ENGLISH PROFESSOR TO RETIRE AFTER 38 YEARS

Henry Sessoms wanted to be a "top gun" Navy pilot in the 1950s. But an ear infection kept him grounded.

"I had a bad ear infection that kept me from flying so I got a medical discharge," recalled Sessoms.

He ended up an English professor, flying high on literature instead of fighter wings.

After 38 years at Southeast Missouri State University, Dr. Sessoms is retiring from full-time teaching at the end of this semester.

He plans to teach part time in the next academic year, teaching two classes in the fall semester and another two English courses in the spring 2000 semester.

The 64-year-old also plans to continue playing basketball with his faculty friends at the Student Recreation Center on campus.

Sessoms plays basketball two afternoons a week. At his age, he said, he doesn't know how much longer he will be shooting hoops. But he isn't ready to stay off the court just yet.

"There is a lot of spiritual, cultural and intellectual value in sports," said Sessoms.

An enthusiastic traveler, Sessoms is looking forward to traveling more in retirement.

His wife, Dr. Tamara Baldwin, is an associate professor of mass communication at Southeast. She plans to continue teaching.

Henry Sessoms has been a fixture in the Grauel Building at Southeast where English classes are held.

Though he came to Southeast clean shaven, for the past two decades his beard has made him an instantly recognizable figure on campus. Sessoms said people frequently tell him that the beard makes him look like Abraham Lincoln.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Sessoms graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a math degree after he was discharged from the military.

He then worked briefly for an insurance company. "I worked on second-generation computers," he recalled. The vacuum-tube system featured stand-up tape drives and a huge keyboard.

But Sessoms quickly decided that he didn't want to spend his life stuck at a desk job.

He went to graduate school at Peabody College in Nashville before landing a teaching job at Southeast in 1961.

Sessoms said it wasn't a stretch to become an English teacher. "I had always been literary and liked to read."

But he said he wasn't always a fan of great literature. "I read a lot of trash when I was a kid," he said. "Eventually, I realized that Mickey Spillane wasn't as good as William Faulkner."

Over the years, Sessoms has taught a wide range of English courses, from entry-level courses to classes on Chaucer, of whom he is particularly fond.

Sessoms has seen Southeast expand from a college to a university.

When he first started teaching, Southeast had about 1,500 students and the English department shared space with the history department in Academic Hall. The Grauel Building hadn't been built.

"The university had only about six administrators,' said Sessoms.

Sessoms chaired the English department from 1968 to 1993. The mass communication and philosophy departments also were under his supervision at one time.

In the 1980s, Sessoms helped develop the London Program. It allows Southeast students to study under Southeast faculty in London.

He has taught in London twice as part of the program.

About his tenure as English department chairman, Sessoms said he was "the compromise candidate" a 1968 faculty revolt in which eight faculty members were fired.

"It was really about the Vietnam War," Sessoms said.

Then-president Dr. Mark Scully was concerned about the possibility of campus protests against the war. He didn't want faculty around who might encourage students to protest the war, Sessoms said.

How have students changed over the years?

Sessoms said more students today juggle jobs and classes. Job demands make it more difficult for students to keep up with their course work. He has tried to accommodate students, allowing them to turn in papers late because of job demands.

"It is not the best situation, but it is better than not having them at all," he said.

While many things have changed at Southeast, parking has remained a constant problem. But Southeast is no different than other universities when it comes to parking, said Sessoms. "The biggest problem facing higher education today is the parking."

That hasn't deterred Sessoms. He still enjoys teaching students the finer points of literature.