Mary DeJong Obuchowski '61 has meticulously collected and analyzed the poetry of midwestern writer Gene Stratton-Porter in a beautiful edition published in summer 2007 by Kent State University Press, Field o' My Dreams. Long an admirer of Porter the writer and Porter the woman, Mary undertook to give the poetry the attention she felt it deserved. Although Porter was extremely well known for her young adult fiction (e.g. Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost) and nonfiction nature writings, and many of her poems had been published, the poetry as a body of work had not been considered until now. Mary began her research in the 1970s, and in 1980 her mission was obvious when copies of family papers containing some two dozen unpublished poems came into her possession. As Mary says in her introduction, "This gathering of poems attempts to honor her achievements and to make this portion of her legacy finally available." She is currently at work on a second book, a critical work on Porter. 

Having retired in 2005 after 34 years of teaching, Mary is professor emerita of English at Central Michigan University. After graduating from Western, she took her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and taught in Indiana and in Tokyo before joining the faculty at CMU in 1971. She continues to be involved with the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, which sponsors the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature and annual conferences. A WCAA trustee from 1999 to 2005, Mary lives in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, with her husband -- also a retired CMU English professor. They have two sons.

Jordan Tate '03, according to publisher St. Martin's Press, has broken new ground with his book, Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms: "Until now, no dictionary has ever attempted to record the fascinating and often raunchy inventory of English sexual euphemisms." The 55 entries begin with literal definitions and include derivation, usage in a sentence, and, of course, the slang meaning. But 27 of the words or phrases are accompanied by witty, tongue-in-cheek, literal photo illustrations, taken by Jordan, some featuring Westerners. In fact, the book was actually begun at Western, a follow-up to his WCP senior project, "Concerning Masculinity." Since 2003, Jordan's photography has appeared in individual and group exhibits everywhere from Miami's Hiestand Galleries to galleries in Cincinnati, Chicago, Bloomington, Berlin and San Diego. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography; UCLA, Utah and Yale university art libraries; the Indiana University Fine Art Library; and the Kinsey Institute. See examples of Jordan's work.

After graduation from Western, Jordan "took a year off" before graduate school, teaching high school in Cincinnati for a year and taking on the odd photography job. Now with an M.F.A. from Indiana University, he taught two photography classes at Miami during the fall 2007 semester and will teach during the spring 2008 semester at both Wright State (in Dayton) and Indiana universities. As his wife has a year-long commitment teaching art history at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), they will maintain their Indianapolis home base and Jordan will do "lots of driving."