WORLD TRAVELS WITH JERRY: The United States –this grew to be long- sorry (;

            By the time I was a mid-adult I had driven across the USA 29 times. For my first 30 years I lived along the West coast in Washington and California, finishing up my college career. Then I did a brief stint in NYC at a theological school before spending another four years teaching in Seattle. Seattle, of course, was very familiar country, having grown up 100 miles north of there in Bellingham, Washington. Culturally Seattle has always been my “base camp”. I have managed to return to it several times over these many years. I taught for four years at Seattle Pacific College, both philosophy and religion to a brilliant group of six students, each of whom went on to earn graduate degrees and also five of whom become professors. We have stayed in touch over the years and they remain very special. Unfortunately, I ran a bit afoul of certain faculty at the college and the President resolved the conflict by nominating me for a Danforth teacher grant which financed my doctoral studies.    

After Seattle I moved to North Carolina to attend Duke University for two years, interrupted by a quick stint at Oxford University (more later), followed by a three-year stint in Memphis, Tenn, while teaching at Southwestern at Memphis. Living in the South was a very interesting, but sometimes difficult experience. The Civil rights movement was in full swing and Martin Luther King was murdered there then. Once again, I was blessed with several student friends who remained good friends over time. I also got to teach part-time at the local Negro College for a couple of years and learned a great deal from my students there. It was a key aspect of my cultural education. I especially enjoyed the all-pervasive Black music.   

My neighbors would not consider sharing our community swimming pool with the kids of a near-bye Black neighborhood on Monday mornings before cleaning the pool. 

            Then I spent 8 years teaching at Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) in St. Petersburg.  Living in Florida was as fascinating as it was at times exasperating. I met several Black Activists and worked with them on several city-wide projects. Many of my students were also very “counter-culture”, and so I had much to learn from them as well. St. Petersburg was definitely a “beach culture” as well, so I got to spend a lot of time exploring this particular sub-culture, and even had a small sail-boat, as well as a motorcycle. My young son and I actually drove our bike across the country from Florida to Los Angeles and on up to Seattle. The college was very progressive and I expanded my educational horizons a great deal. I got to lead several groups of students both to London and Greece. More about this later :O)

            Until now I have skipped over my three years living and studying in NYC because that was an entire experiential unit in and of itself. I was in theological school in Manhattan while living and teaching part time at a prep school in Stony Brook Long Island. The daily 100-mile round trip commute for two years was in itself quite an education, as was the theological seminary which more than met my expectations. My major professor, Robert Traina, was a truly outstanding teacher and I owe him ever so much for grounding my understanding of the Bible. Of course I visited all the city sites (Empire State Building, the UN, and Radio City.) I also got to long jump at Madison Square Garden in the National AAU Championship because a colleague of mine at the Stony Brook School ran for them and since they did not at the time have a long-jumper I got invited. It was, of course, a fantastic experience competing before 18,000 fans and not finishing last.

            More significantly, I got to hear the great Paul Tillich give a lecture (quite the showman) and meet Reinhold Niebuhr after one of his public lectures near the end of his career. He actually agreed to read one of my papers on his thought and later sent me a response. Since these were top luminaries of my time and in my chosen career these were very special experiences for me. I had read the works of both of these important thinkers while in school and was strongly influenced by their thought. On an entirely different note, at the seminary we had a basketball team that played against other seminary teams in the area, both in New York, such as Union, and in New Jersey, such Princeton. It was a lot of fun, even though we rarely did well and I always got home to Stony Brook very late on the last train.

            I made several really good friends while in New York, Bruce Lockerbie at Stony Brook and Karl Soderstrom who later began his teaching career at Stony Brook and then eventually became the school’s Headmaster. Also, one of my classmates and basketball teammates, Sid Chapman, became a life-long friend. We both spent our years immediately after seminary at Seattle Pacific, I as a professor and he as a College Chaplin. Sid and I remained good friends all the way through life until he died in the early 2000s. When he became a professor at a college in Texas, he often invited me to be a special speaker there. I remember Sid came to my 80^th birthday celebration and we reminisced about our New York days.

            Meanwhile, “back at the ranch”, after seminary and teaching at Seattle Pacific College for four years I spent two years at Duke University in North Carolina, and a brief time at Oxford university in England. My brief time at Duke was a wonderful experience for me, mostly because of its high academic standards and the camaraderie among the students – and of course, watching great basketball. The basketball team had not yet reached Coach K standards, but they were very good – and you could still get a seat in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I went to every home game!! Of course, the university library was wonderful and I sought to take every advantage of it. My major Professor, Bill Poteat, was a deep thinker and became a good friend. As it happened the writing my dissertation was easy. From there I went off to Oxford to study with Professor Ian Ramsey.

            After my years at various schools in the West and South, as mentioned above, I received an invitation to become Professor of Christianity and Culture at Eastern College (now a university) just outside of Philadelphia. Living and teaching on the East coast was a whole new ballgame for me. Of course, I had lived and studied in NYC, but shifting to the Philadelphia area was quite different culturally. I enjoyed my “up East” students, most of whom seemed to be from New Jersey, and “Springsteen” country. I made many fine student friends at Eastern, some of whom are still good friends. I learned to love Cheese Steaks, the Phillies, and the Sixers. I also met a special student, who would soon become my wife, Mari Sorri. We have now been married and colleagues for over 42 years.

            Things did not go well between myself and the shifting administrations at Eastern, particularly because I had married a student, so I moved on to a brief stint at Barrington College in Rhode Island where Mari earned her Master’s in philosophy from the University Of Rhode Island. Perhaps the most important thing that happened in my life while during our two years there was the opportunity to teach in the State Prison. It was both eye-opening and rewarding teaching in that context. I learned a great deal. However, Barrington College went broke and I was once more looking for a job. Incidentally, along the way I managed to publish a good number of books and journal articles in my fields.

         I heard about an opening at The College of St. Rose in Albany NY and applied. It was only a beginning position in philosophy and religion, but I was glad to be working. I had never taught at a catholic school before, but in addition to being an interesting experience it turned out to be challenging. My two main colleagues were a gay priest, Bert, and a sweet guy who called himself an “Ex-fundagelical”, named Bruce. Most of the students and faculty were in one way or another catholic, but also quite a bit to the left of standard Catholicism. There were only a few, rather radical, nuns and a strong liberal arts tradition. Here again, I made numerous student friends and we, Mari and I, enjoyed the Capitol Area a lot, except for the cold snow. I was very active there, inventing a monthly Faculty Luncheon Program where we discussed each other’s papers, as well as an Area Philosophical Society incorporating RPI, Siena College, and SUNY at Albany departments. Both were hugely successful. Also, Mari and I instituted a Semester in Greece program which ran for three fall semesters and was a roaring success but more about that later.   

JERRY WEST, ALL-TIME BASKETBALL GREAT, HAS DIED AT 86

            This news struck me because West has always been a symbol of basketball, not only because that’s his image on the NBA logo, but because I grew up with basketball and he was almost always in the center of it, one way or another. He was an All-American at West Virginia, coming from a little town known as Cabin Creek. His team mate on the Lakers, the great Elgin Baylor, called him “Zeak from Cabin Creek”. His first name being Jerry has had nothing to do with my special admiration for him. :O)

            Perhaps the thing I remember most, aside from the fact that he helped win more NBA Championships for the Lakers than any team except the Boston Celtics, is that he once won a game by making a 65-foot shot on the run to win the finals championship series. And that was before there were three-pointers. Don’t get me wrong, I have never been a Lakers fan. I have always been a Celtics fan from back in the days of Cousey, Russell, Sharman, and Havlicek. And sometimes the Seattle Super Sonics when my friend Les Habegger was the Assistant Coach. But it was hard to root against the talent of West, Baylor, and Kareem.

            For the last twenty years of his life, West was in the front office of the Lakers in various capacities. He guided them to many championships and special record setting seasons. Besides all this, Jerry West was always known as a fine gentleman, never getting into fights or scandals. I sit now waiting for the end to come to Bob Cousey, who is still with us while being well over 100 years of age. All the others from that era, including Russell and Chamberline, have gone on ahead, but “the Cous” continues to hold out. Although he and Jerry West were sometimes opponents, they shared that special something that makes basketball players great – talent and the drive to do better. Thanks for the memories, Jerry West !!