theLeftAhead

WRITER’S NOTE: This piece was written in December of 2003 and presented to my dad as a birthday gift on January 3, 2004. I have never lived in Detroit. I have never even been there on vacation.. I’m sure that within my lifetime I will more than likely take that vacation, hopefully for the first time with my dad. But should I never make the trip, that will be okay…

Editor’s Note: This poem hung on the wall in my father’s study in my childhood home. It was written to my dad by a group of his Southwestern University students in 1965. There is an illustration on the poster board which is signed by the participants of the project. However, I do not know who the author of the poem is or who illustrated it. Clearly, my dad had an…

In loving memory of William Douglas Hooker, my dad. I loved to study the way my father wrote. There was a rhythm to his writing. Sometimes I would catch him deep in thought, pen and legal pad in his lap. I imagined him auditioning words in his mind. I imagined British vernacular dancing leisurely in his head with American didactic terminology, Each word tranquilly searching for its place in his…

War Story World War II adventures of a former Southwestern professor are published in a new book Fifty-six years after World War II ended, the wartime story of a Southwestern University professor is finally being published. Douglas Hooker served as a psychology professor at Southwestern from 1961 to 2004. Among his former students was Jake B. Schrum, who is now president of Southwestern. Before Hooker died in 2006, Schrum encouraged…