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I grew up in Lancaster, Ohio and attended public schools in Lancaster.

I was named for my uncle, John Fenwick Ewing. Uncle Jack was the great grandson of Thomas Ewing. Thomas Ewing was one of the first two graduates of Ohio University. After studying law in Lancaster, he had a long and quite illustrious career. He was in the Ohio Senate, the United States Senate, served as a Secretary of the Treasury, and became the first Secretary of the Interior in the Tyler administration. When in Washington the family lived in the Blair House.

During the Civil War he was an advisor for Lincoln. His three sons all became Civil War Generals. Possibly his greatest contribution to the Civil War, however, was through his foster son and later his son-in-law, William Tecumseh Sherman.

In 1966 I enrolled as a freshman at Miami University, graduating in 1970 with a BS in Elementary Education. I subsequently completed a MEd in counseling in 1974 and a PhD in school administration in 1990. All three degrees were from Miami. While at MU my primary outside activities were with the Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity, now coed; and The Miami Men’s Glee Club, where I held several offices including president my senior year.

After graduation, I taught fourth and fifth grades at the Lincoln Heights Elementary school in the Princeton District. In 1973 I left Lincoln Heights to become the resident Camp Director and later Camp Director of Camp Campbell Gard. While at Camp Gard I created their Environmental Education program. My next move was back to Oxford while I worked on my PhD. During that time, I became a guidance counselor at Talawanda High School, eventually directing that program.

In 1978 Dr. Ken McDiffett asked me if I would become an advisor with the A Phi O chapter. That continues to this day. The duties of the advisors are to allow them to succeed and allow them to fail (greater learning comes from the latter), and stay out of their way. The chapter belongs to the active members, not the advisors.

I have also remained active with the Men’s Glee Club by being a founding member of the Club’s Advisory Board.

My greatest joy comes from working with students, through the A Phi O chapter, Men’s Glee Club and our church’s host family program. Student work helps me to maintain a younger outlook on life and on those around me.

October 2020

John Clover's 1924 Ford Model T has been a fixture in Oxford for over 60 years. She was brought to Oxford ca. 1959 by Ken McDiffett, who acquired the car in 1952. While at Miami, McDiffett was Administrative Assistant to President Millett. McDiffett later became Associate Dean of Men and Professor of Education Leadership. In 2007, Dr. Clover assumed title to the car and named her Marybelle in honor of his mother's middle name.

George Beverley, a 1970 Miami graduate, has joined the ranks of museum docent volunteers. A resident of The Knolls of Oxford since 2014, Beverley said, “I look forward to being a docent for the McGuffey House and Museum. Our campus is full of interesting history and McGuffey was certainly an important professor in Miami’s early beginnings.”

Beverly was employed for 40 years at Lamar University in Texas, where he served as the Station Manager of KVLU, an NPR member station serving SE Texas and SW Louisiana. He also served as an instructor in the music and communications department.

Reflecting on his career, Beverley noted “Miami provided me an excellent education and I graduated from here in 1970. Graduates nowadays normally go from job to job but I was challenged and happy to stay at Lamar for my entire career.”

Upon returning to Oxford, Beverley served as chairman of the Miami Men’s Glee Club Advisory Board. Every three years, the alumni are invited to perform at Alumni Weekend. At the June 2022 Reunion Concert, over 120 brothers in song gathered on the stage of Hall Auditorium and recognized George with the first Kevin Kuethe Spirit of Tradition Award.

McGuffey docent Diana Royer is the author of The Essence of Film Noir: The Style and Themes of Cinema’s Dark Genre, McFarland 2022. According to the publisher, “American classic films noir, beginning with 1941’s The Maltese Falcon and ending with 1950’s Sunset Boulevard, and the neo-noir films made from the 1970s onward, share certain thematic aspects, stylistic qualities, and cultural contexts. Their concern with politics, their depiction of con artists, and the way their characters are shaped by America’s puritanical religious roots show that these films are examples of a unique American genre, even when the films’ directors are German émigrés with artistic roots in European Expressionism.”

Royer is a professor of English at Miami’s Hamilton campus where she teaches composition, American and British literature and film studies.

Miami University and the Oxford community are saddened to learn the passing of Joan McNelly Teckman (1929-2020). Joan was the daughter of Walter and Freda McNelly, Oxford, Ohio, wife of Dr. Charles Teckman, Miami Class of 1951 and sister of Nancy Koutzen.

A proud graduate of McGuffey High School and Miami University, Class of 1950, Joan went on to complete a Master of Nursing with a Registered Nurse license in 1953 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She was also one of the early nurses to complete the Specialist Degree, Family Nurse Practitioner at Indiana University in 1978. Joan was employed over her lifetime as a professor of nursing at Miami University 1969-80, Indiana University 1979-81, and the University of Cincinnati 1982-90.

Joan is survived by Charles, her high school sweetheart and husband of 69 years. She was the beloved mother of four children and a grandmother and great grandmother. She is also survived by her sister, Nancy Koutzen and sister-in-law Joan Haskins.
Joan was recognized over her lifetime as a dedicated contributor to people and society. An avid collector of McGuffey memorabilia, Joan was for many years a loyal volunteer at McGuffey House and Museum. Her love of history, education, family and community endeared her to many people far and wide. Above all was the devotion she and Charles shared for one another.