carver. Carver, was born. in Clatskanie Oregon, May 25, 1938, but moved away when he was three and grew up in Yakima, Washington. He died August 2, 1988. Carver was one of the great short story writers of. the 60's, 70's, and 80's, and I had the good fortune to write several papers (and give papers) about him.

As a professor emeritus here I have all the perks I had as a full professor; the university library is just a hop and a skip away, and I continue to teach part-time in the English department, where, as Bobby Monson would say of himself, but I won't say of myself, "I am asked back comma by popular demand." Although I haven't exactly lived on easy street since my graduation from Silverton High School in 1955, home of the famed Silver Foxes (and some were more "foxy" than others), I haven't had to live as David Gentry, Bob Robbins, and I did that summer in 1954 when we camped in a city park in Pendleton while we worked at the pea cannery. Was it Don Davis's idea to camp there? Well, anyway, there you are. It's not a sentence, but it isn't a book, either.

John Magee

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