Post-Kenyon Biography

          After my 1962 graduation with my James B Duke fellowship in hand, I headed for Duke University in pursuit of a graduate degree in philosophy.  After two years, I was invited to become Assistant Lecturer in the philosophy department at the University of Leeds in Yorkshire, England.  I might still be there except I needed to return to Duke to complete the requirements for my PhD, which I did in 1966.  That same year I accepted an offer to join the philosophy department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just 12 miles down the road.  I have pretty much been there ever since.

In 1967 I got married to Terry, a graduate student in psychology at Duke.  We remain married today.  We had two children, both boys, who today live (too) far away in California.  And now we also have two grand-daughters.

In the early years of marriage I found myself building much of our furniture and then less functional “art” objects.  But I had never had a course in art and was not sure I knew what art was.  With a sabbatical forthcoming, I persuaded UNC to let me enter the graduate program in its studio art department.  The Dean agreed on condition that I not teach any graduate courses in philosophy while I was a graduate student in art!  I started spending a lot of time at the art lab making sculptures, mostly large non-figurative welded steel pieces.  In 1983 I received an MFA in studio art and then included philosophy of art courses with my other specialities in history of philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind.

I officially retired after 30 years in UNC’s philosophy department and slowly transitioned away by teaching half time for another five years and then heading up a new graduate school program called Aesthetics in Society for another four years.  Since then I have taught a number of Continuing Education courses at Duke and at UNC.  As the years went on, my labor of love making large steel sculptures became more labor and less love, so I traded my welding tools for photography equipment, converting some space at home into a darkroom and then eventually going digital.  Photography continues to be a passion today, and I still enjoy entering competitions and exhibitions.

I am aware that much that has been good in my life got nourished at Kenyon.  John Yolton sparked my interest in philosophy; he left after my sophomore year but I visited and stayed in touch with him long after.  Virgil Aldrich, the chair of the department with whom I worked most closely, actually was hired at UNC the year before I was hired, and I enjoyed many years working with him as a colleague there.