LEON ARKSEY, MY FIRXT FACULTY SPECIAL FRIEND

            When I started my college teaching career at Seattle Pacific in 1960 my first friend was Leon Arksey a member of the English department. For some reason we sort of hit it off at the first full faculty meeting and it stuck until Leon’s death in the mid 1990s. He died of the lung disease we see mentioned on tv so often lately, “Mesothelioma”. Leon was the son of a Methodist minister/missionary and grew up in Mozambique near South Affrica. After earning his college and Master’s degrees in Michigan he married his wife Laura and taught briefly at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. Then because of his disease he spent some time in a sanitarium in Seattle. After getting his health back, temporarily, he began teaching at Seattle Pacific.

            Not only was Leon a first -rate teacher, full of knowledge and enthusiasm, but he was also a liberalizing influence among his colleagues and a very faithful friend. Surprisingly, Leon had boundless energy which one could often hear in his infectious laughter. He taught students the fine art of craft-full writing and interest in the world of ideas. Once I took his class in creative writing and discovered, mostly negatively, what was involved in writing creatively. He once gave a chapel talk in which he read a story he had written about his youth in Africa, and his control of the English language, as well as his insight into the subject, were in full view. In short, he was a brilliant teacher as well as a first-rate and honest thinker.

            Once, when I was just beginning to become a scholarly writer, Leon was reading the draft of my latest effort. Never having been a worthwhile speller, I had written the word ‘metaphore’ in my crucial paragraph. Leon raised the issue by quietly, without showing any impatience, “I don’t think the word metaphor ends with an ‘e’ ”. It’s easy to imagine all the things he could have said, while showing his disdain for my lack of spelling ability, something about how stupid my effort was. Instead, he simply pointed out my error and went on to talk about my main point. In short, Leon was always a supportive friend and helpful without being critical.

            Also, it was Leon who introduced me to the political issues of that day, namely open housing and race relations. He showed me how to place political posters around the neighborhoods and took me to political rallies. At the college he regularly spoke up about issues that arose in our faculty meetings, and he was clear about the fact that we were not anything near being a first-rate college. Years later when I returned to Seattle for a lectureship, Mari and I arranged to visit Leon and Laura at their retirement home in Spokane., WA. Even though he was pretty sick at the time, he was still full of energy for our visit. We watched on TV a political rally at which Barak Obama spoke and he was exuberant about the chances of the Democratic Party regaining control of the Government.

            Leon was not only my very first college faculty friend, but he became a life long buddy on various projects and activities. I helped him paint his house on two different occasions. It was there that one could see his attention to detail and patience. While I must admit that these were not, and are not, characteristics that anyone would accuse me of, I like to think that I did learn something of them from my buddy Leon. We bought our first little house in Seattle from Leon and Laura, and they moved two doors down the block into the three bedroom home which they soon needed for their three children. When I held “ceremonial” get-togethers for my students we always held them at the Arksey’s.

            During my final year at Seattle Pacific Leon and I, along with a couple of other friends from church, started up a Coffee House right next to a foreign film theater as a place to hold open discussions of current socio-political issues as well as religious issues. Often the discussions were focused on the films showing next door, or they dealt with current local and national issue. We did, as well, often  invite local personalities to share their views and lead the discussions. I left Seattle after a year, but the Le Rapport Coffee House lasted five more years. Leon was the main driving force behind its on-going success.

            Leon Arksey was my first real academic colleague and friend, and I have often found myself trying to put into practice his ideas and style in my own teaching activities. When in Africa Leon learned to whistle as he went to the outhouse so as to scare away any snakes that might be in there. It was a long lasting habit which he incorporated into any visit he made around his home. I still recall his whistle as he came up the steps to our house for a visit. It makes me glad I knew him.                         

SHORT STINT AT SOUTHWESTERN AT MEMPHIS

            Right after my years at Duke and Oxford I spent three years teaching at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) and LeMoyne College, a Negro college also in Memphis. I have written about those years before so I’ll stick to salient details here. Southwestern was a first-class college in the South and was just beginning to overcome the racism deeply embedded there. I taught both philosophy and religion, and worked with several other faculty members to shut down a local “Whites Only” restaurant. I also got started with academic publishing while there.

            I also taught part-time at the local Negro College for three semesters. It was a very enjoyable and eye-opening experience for me. I made many Black friends and was able to host an integrated party at my home for my students at both my colleges. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing (1966-68) and Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis while I was living and working there. I participated in the famous “I AM A Man” march and in the Negro college’s Memorial Service for Dr. King. When I arrived in Memphis, I found that the Black gas station workers would not look you in the eye and the white owners collected the money.

             I grew a beard in the hope that it would open up more interaction with black men, and I found that nit really worked. Somehow the few of us white guys with beards seemed more trustworthy. I also made good friends with my black students at both of the colleges where I taught, especially Paula Briggs, Ethelyn Harris, Joanne Johnson, and the star of the men’s basketball team, David Merritt. I made some efforts to integrate the swimming pool in my neighborhood, but the powers that be would have none of it. In the summer term I introduced a course on “African Thought” at Memphis State University.

      Perhaps the most important cultural reality in Memphis was the dominance of Black, especially Soul, music. Many of the groups that later became famous were just getting started in the sixties and Memphis was very much at the center of this phenomenon. BookerT and the MGS gave regular concerts in the park on Sundays, and such musicians as James Brown, Tina Turner, and various Soul Music groups, like Sam and Dave did likewise. It was a short stint that I did at Memphis, but it made an indelible mark in my life.

            I probably would have stayed longer in Memphis if my marriage had not broken up. Emotionally it was a very hard time for me, and my friends advised that a fresh beginning somewhere else would be therapeutic. It was then that I accepted a position at Eckerd College (formerly Florida Presbyterian College in Florida). I thought a lot about going to teach at a Black college but a Negro friend challenged me to continue to work within the white college system where there was much work to be done. I took this advice to heart and have ever since sought to work for racial and female justice in the various predominantly white colleges where I have worked.