A fond farewell to Prof. Sterling Watson

Professor Sterling Watson was appointed the first recipient of the Peter Meinke Endowed Professorship in Creative Writing, established through a gift by Trustee Emerita Martha Rudy Wallace and matched by funds from the Collier Challenge program. Mrs. Wallace has served continuously on the Board of Trustees since 1976.

This professorship is named to honor Professor Emeritus of Literature Peter Meinke, who taught literature and creative writing at Eckerd College for 27 years and served as the Director of the Eckerd College Writing Workshop until 1993. A guest lecturer in current creative writing courses, Professor Meinke was an informal writing adviser to Professor Watson.

Sterling Watson graduated from Eckerd, then Florida Presbyterian College, in 1969. He earned his Master's degree at the University of Florida and returned to teach at Eckerd in 1978. A fiction and screenwriter, he is Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Director of Eckerd's Creative Writing Program, and Co-director of the annual Writers in Paradise writers' conference. He mentored and taught novelist Dennis Lehane, ‘88, his fellow Co-director of Writers in Paradise.

Watson's main professional interests are fiction, play and screenwriting, American, British and European short and long fiction, and the theater. He served for five years as the fiction editor of The Florida Quarterly, and taught secondary English and later fiction writing at Raiford Prison.

He is the author of six novels, "Weep No More My Brother" (nominated for the Rosenthal Award, National Academy Institute of Arts and Letters), "The Calling," "Blind Tongues," "Deadly Sweet," (nominated for the 1995 Edgar Award and for the Hammett Prize), and "Sweet Dream Baby" (nominated for the National Book Award) and, most recently, "Fighting in the Shade." He has co-authored several screenplays, two of them based on his novels, one with Lehane.

The recipient of four Florida Fine Arts Council grants for fiction writing and a former fellow of The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and of The MacDowell Colony, his short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Fiction Quarterly, The Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Southern Review.

Professor Watson is married to Kathryn J. Watson, ‘69, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Special Assistant to the President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Education. They are the parents of Megan Watson Kramer, ‘98, Director of Client Relations for Eckerd's Leadership Development Institute.

Here's what Prof. Watson's colleagues, friends, family and former students have to say about him:

"He was the most influential teacher I ever had—exacting, at times impossible to please, but so infectious in his love of craft that I couldn't help but be transformed by his level of dedication. As a writer, he's one of the best prose stylists I know of in American letters. He turns sentences into songs and paragraphs into symphonies. It's been the great fortune of my career that our paths crossed, and I can't imagine Eckerd ever being the same without him."

- Dennis Lehane, ‘88

"Faculty members need mentors too, and in that role, Sterling has been invaluable to me. I remember well his talking to me about ‘unintended consequences.' I am a better teacher, mentor, father, husband, and thinker because of his insights. One of the unintended consequences of Sterling's retirement will be that the college will be the poorer for his absence."

- William Kelly, professor of Rhetoric

"I could not possibly begin to describe all the ways Professor Watson has helped me. I learned as much about life as I did about writing in all of his classes. He is the kind of professor who truly cares about his students and goes above and beyond the duties as a mentor. He has given much encouragement, hope, and inspiration over the few years I have known him. I wish him the best in his retirement and to thank him for the wonderful pen name, Amanda."

- Samantha Rolfe, ‘13

"Sterling is an excellent writer, a consummate teacher and mentor, and a true believer in Eckerd College. His contributions to Eckerd are innumerable. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to share in a small portion of his journey at Eckerd."

- Dean Betty Stewart