From Dublin, Ohio, Jeff Johnston sent news about his family and his activities in retirement as well as reflections on his career in publishing. Jeff and his wife, Marcia, recently celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary. Jeff and Marcia met and started dating in the ninth grade. Marcia attended Plymouth State College in Plymouth, New Hampshire, but according to Jeff, she spent every weekend at Dartmouth. After college Marcia was an early childhood educator and stay-at-home mother. Jeff and Marcia have been blessed with three children and three grandchildren and they love being grandparents. Their oldest child, Paul, graduated from Ohio State with a degree in civil engineering. Their middle child, Sarah, graduated from Ohio State with a degree in school counseling. Their youngest child, Dave, and again according to Jeff, probably the most intelligent person in the family, works for the U.S. Postal Service. The bulk of Jeff’s career was spent in publishing management as an editorial director running a publishing imprint. Like many of us, he didn’t know what he wanted to do after graduation. However, after a couple of years he stumbled onto his dream job as a textbook editor in college textbook publishing. He helped professors develop their ideas, course materials and manuscripts into textbooks. In 1985 Jeff left his position as an editor with Allyn and Bacon Publishing in Boston to move to Merrill Publishing in Columbus, Ohio. Then he encountered firsthand the steady consolidation of the publishing industry from about three dozen college publishers into the three major publishers today. Although Jeff only changed companies once, he experienced many corporate purchases, mergers and take-overs while running Merrill’s education publishing list as it moved to MacMillan Publishing then to Prentice Hall and then to Pearson. Ultimately his teacher education list became the largest such list in the world, publishing 100 textbooks a year, most with an online component. Jeff retired two years ago and now spends meaningful time engaged in family activities, especially with his grandchildren, and traveling with Marcia. He also picked up three textbook projects recently from his former publishing unit to edit. Jeff admitted that those who knew him in college will likely be surprised to learn that he spends a lot of time active in his church’s community center, where he teaches English as a second language and citizenship education to immigrants and refugees, as well as working as an in-take counselor in the legal clinic that serves immigrants and refugees. He noted his wonder at how many Muslim friends he has made welcoming and helping strangers new to the community. Also, every Sunday morning you can find Jeff amidst the chaos of a couple dozen 3-year-olds as he teaches for his fourth year at church. Jeff keeps in contact with good friend and classmate Tom Lord.

Be safe and send news.

—Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot, VA 23103; samplejr@msn.com