Crimson and Gold Connection; Steve Cox and S. Portico Bowman

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. This is the Crimson and Gold Connection, your weekly conversation about the people, places and this week remembering Gene DeGrooson, with the annual lecture that bears his name. Mr. DeGrooson was the founder of Pittsburgh State University's Special Collections and Archives Department at the Axe Library. The 21st Annual Gene DeGrooson Memorial Lecture is taking place on Tuesday, November 13th, inside the governor's room of the Overman Student Center, it starts at 7 p.m. This year's guest speakers are authors, Maryland Simmons, and Wayne Grady. Maryland is author of 18 books including the novel The Holding, a New York Times book review editor's choice, and the Canadian Classic Nonfiction novel The Convict Lover, a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Wayne has written 14 books of nonfiction and translated novels for multiple languages. He has won the Governor General's Award for translations. Joining me this week on the Crimson to talk about the lecture and its special guests is Steve Cox, Curator of Special

Collection in University Archives and an Associate Professor at Pittsburgh State and Professor of Arts and a Writer, S. Portico Bowman. First I wanted to start out by asking Steve Cox about the DeGrooson family and who Gene was and his background here in Southeast Kansas. The DeGrooson family came from France and settled in this area and Gene grew up the son of the local minors and knew a lot about the mining community here. And he got his both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree from Pittsburgh State, right? He got a bachelor's degree here. I know he got a master's degree from University of Iowa. He originally was an English professor here at this university. Sounds like a real diverse man, mining and English professor. Well he was a renaissance man. He had his hands in a lot of things and he started here as an English professor but in the late 60s he was asked to start and he had a foot out the door. He was going to the University of Georgia to work and they talked him out of it

the last minute by enticing him to stay and create a Kansas collection which was the genesis of today's archives and special collections in Axe Library. So he stayed on and through that became one of the leading authorities on local history whether it was the mining history of the tri-state region or the socialist and radical history of Southeast Kansas. Particularly that of Gerard with the socialist newspaper appealed a reason and the Emmanuel Haldeman Julius publishing company in the little blue books. So he really in the 30 years that he was here as the special collections curator really became the authority on that local history. Interesting. I pictured him as a Mr. Kansas kind of guy and to hear that he almost left for Georgia. I don't know what was behind that. He had left one time before to go to Iowa to do his master's degree at the University of Iowa with a creative writing workshop there but he came back in the

early 60s and taught English. So I'm not sure if they had a pretty good deal with for him in Georgia to go but he like I said he was talked out of it at the last second and as far as I can tell he never doesn't look like he ever considered leaving after that point. He really became an institution here in Southeast Kansas and in Pittsburgh. And why was he asked to start the special collection in University Archives here at Pittsburgh State? Well I think a lot of the universities have those kind of collections and we didn't at the time and we we have a unique history here in an important history and I believe probably and I don't know who the dean of the library at the time was but probably saw a need for that and also probably just didn't want to lose Gene. Such a resource then. Right. Yes. Such a resource and so much so that you guys name an actual or an annual lecture after him. Right. He passed away unexpectedly in 1997 and the year after that the memorial lecture and his name was created so we've we've had about 20 years of these and we've

always focused on the local history the things that that Gene studied and really we would even have that history if it wasn't for him and this year's a little bit of a departure but I actually also kind of fits in because Gene was not only an authority on the mining and socialist and radical history of Southeast Kansas. He was a book scholar, a book history scholar. He did a lot of research in book history and printing history so I think this this lecture having Marilyn Simons and her husband Wayne Grady is very apropos to what what Gene was doing in his career. I'm speaking with Steve Cox, curator of special collections at university archives at Pittsburgh State University and professor of arts and a writer as portico moment. This year the group that organizes the degrees in memorial lecture has invited to Canadian authors. Marilyn Simons and Wayne Grady to speak and appear in a variety of events both Monday, November 12th and Tuesday the 13th. So portico

well will Marilyn and Wayne be speaking on wall at Pittsburgh State University. The focus of Monday is the readings of Marilyn Simons and Wayne Grady each from their separate new releases that are out this fall. Marilyn will read from the refuge and Wayne will read from up from freedom. From four to six p.m. we have a letter press workshop in Porter Hall with Cat Jepson. And then Tuesday at the Overman Student Center inside the governor's room is the actual lecture right? Right so that's from seven o'clock to eight p.m. in the significance of this campus-wide conversation about the relationship to reading in the digital age which is the focus of Marilyn's book Gutenberg's fingerprint. And I think the power for me in creating and being a part of bringing Marilyn and Wayne has been the people and how everybody has identified the importance of

curiosity. I was speaking with Steve Cox, curator of special collections in university archives and an associate professor and professor of arts and a writer as portico bowman. We were speaking about the gene de gruesome memorial lecture taking place on Tuesday, November 13th at seven p.m. inside the governor's room of the Overman Student Center both the de gruesome memorial lecture and other events on November 12th and 13th are co-sponsored by a variety of departments here at Pittsburgh State including the Leonard H. Axe Library, the Department of Art, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Department of Teaching and Leadership, the Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences, and the Tillford Group. For more information, visit news.pittstate.edu. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierrope and you've been listening to the Crimson and Gold Connection, a production of KRPS. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.