Grossmont College treasures the institutional memory of its many dedicated past faculty, who are more than a legacy to us. Here in the English Department, language arts educators have always been innovators at the front lines of shifting paradigms and transformative learning technologies, and many of us owe our choice of profession to past English professors whose values for rigor, compassion, and innovation have become the foundation for our own ethos as educators. This archive, then, was developed in part as a testament to the enduring influence of our past English faculty.
The term "past faculty" is used throughout these pages to identify any full-time instructor who accepted an offer of salaried employment in the English Department but who is no longer working full-time. Below is a roster of these educators. The vast majority of them were tenured faculty who retired after many years of devoted service. (Some even return to the department as part-time emeritus instructors.) Included, however, are faculty who ended their Department tenure for one of the following reasons:
From 1961 to 1968, Grossmont Junior College contracted faculty with multiple teaching skill sets so that they could instruct in two (or more) related disciplines. Consequently, some of our earliest faculty members began their tenure teaching for the English Department but retired while in service to another department or program. As our department developed into an umbrella of specialized language arts programs, one of them, the ESL Program, broke away in 2006 to become a stand-alone department. Consequently, ESL instructors hired in or before 2006 are given due consideration in this archive as contributing members of the English Department. Faculty who retired in other departments are labeled along with their chosen disciplines. Dates shown memorializ these instructors' service to the English Department only and do not reflect actual date of retirement from the District.
Some of our English faculty began their career in a full-time teaching position, then transitioned into an administrative or governance position, effectively ending their tenure in the English Department. These individuals are labeled in the roster accordingly.
Marked below with the letter "D," a very small number of instructors chose to leave their tenured positions or never completed their tenure track in the first place, either because they elected to pursue other careers or because they accepted positions elsewhere. In the rarest of cases, some instructors were forced to resign. Regardless of their circumstances, all have contributed in their own way to the growth and legacy of the Grossmont College English Department.
Faculty who served as Chairs to the English Department are highlighted on the chart below. All dates shown reflect Department tenure and not years served as Chair. For a more comprehensive look at the English Department's history of leadership, visit "Past Chairs" in the Archive menu.
Over the course of 2021, this archive will restore and expand its Faculty Profiles section about our past English Department faculty, including overviews of their professional teaching awards and accomplishments, educational background, selected bibliographies of their publications, additional faculty photos, and more.
Joan Ahrens 2005-2018 A |
1964 - 1981 |
![]() 1970 - 1999 Chair |
1968 - 1991 |
|
1965 - 1999 |
![]() 1970 - 2003 Assistant Chair |
1970 - 1979 D |
James K. Bell 1961 - 1963 D |
|
1987 - 2006 T: ESL |
![]() 1991 - 2006 T: ESL |
1971 - 1999 |
1967-1992 |
|
1961-1986 Chair |
1966-1966 D |
2000-2017 |
1983 - 2003 Chair |
|
1969 - 2003 |
1963 - 1965 D |
1963 - 1972 |
1961 - 1964 T: Theater |
|
1964 - 1993 |
Ryane Harris 2005-2006 D |
![]() 1992-2018 |
![]() 2000 - 2006 T: ESL |
|
1990 - 2019 Chair |
![]() 1999 - 2011 a.k.a. Marylin Estep |
1995 to 2010 |
1964 - 1967 D |
|
![]() 1992 - 2006 |
1962 - 1986 Chair |
1961 - 1983 Chair |
1967 - 1991 |
|
1970 -1994 |
1966 - 1967 D |
![]() 1969 - 2004 Chair |
1964 - 1983 |
|
1975 - 1979 A |
![]() 1990 - 2012 |
![]() 1996 - 2013 |
||
![]() 1991 - 2012 |
1966 - 1981 Chair |
1964 - 1979 |
||
1968 - 1976 D |
1990 - 2004 |
1961 - 1965 D |
||
![]() 1964-1991 A |
1995 - 2006 T: ESL |
![]() 1977-1999 |
1968 - 1986 |
|
1966-1967 D |
![]() 1962-1965 D |
![]() 1995 - 2011 Chair |
![]() 1961 - 1968 T: Journalism |
|
![]() 1968 - 1997 Chair |
1962 - 1965 T: Humanities |
2001-2018 |
1962 - 1963 T: Speech |
|
1967 - 1991 Chair |
1964 - 1986 |
1966 - 1982 Chair |
Geo. M. Washington 1961 - 1965 T: Spanish |
The following images appearing on this page have been used with permission:
Stanford T. Carlson (The Hockaday School, Dallas, TX)
Fidelia Dickinson (Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives at the Copley Library of the University of San Diego)
Jack Lynch (Legend Yearbook, El Cajon Valley High School)
Kamal Kapur (© author Kamla K. Kapur)
George Peranteau (Archives, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL)
C. Frank Vittor (University Archives Photograph Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Library and Information Access, San Diego State University)
Likenesses used under public domain or copyright exemption under FAIR USE act for purposes of education and archival preservation include the following:
All remaining faculty photos, property of Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District or Grossmont College English Department.
Considerable gratitude is owed to numerous individuals and agencies for their contributions of media content and institutional memory, or for their help in securing permissions for use of archival images that have helped to build the Grossmont College English Department Archive. Please visit the Acknowledgments page to find out who they are.