Posted - March 16, 2011

English professor models Studs Terkel for EC alumni book Loren Logsdon to present alumni stories April 9

april 9 - 10:45 am

Eureka College English professor Loren Logsdon is capturing the memories of more than 200 Eureka College alumni in a project named for an author who did similar work. 

Logsdon’s “Studs Terkel Project” involves asking alumni from the 1940s through the 1960s to send him their special memories of their time on campus. Logsdon is sorting the memories into categories for a future book featuring alumni responses, which so far include memories about special professors, college pranks and traditions, the campus during the World War II years, meeting lifetime loves and other subjects.

Logsdon will reveal some of the stories at a presentation at 10:45 a.m.
April 9 in Becker Auditorium in the Cerf Center during the college’s annual Alumni Weekend. There, he will focus on couples who met at the college, beloved faculty members and administrators from the 1960s and a few alumni’s one-of-a-kind reminiscences.

“These are stories of human beings, not an official history of the college,” Logsdon said. “All of the stories combined weave a rich tapestry of Eureka College during those three decades.”

Logsdon’s project is named for Terkel, of Chicago, did similar work chronicling ordinary people’s oral histories into books about World War II, the Great Depression and other subjects. 

Logsdon’s book is slated for publication by winter 2012.

Logsdon graduated from Eureka College in 1958. He taught full-time at the college for 22 years and continues to teach part-time. Before that, he taught at Western Illinois University for 24 years.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318