Once a Professor

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A Memoir of Teaching in Turbulent Times

Jerry Apps

A beloved educator, writer, and historian shares his experiences from decades of teaching, examining the challenges of academia and the joys of connecting with students.

240 pages, 5.5 x 8.25, 39 b&w photos
Hardcover: $22.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-857-7
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-858-4
Publication Date: 5/11/2018

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Description

“I never wanted to be a professor,” writes Jerry Apps in the introduction to Once a Professor. Yet a series of events and experiences put him on a path to that unlikely occupation—and led to a thirty-eight-year career that he found rewarding beyond measure. In this continuation of Apps’s life story begun in his childhood memoir Limping through Life, Wisconsin’s celebrated rural storyteller shares stories from his years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1957 to 1995, when he left the university to lecture and write fulltime.

During his years at UW–Madison, Apps experienced the turmoil of protests and riots at the university in the 1960s, the struggles of the tenure process and faculty governance, and the ever-present pressure to secure funding for academic research and programs. Through it all, Apps honed a personal philosophy of education—one that values critical thinking, nontraditional teaching approaches, and hands-on experiences outside of the classroom. Colorful characters, personal photos, and journal entries from the era enrich this account of an unexpected campus career.

Author Bio

Jerry Apps

Celebrated storyteller and rural historian Jerry Apps was born and raised on a central Wisconsin farm. He was a former county extension agent and professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Apps authored more than fifty fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, including Limping Through Life: A Farm Boy's Polio Memoir, More Than Words: A Memoir of a Writing Life, The Quiet Season: Remembering Country Winters, and Every Farm Tells a Story: A Tale of Farm Family Values, all published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.