English Channels
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Undergraduate Alumni
1950s
Kay Ewert Graber (B.S.1958; M.A. 1965) retired from her job as Communications Supervisor for Grant Wood Area Education Agency in Cedar Rapids, IA, seven years ago, but hasn’t retired from keeping busy. Graber has been appointed by the Governor to the Iowa Advisory Council on Brain Injuries for the past eight years, serves on the Indian Creek Nature Center Board and as chair of the Marketing Committee, and has been one of the leaders for a $1.3 million campaign and renovation of the Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church. She and her husband, Harlan Graber (KU Ph.D. 1964) will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this summer.
1960s
Dean Bevan (B.A. 1960, Ph.D. 1971) delivered a eulogy for the beloved and incomparable Carroll Edwards at his April 14 memorial service in Lawrence. Former students of Professor Edwards who would like the text of this can email Dean at bevan@ku.edu. Dean continues his unplanned theater “career” in retirement, appearing in his 20th show since 2002 this June as Bela Zangler in the Gershwin musical Crazy for You. Dean and Judy, who will celebrate 50 years of marriage next year (OMG!), continue to enjoy travel, sailing, skiing, and hanging out at home in Lawrence, where they invite old friends to drop in.
Jon King (B.A. 1969) writes: “Thank you, English Dept, for staying in touch. My resume is almost written. It includes writing resumes for almost 40 years. Sound familiar?...Here are a couple of my fond academic memories-- be-ins and English professors at Potter’s Lake; a tipsy encounter, returning to my seat at a downtown Lawrence movie house, with my professor who had recommended seeing Hamlet (I think it was) to our class; and as they say in The Music Man (if not, they should) great benefit from learning ‘Shakespeare, Milton and The Bible.’ Still loving jazz and trying to plug in as much as possible with regard for three great offspring, one awesome grandson and my ‘month of May’ Suzanne….Back in Kansas now by way of Denver and Wyoming, ‘The Jazz Fan’ series, jking101@cox.net.
1970s
Michael R. O’Neal (B.A. 1973, Law 1976) writes: “I have fond memories of living in the ‘Shelter’at 1111 W. 11th as a Delt and making midnight runs for hot, fresh, Joe’s Bakery glazed donuts. I’m glad to see that the Delts have retaken the Shelter and are on campus once more. We look forward to tailgating next to the house in Lot #50 on game days this fall, when KU wins the North, plays for the Big 12 Championship and then a third straight bowl victory! I practice law with Gilliland & Hayes, P.A. in Hutchinson (we also have a Lawrence office at 9th & Mass.). For the past 25 years I’ve served in the Kansas House of Representatives and was elected as Speaker of the House in January. I’m married to Cindy and we have two at KU. Haley will graduate in May with a degree in Athletic Training and Austin will be a Junior in Applied Behavioral Science. Rock Chalk!”
Elizabeth (Beth) Scalet (B.A. 1970, M.A. 1971) is still in Kansas City where she is spending her retirement on disability writing songs and poetry. In March 2008 she was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. She continues to record CDs and recently signed a publishing deal for several songs. Now that it’s spring, she entertains herself watching the returning Mallard ducks on the watergardens.
Robert J. Swift, Jr. (B.A. 1973) writes: “After leaving KU in 73, I graduated from law school in Illinois; my legal career included Marine JAG, private practice, government, and trust banking for the last 20 years. We have been in Denver for 2 years and enjoy the great weather. My wife Elizabeth Foard (KU, 74) has taught kindergarten for 35 years. Our daughter, Leigh Swift Nelson, teaches kindergarten at Prairie School in Prairie Village.”
1990s
Kimberly Meyer (B.A. 1992, M.A. 1994) just completed her Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. Her essays have appeared in a number of literary magazines, including this summer’s Oxford American “Best of the South” issue. She’s currently at work on a book on medieval pilgrimage and the pilgrimages she and her husband and three daughters have been making to a number of American sacred and secular shrines.
Heather Swartz (B.A. 1991, M.A. 1992) completed her PharmD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006 and currently is a senior medical writer in the pharmaceutical industry. More interestingly, she recently got back into creative writing after a long hiatus and is a member of an advanced fiction writing workshop in Evanston, IL. Her short story “What You’re Looking At” is included in the critically acclaimed anthology Further Persons Imperfect (2007, iUniverse). The same story won the Leo Love Merit Scholarship at the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, which Heather will be attending in July. She and her fiancé, fellow Evanston writer Paul McComas (Planet of the Dates), are planning a September wedding in the South Dakota Badlands.
2000s
William C. Ferleman (B.A. 2002, M.A. 2006) is a doctoral student at Oklahoma State University. He published a book review in The Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance (2007); he likewise published an essay on Fletcher and Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen as a book chapter in Postmodern Essays on Love, Sex, and Marriage in Shakespeare (2008) and as an article in Genre 28 (2008). In March, he presented a paper on Milton’s use of gender in his political prose at The South-Central Renaissance Conference in Kansas City. He published concert reviews of Modest Mouse, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, and Rush in PopMatters.
Rachel Hile (B.A. 1993, M.A. 1995, Ph.D. 2004) is assistant professor in the Department of English and Linguistics at Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne. She lives in Fort Wayne with her children Joey and Helen.
Nick Medved (B.A. 2009) writes: “When I first came to KU, I had no idea how much of an impact this school would have on me. I didn’t expect to learn, through my fellow students, so many different ways of interpreting and understanding the things that I read. And I couldn’t imagine how supportive my professors would be—exposing me to new ideas while challenging my own; believing in me when, academically, I didn’t believe in myself, and supporting my creative works in the long journey from their infancy through completion. I entered college a goofy teenager with a love for books and a desire to write plays, and graduated with that love fed, and the opportunity to see that desire guided from spiral-bound rough sketches to fully-staged theatrical productions by English Alternative Theatre. And I have this school, this department, and the people who work here to thank for it all.”
Brett Runyon (B.A. 2008) remembers English 102: “It’s awful to find out you’re wrong and that, in being so, made a jackass out of yourself. But, in the Spring semester of 2005, I was enrolled in English 102 with a GTA as the instructor. After several weeks, she asked me if I had declared a major yet. When I replied ‘No,’ she suggested that I should become an ‘English Major.’ To which I replied jocularly, ‘You have a better chance of getting a fart out of Jesse Jackson’s ass.’ But two semesters later, I became an English Major. I feel guilty thinking she endures without the knowledge that her instincts bested my wit, and illuminated my short sight. But the strangest and most embarrassing aspect of the whole episode is, I don’t even recall what other possible major I was snubbing my now cherished discipline for. Of course, if I ever do see her again, to perform whatever penance might be necessary, I bet she won’t remember me at all. That would be another lesson in itself.”