Jerry Gill's Enduring Questions

ONE OF MY MANY HOMES: SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

            I grew up about 100 miles from Seattle and it was always the “Mecca” of my early years. My Mom used to take me to Seattle to see plays, the circus, the ice follies, and ball games. For a few hours she would turn me loose in the toy department of the huge Frederick and Nelson’s department store. We always stayed at the magnificent Olympic Hotel. We usually went to Seattle from Bellingham by train, spending a few hours in the lounge car where I could play on the floor with my toys. Even then Seattle seemed huge and ever so full of life.

            One of the first things that caught my attention when we disembarked at the train station was the presence of Negro baggage handlers. There also were Negro waiters and porters on the train. This was always something especially curious to me, because there were absolutely no Negroes in our town of Bellingham. Once a year the Harlem Globetrotters would come to town, but they were the only Black People I saw until we visited Seattle. Seattle was full of Negroes during the Second World War. They came to work in the shipyards. After the war everything changed in that regard.

            One of the main attractions for me in Seattle was the presence of the University of Washington. My Mom took me to several football games there, including the one when my boyhood hero Herman Wedemeyer from little Saint Mary’s college in California. Later the University had several great basketball teams involving such stars as Jack Nichols, Bob Houbregs, and Joe Cipriano. In football I got to see such great players as Hugh McElheny and Bob Schloredt. My personal favorite was competing in the yearly high school Cross State track and field championships in the University stadium. I even won the long jump there twice and got to see several world-class track runners there over the years.

     After college I spent a year earning a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Washington. Later on, I spent four years as a professor of philosophy and religion at the small liberal arts college known as Seattle Pacific. It was a wonderful time for me. I had a small group of outstanding students each of whom went on to earn Ph.D. degrees and teach at prestigious universities around the country. Also, while there I was awarded a Danforth Teacher grant to complete my Doctorate degree at Duke University.    

            Ten years later I returned to Seattle Pacific to spend a year studying the arts, a field in which I had had no experience or training. It was a wonderful year, for in addition to being able to get some small experience in a wide number of artistic fields, I discovered that I had some talent as a sculptor. I spent almost a whole year discovering and developing this talent, and in later years I have been able to continue with this skill rather successfully.

            I must share one seemingly unfortunate experience I had while in Seattle. During my sojourn there as a professor I had an unfortunate encounter with the professor who had been the thesis advisor for my Master’s degree. I had been fortunate enough to have a condensed version of the thesis in a scholarly journal. I took a reprint of my article to my former professor, and he exploded with anger claiming that he had not agreed to pass my thesis and was over-ridden by others. In addition, he accused me of trying to belittle him by sharing my publication. I was flabbergasted and went home devastated.

            That evening he called me at home and apologized profusely. In the ensuing years I continued to visit with him whenever I returned to Seattle and things always seemed to go well.  He seemed pleased that I had earned a Doctorate Degree from Duke, and we talked about what he was teaching and researching at the time. On reflection I have concluded that he had exploded because not only had he been outvoted with respect to my Master’s thesis, but as it turns out he himself had never actually published any of his own scholarship and I fear my own success in getting published upset him.

In the end we parted as friends, but it was a very painful experience for me at the time. Perhaps it has affected my own dealings with my students over the years. I have always sought to treat each of them with kindness and care, never really knowing what they may have been going through during their years of growing up.