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Ted Morrissey - People of Faith
Ted Morrissey grew up in Galesburg, Illinois in the 1960s and '70s in a Catholic family, enjoying sports (especially golf) and writing. From an early age he had many doubts and questions about religion in general and his Catholic faith in particular that he could not reconcile. Over time he continued to struggled with issues of faith, occasionally seeking out opportunities to reconnect with a church. Ted, however, increasingly came to identify himself as an atheist, and eventually became critical of all organized religions. During the course of the interview Ted discussed several of the main philosophical questions that have always been at the core of the world religions.
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Caption:
Ted’s father and mother, Vince Morrissey (1929-2012) and Jody Morrissey (1930-2020) circa 1953 in Galesburg, Illinois. Ted’s father was born and raised Catholic while his mother was Methodist but converted to Catholicism when they were married.
Where:
Galesburg, Illinois
When:
Circa 1953
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted Morrissey’s senior portrait. He graduated from Galesburg High School in 1980 and went to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the fall. He has always been a writer and majored in English at SIUC while also earning a teacher’s certificate.
Where:
Galesburg, Illinois
When:
1980
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted put up this Christmas tree in the early 1990s while living in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. “The boys and I weren’t allowed to decorate the tree (or anything else),” said Ted. “We had terrible taste in ornaments and didn’t know where to place them.”
Where:
Mt. Vernon, Illinois
When:
Early 1990s
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted discovered the writer William H. Gass while working on his doctorate in English studies, and it was love at first read. He met Gass at Left Bank Books in St. Louis in 2013, upon the release of his novel Middle C. He writes often about Gass’s work.
Where:
St. Louis, Missouri
When:
2013
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted and Melissa Underwood were married in Senatobia, Mississippi in 2014, very close to William Faulkner’s home. They decided on a religious wedding, using a Baptist minister, for practical reasons dealing with paperwork and documentation.
Where:
Senatobia, Mississippi
When:
2014
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted’s son Zachary and his wife Joanna were married in 2015. His son Spenser and Michelle were married in 2016, and son Ethan and Erin were married in 2017. This photo is from Spenser and Michelle’s Catholic wedding in Quincy, Illinois.
Where:
Quincy, Illinois
When:
2016
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted Morrissey with his three sons (left to right) Spenser, Zack and Ethan. They celebrated Zack’s surprise thirtieth birthday party in 2016 in Jacksonville, IL. Spenser and Ethan are identical twins, three years younger than Zack.
Where:
Jacksonville, Illinois
When:
2016
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Halloween is Ted’s favorite holiday by far, loving the storytelling, the scary movies, and memories of going trick-o-treating with his kids. His oldest son and his wife host a big Halloween party every year.
Where:
Sherman, Illinois
When:
2017
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted was honored to give the keynote address at the Fifth International Conference on Language, Society, and Culture in Asian Contexts in Hue, Vietnam in 2018. Melissa also gave a presentation at the conference organized by Hue University.
Where:
Hue, Vietnam
When:
2018
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
While in Vietnam in 2018, Ted and Melissa were hosted by education students at the university, who acted as their guides and interpreters. They visited cultural sites in both Hue and Da Nang, including museums, the Imperial City, temples, and Buddhist shrines.
Where:
Vietnam
When:
2018
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Among the cultural sites the Morrisseys visited while in Hue, Vietnam in 2018 was the Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh. Ted posed among the statuary that guard the Emperor’s tomb, which was constructed in the 1920s.
Where:
Hue, Vietnam
When:
2018
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted began writing stories as a child. He has written and published short stories, novel excerpts, poems, essays and reviews, as well as several novels, novellas, and scholarly monographs. He plugged his latest novel, Mrs Saville, in Springfield in 2018.
Where:
Springfield, Illinois
When:
2018
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted and Melissa visited the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco in 2019. It is the second largest mosque in Africa, able to accommodate over 100,000 worshippers, including 25,000 inside and more than 80,000 outside.
Where:
Casablanca, Morocco
When:
2019
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
While in Washington state in 2019, Melissa and Ted went to Crystal Mountain Resort to view Mount Rainier. Since they weren’t quite dressed for the elevation, they were unable to stay very long.
Where:
Crystal Mountain, Washington state
When:
2019
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
For more than thirty years Ted has written nearly every morning, rising at five a.m. during the school year. He finds his writing is a kind of meditation during which he thinks about the world and his place in it.
Where:
Sherman, Illinois
When:
2019
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
Ted and Melissa were on some very windy cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean near Sintra, Portugal in 2019 when this photo was taken. Ted presented a paper on William Gass at the Modern Language Association International Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal.
Where:
Near Sintra, Portugal
When:
2019
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption:
A recent photo of Ted Morrissey, taken in 2020.
Where:
Unknown
When:
2020
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo