Gene Doty's Professional Background

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These notes aren't anything like a complete autobiography, just some indications of what, where, and when. ("Why" is omitted with intent.)

Early On

 What does early childhood have to do with one's profession? In my case, as a young child, I was alone a lot. I learned to entertain myself, I was reading at age four and developed an intense love for reading. (Or maybe an addiction to print?)

Like all young children, I also imagined, fantasized, more than usual, perhaps, in my case, since I spent a lot of time alone and

We had no tv.

Once more: There was no television at our house until I was nearly a teenager. What a blessing!

We had horses, pigs, cattle, chickens, a garden (full of tomatos, potatos, onions), fruit trees, pastures, ponds, creeks, fields. No better school anywhere.

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Shades of the School House

 I attended a one-room country school for the first four grades. I was the only child in my class. The first three years, I had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Emma Jean Carrie, who taught me phonetic reading, who assigned work for me to do, and, when I had completed it, allowed me to read or draw as I wished.

The shades started to be pulled down when I went to "town" school in the fifth grade. ("Town" because the city of Eskridge has only a few hundred inhabitants.)

I had good teachers in Eskridge Grade and High School. But I did not experience the freedom I had at District 44 in the country.

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"Gino College"

 In 1959, I graduated from Alma (Kansas) High School, where I fear I was not the model student. I did learn there, primarily from Harvey Harriman, who taught music my senior year. Harvey encouraged my writing and drawing with some understanding, as well as teaching a music theory and history class for the benefit of another student and me.

From Alma High School, I went to the College of Emporia (Kansas). A small Presbyterian school, it had some wonderful teachers; Cliff Wood and George Crocker, especially, helped me get some grounding in the classes I reluctantly studied.

I was a work study student in theater. I acted in a couple of plays, as well as designing and making sets and props for others. I also assisted with make-up for one play: I got to put a beard on the dean of students.

Eventually, I attended Emporia State University as an art and English major. Important teachers for me were Rex Hall and Richard Simons in art; Bill Elkins and Green Wyrick in English.

Emporia State even awarded me a Master of Arts in English in 1967.

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Intermissions

 I wouldn't want you to think I just graduated from college and then went straight through college.

Nope.

I was out of college on several occasion; some semesters, I took less than a full load.

Why was I out of college?

  • At Christmas of 1961, I received a letter from the Registrar at the College of Emporia, telling me I was not welcome to return for the Spring 1962 semester. I had already transferred to the University of Kansas; however, the corrupt administration in Emporia held my transcripts so that I couldn't enroll.

    The controversy which got me, and several others, expelled, made the national news for a few days.

  • In June of 1963, my wife and I moved to San Francisco.
  • After returning to Kansas in 1964, I attended Emporia State University.
  • I was out of school another semester, working full-time since Rose and I now had a child.

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"You read all them books?"

 Well, no; not all of 'em. But quite a few and some more than once.

I grew up and live in a culture which mistrusts books and readers, while praising literacy. Go figure. I have been asked the title question of this section many times in different ways.

Here's a list of a dozen books I like, reread, have profited from. The list is unsystematic.

  1. The Song of Songs Which Is Solomon's.
  2. The Cantos, Ezra Pound.
  3. Leaves of Grass, Wal Whitman.
  4. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, Gregory Bateson.
  5. Dreams, Sigmund Freud.
  6. Unweaving the Rainbow, Richard Dawkins.
  7. Ulysses, James Joyce.
  8. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. Tolkien.
  9. The Chuang Tzu, Chuang Chou.
  10. The Gospel According to John.
  11. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
  12. Man and His Symbols, ed. C. G. Jung.

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Teaching

 This section seems the most pretentious. The simplest answer to the question, "Why do you teach?" is that that's the job I have.

What do I get out of teaching, besides a paycheck and benefits? There are other rewards. I do see students who catch on to what I'm trying to convey. I also learn from students.

In writing classes, I learn about students' experiences, ideas, and thought-processes. In technical writing, I actually pick up some bits of information from various technical fields.

In literature classes, I learn from students' questions about and insights into the literature we study together. And I find I know something best when I teach it to others.

There's satisfaction in seeing students graduate and enter "real" life. Many mst students are talented and accomplished. It is a pleasure to deal with them.

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Little Magazines & Smaller Presses

 I began "real" publication in 1962, when I was an undergraduate living in a rented room with steam heat and a shared bathroom. There was another student or two in the building, but most tenants were poor.

"Real" publication means a stranger publishing my work at his or her expense because they like it and want to put it into print. I believe the first poetry journal I published in was The Southwest Review, out of Ft. Smith, Arkansas; it was a love poem for an Iranian girl I had dated.

Since then I've published many poems in many journals and anthologies, as well as a few collections consisting of my own work. I've also published a little fiction and some critical essays.

Why?

Not, obviously, for fame and fortune. My publications have helped me in my position at the University of Missouri-Rolla, but I would have written and published—or attempted to—no matter what I did for a living.

Some experiences shape themselves into words and demand to be written down. That's it.

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Other Jobs

 Although it's been a long time, I have done other things than teach.

A lot of farm work: Hauling hay, feeding cattle, mowing and raking, planting, field hoeing, cattle-driving, milking, egg-gathering, shoveling grain, fixing fence.

I drove a dump truck with my father-in-law for awhile in 1964. I was a cable TV lineman in 1962 and 1964. We dug the holes, put up the poles, climbed them, strung the cable, drank coffee, and took breaks to shoot pool and drink beer. (Guess which I was better at.)

I have clerked in a grocery store, mopped and cleaned a shoe-repair shop and a beauty shop.

I worked as a Central Supply orderly at Mt. Zion Medical Center in San Francisco in 1964 and at Newman Memorial Hospital in Emporia, Kansas. At Mt. Zion, I worked 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. As well as sterilizing water and making up surgery trays, I was responsible for the cardiac arrest cart, which lead to some dramatic situations.

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