Brian Abel Ragen
EDUCATION:
2026: M.A. in Theology (expected), St. Joseph’s Seminary and College (Dunwoodie)
2025: D.H.L., honoris causa, Fontbonne University
1987: Ph.D., English, Princeton University
Dissertation: “The Motions of Grace: Flannery O’Connor’s Typology”
1982: M.A., English, Princeton University
Major Period: 18th-century English literature
Major Author: Samuel Johnson
Minor Period: 19th- and 20th-century British literature
1980: B.A., cum laude, Pomona College, Claremont, California
Major: English
Comprehensive Examinations passed with distinction
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
Tom Wolfe: A Critical Companion. Greenwood P, 2002.
A Wreck on the Road to Damascus: Innocence, Guilt, and Conversion in Flannery O’Connor. Foreword by Jill P. Baumgaertner. Loyola UP, 1989.
Produced Recording:
Words to Music: Songs of Eugene Field. Christine Brewer (soprano) and Scott Kennebeck (tenor). With notes by BAR. Field House Museum, 2018.
Articles in Journals:
“Nuns at Luncheon in a Hayloft: Flannery O’Connor’s Dept to Aldous Huxley in ‘Good Country People.’” Flannery O’Connor Review. Vol. 20, 1022. 17-24.
“Sacred Music and the Liturgy. Signs of Hope for the Future.” Adoremus Bulletin. April 2014.
“Do Facts Matter on a CD-ROM?” Papers on Language & Literature, Fall 2001, 438-442.
“Daredevil Charity: Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The Comforts of Home.’” Proceedings: Northeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, ed. Joan F. Hallisy and Mary-Anne Vetterling. Regis College, 1998, 102-107.
“Converging Liturgies: A Methodist Mass?” The Anglican Digest, Spring 1998, 35-39.
“‘Another Woman and Another Room:’ Men, Women, and Flannery O’Connor.” The Journal of Contemporary Thought, 4 (1994), 37-53.
“Semiotics and Heraldry.” Semiotica, 100-1 (1994), 5-34.
“A Wretch Like Who?” America, CLXXX(3):8-11, January 29, 1994; republished in a substantially revised version as “Hymns Mean Something” in The Anglican Digest, XXXVI(4): 35-38, 1994; republished as “Today’s Hymns and the ‘Vaporization of Religion’” in the Australian journal AD 2000 VII(7):12-13, 1994.
“Motions of Grace: Flannery O’Connor.” Family, December 1994: 28.
“An Uncanonical Classic: The Politics of the Norton Anthology,” Christianity & Literature, XL (4):471-479 (Published 1994).
“Grace and Grotesques: Recent Books on Flannery O’Connor.” Papers on Language & Literature, Summer 1991, 386-98.
“Chaucer, Jean de Meun, and Proverbs 30:20.” Notes and Queries, September 1988, 295-95.
“Lessons from Biden’s Plagiarism,” op-ed page, The New York Times, September 25, 1987, A39 (reprinted elsewhere).
Familiar Essays:
“ARLS Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary.” American Religion and Literature Society Newsletter. Spring 2007. 1+.
“Gypsies, Saints, and Squirels: Remembering Jane Zatta.” Papers on Language & Literature, Summer/Fall 2005. 239-249.
“The Baby Jesus and the Angel of Light.” The Christian Century, Vol. 112 No.36, 1212-1216, December 13, 1995.
Chapters in Books:
“‘We Have Always Gone West’: Automobiles, Innocence, and All the King’s Men,” To Love So Well the World: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert Penn Warren, ed. Dennis L. Weeks. Peter Lang, 1992. 189-96.
“Vikram Seth,” The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. CXX: American Poets Since World War II, ed. R.S. Gwynn. Gale, 1992. 281-85.
Articles in Reference Works:
“W.H. Auden,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“Wendy Cope,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“William Cowper,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“John Galsworthy,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“George Herbert,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“A.E. Housman,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“Nicolas Monsarrat,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“John Henry Newman,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“Siegfried Sassoon,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“Charles Wesley,” Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. Continuum, 2003.
“W.H. Auden,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 58-59.
“Malcolm Cowley,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 228-229.
“Caroline Gordon,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 454.
“Donald Hall,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 473-474.
“John G. Neihardt,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 815-816.
“Vikram Seth,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 1018-1019.
“Genevieve Taggard,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 1120-1121.
“Allen Tate,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 1125-1126.
“Tom Wolfe,” Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1999. 1258-1289.
“Altar,” The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. InterVarsity P,1998. 20-21.
“Offering,” The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. InterVarsity P, 1998. 602-3.
“Continents of Exile (Mehta),” Issues and Identities in Literature. Salem P, 1997. 278-279.
“Ved Mehta,” Issues and Identities in Literature. Salem P, 1997. 647-648
“All The King’s Men (Warren),” Issues and Identities in Literature. Salem P, 1997. 49-50.
“The Man Who Was Thursday (G.K. Chesterton).” Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Salem Press, 1996. 592-93.
“Mary Gordon,” The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States, ed. Cathy N. Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin. Oxford UP, 1995. 358-59.
“Arnold Dolmetsch,” The 1890’s: An Encyclopedia of British Culture, ed. George A. Cevasco. Garland, 1993. 165-66.
“Rudyard Kipling.” The Saint James Press Guide to Biography. St. James P, 1991. 440-42.
“W.H. Auden,” The Saint James Press Guide to Biography. St. James P, 1991. 32.
Reviews:
Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe. America, February 25, 2013, 25-26.
“Reading Becomes Electric: The Amazon Kindle.” Papers on Language & Literature.
Flannery O’Connor by Sarah Gordon. Forthcoming in ANQ.
What Became of Wystan: Change and Continuity in Auden’s Poetry by Alan Jacobs. Christianity and Literature 49.2 (2000): 249-250.
Hymns of Prudentius: The Cathemerinon; or, The Daily Round, translated by David Slavitt. Christianity and Literature 49.2 (2000): 265-267.
The Lion and the Cross: Early Christianity in Victorian Novels by Royal W. Rhodes, Victorian Studies 39.3 (1996): 459-461.
Nancylee Novell Jonza, The Underground Stream: The Life and Art of Caroline Gordon, American Literature 68.1 (1996): 257.
When We Sing: Conversations with Alice Parker (Video Tape published by Liturgy Training Publications), Modern Liturgy, April, 1995: 38-40.
Jim O’Grady, Dorothy Day: With Love for the Poor, and Brigid O’Shea Merriman, Searching for Christ: The Spirituality of Dorothy Day, America, July 30-August 6, 1994: 28-30.
N. John Hall, Trollope: A Biography, Victorian Periodicals Review, Spring 1994, 70-72.
Jane Nardin, He Knew She Was Right: The Independent Woman in the Novels of Anthony Trollope, Victorian Periodicals Review, Spring 1993: 51-52.
R.H. Super, The Chronicler of Barsetshire: A Life of Anthony Trollope, Victorian Periodicals Review, Summer 1991: 92-93.
“Deluxe Music Construction Set for the Apple Macintosh.” The American Recorder, November 1988: 159.
Conference Papers:
“Nuns in the Hayloft: O’Connor’s Debt to Aldous Huxley. American Literature Association Symposium on “Flannery O’Connor and Families,” Savannah, GA, June 2021.
“Faulkner in Schleswig and Jeff Davis’s Crown of Thorns.” Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers, April 2013, University of Georgia, Athens.
“Pilgrimage and the Contemporary Campus Novel,” American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 2013.
“A Ph.D. Is Just an Expensive Ticket to Perdition: The Academic Horror Fiction of James Hynes.” College of Arts and Sciences Colloquium, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, April 2008.
“‘As Wulfstan Said on Another Occasion’: The Political Poems of Richard Wilbur,” Poetry and Politics Conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, July 2006.
“A.E. Housman's Daughters,” Poetry and Sexuality Conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, July 2004.
“To Do or To Suffer: The Shifting Focus of American Memorials.” Culture/American Culture Association of the South Convention, New Orleans, LA, September 2004.
“A.E. Housman’s Daughters: Dorothy Parker and Wendy Cope.” Poetry and Sexuality Conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, July 2004.
“Hazel Motes: Punk Rock Icon.” Flannery O’Connor Symposium at Georgia College & State University. Milledgeville, CA, October 2003.
“Tom Wolfe’s Changing Vision of the Self.” American Literature Association Convention, New Orleans, LA, April 2003.
“Racism and Works-Righteousness: What Moral Scheme Applies to Flannery O’Connor?” Conference on the Achievement of Flannery O’Connor sponsored by Århus University, Soenderborg, Denmark, July 2002. .
“Tom Wolfe’s Religious Vision,” International Popular Culture Conference, Downing College, Cambridge University, August 2001.
“Class Markers in American and British Universities,” International Popular Culture Conference, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, August 1999.
“Hearing Voices: The Value and Limits of Bakhtinian Readings of Flannery O’Connor,” American Literature Association Conference, Baltimore, MD, May 1999.
“The M’Naghten Rule and Victorian Fiction,” 1997 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 1997.
“A Methodist Mass? The Converging Liturgies of America’s Churches,” International Popular Culture Conference, University College of Ripon and York St. John, York, England, July 1997.
“Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, Miss O’Connor and Mrs. Woolf: Belief, Literary Form, and Literary Generations,” 1997 American Literature Association Convention, Baltimore, MD, May 1997.
“Love and Social Work: Flannery O’Connor’s Attack on Charity,” 1997 Western Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Seattle University, April 1997; earlier version presented at the 1995 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 1995.
“Flannery O’Connor’s Internal Dialogues,” 1996 Modern Language Association Convention, Washington, D.C., December 1996.
“‘The Hun is at the Gate’: Rudyard Kipling’s Poetry of the First World War,” Poetry and History Conference, the University of Stirling, Scotland, June 1996.
“Daredevil Charity: Love and Family in O’Connor’s ‘The Comforts of Home,’” Northeast Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Regis College, Weston, MA, October, 1996; earlier version presented at the 1996 American Literature Association Convention, San Diego, May 1996.
“Hymns Ancient and Modern, British and American,” International Popular Culture Conference, St. Edmund’s Hall, Oxford, July 1995.
“Running Men and Rural Matriarchs: Gender Roles in Flannery O’Connor,” Western Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Santa Clara University, May 1995.
“Of Us We Sing: The Changing Focus of American Hymns,” 1995 American Culture Association Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, April 1995.
“Driving Away from Depravity: Automobiles and the Myth of Freedom,” 1994 Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association Meeting, Bates College, October 1994.
“‘Another Room and Another Woman’: Flannery O’Connor and Feminism,” 1994 Popular Culture/American Culture Association of the South Meeting, Charlotte, NC, October 1994; earlier version presented at the Conference on Christianity and Literature Meeting at Oklahoma University of Science and Arts, October 1994.
“Coats of Arms and Semiotic Theory,” Fifth Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Berkeley, CA, June 1994.
“‘Anchor Chains, Plane Motors, Train Whistles’: It’s a Wonderful Life and the American Adam,” 1994 Popular Culture Association Convention, Chicago, IL.
“Red and Yellow Ribbons: AIDS Victims as War Heroes,” Midwest Popular and Midwest American Culture Associations Meeting, East Lansing, MI, October 1993.
“Freaks and Whole Men: Flannery O’Connor and Her Idea of Ultimate Reality and Meaning,” Seventh Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Human Ideas on Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Toronto, August, 1993.
“Two Tailors Make a Man: Cather and Stein on Immigrant and Sexual Identities,” Fifth International Cather Conference, Hastings, NE, June, 1993.
“A Wretch Like Who? Bowdlerizing Traditional Hymns,” 1993 American Culture Association Convention, New Orleans, April 1993.
“Christ in the Trenches: War and Sacrifice in Kipling, Owen, and Sassoon,” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Knoxville, TN, November 1992.
“‘Sounding Brass’: Artists, Writers, and Mothers in Mary Gordon’s Men and Angels,” Mid-West Modern Language Association Convention, St. Louis, MO, October 1992.
“God the Father, Rudyard Kipling, and the Western Front,” Mideast Christianity and Literature Conference, Grantham, PA, October 1992.
“TV, AIDS, and Retribution,” Popular Culture Association Convention, Louisville, KY, March 1992.
“An Uncanonical Classic: The Politics of the Norton Anthology,” Western Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature at Seattle University, May 1992; earlier version presented at the Conference on Christianity and Literature Meeting at Texas Tech University, September 1991.
“Automobiles, Innocence, and All the King’s Men,” Robert Penn Warren Commemorative Celebration, Saint Louis University, March 1991.
“‘And What’s Dead Stays That Way’: The Soteriology of the Church Without Christ,” 1990 Modern Language Association Convention.
“‘The Spirit, Lady, is Like an Automobile’: Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own,’” 1988 Mid-Hudson MLA Conference.
Creative Readings:
“Assisi in Winter,” Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers, April 2013, University of Georgia, Athens.
“The Baby Jesus and the Angel of Light,” 1995 Mid-West Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Greenville College, March 1995.
Lectures & Interviews:
St. Joseph Media. Interview with Peter Karutz, St. Joseph Radio, May 6, 2023.
“The Great War in the Music Halls: Kipling, Elgar, and The Fringes of the Fleet. English-Speaking Union, St. Louis, May 2017.
“Contemporary Heraldry.” English-Speaking Union, St. Louis, April 2016.
“‘Oh, My Stars and Garters!’” Garter Day in the 21st Century.” English-Speaking Union, April 2014.
“Which Middle Ages Are You Looking For? Remarks on ‘Canterbury and St. Albans: Art from Church and Cloister.” The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, September 2013.
“How Tom Wolfe Changed American Literature.” English Speaking-Union, St. Louis, January, 2002.
“Flannery O’Connor.” “Cathedral University” Speakers Series. Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, February 2001.
“Rudyard Kipling and the First World War.” English Speaking-Union, St. Louis, January, 2001. Dialogue with Senior Citizens, SIUE, November 2, 1994.
Panel of Scholarly Editors at Ball State University’s “Beyond ‘Here Be Dragons’” Conference, October 24, 1997.
“A Wretch Like Who?” Interview with Elaine Middendorf on “Dangers of Apathy” (radio program), July 1999.
“Singing Out: Revisions Steal Poetry, Meaning from Hymns, Professor Says.” Interview with Patricia Rice, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/21/97, A 31.
“A Wretch Like Who?” Dialogue with Senior Citizens, SIUE, November 2, 1994.
“War in Mesopotamia: Life and Literature,” SIUE Forum on the Gulf War, February 5, 1991.
“Automobiles and Original Sin: Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction,” lecture delivered to the Editors of U.S. Catholic magazine, March 15, 1990.
“Writers in Conversation,” Chicago Public Library, January 25, 1990.
Appearance on “Book Break,” Channel 21, Chicago, January, 1990.
Varia
Letters published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, America, Commonweal.
Essays presented on personal website and blog: www.brianabelragen.net
ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
Trustee, Fontbonne University, 2015-25
Chair, Mission Integration Committee, 2022-2024
Chair, ad hoc Committee to Revise the University Bylaws
Chair, Committee on Trustees, 2016-2022
Professor of English, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville: full-time, 2000-2008, adjunct 2009-2013, emeritus, 2013- .
Associate Professor, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1994-2000
Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1988-93
(Appointed to the Graduate Faculty, 1989)
Lecturer, Princeton University, 1984-1988
Lecturer, Bryn Mawr College, 1986-87
Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University, 1982-1984
Visiting:
Consultant/Visiting Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University, March 2010.
EDITORIAL POSITIONS:
Scholarly:
Referee, Special Issue on Flannery O’Connor, Science, & Technology, The Flannery O’Connor Review, 2016
Member, Editorial Board, The Flannery O’Connor Bulletin, 1997-2001
Editor, Papers on Language & Literature, 1992-2008 (with Jack Voller, 1992-1997)
Assistant Editor, Victorian Periodicals Review, 1991-1993
General:
Editor, Missouri Area Newsletter, American Association of the Order of Malta, 2019-
Editor, The Squire (Newsletter of the Northern Lieutenancy in the U.S.A. of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre), 2016
Editor, Department of English Newsletter, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1992-93
FELLOWSHIPS, ETC.:
Sabbatical Leave, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 2008
Sabbatical Leave, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 2001
Summer Research Fellowship, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 2000
American Mirror speaker, Missouri Humanities Council, for 1995 & 1996
Sabbatical Leave, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Spring 1995
Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, 1994
Summer Research Fellowship, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1994
American Mirror speaker, Missouri Humanities Council, for 1992
Faculty Fourth Quarter Research Fellowship, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1990
New Faculty Research Fellowship, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1988
External Graduate Thesis Adviser, University of Brighton (UK), Heraldry at Belsey & All Saints, 2014.
Member, Flannery O’Connor Review Sarah Gordon Award Committee, 2008
College Board English Literature Advanced Placement Test Reader, 2008
Member, Conference of Editors of Learned Journals “Best Special Issue” Award Committee, 2007 & 08.
Board Member, Conference on Christianity & Literature, 2006-7
Member, College Board English Literature Advance Placement Examination Test Development Committee, 2005-2008
Advocate, SIUE Grievance System, 2007
Board Member, Eugene Field House & St. Louis Toy Museum, 2003-
Board Member, Friends of Sou'wester, 2002-2008.
Executive Coordinator, American Literature Section, Modern Language Association, 1999-2006
Chair, Nominating Committee, Conference on Christianity and Literature, 1998
Vice-President, American Religion and Literature Society, 1997-2001
Chair, Flannery O’Connor Society’s Session on the “Letters to ‘A.,’” American Literature Association Convention, San Diego, CA, May 1998
Manuscript Assessor, Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, 1996
Director of Graduate Studies, English Department, SIUE, 1996
Member, Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly, 1994-1996
Faculty Advisory Committee to Illinois Board of Higher Education (ac hoc SIUE representative at several meetings 1993-1995)
Reader, SAT-II Writing Test, Educational Testing Service, 1994, 1996, 1997
Chair, Special Session: “Art is Not Enough: Tensions Between Life and Art in 20th-Century American Women Novelists,” 1992 Mid-West Modern Language Association Convention
Manuscript Reader, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, Loyola University Press, The South Atlantic Review, Papers on Language & Literature (prior to editorship), Victorian Studies, Christianity & Literature.
Chair, Special Session: “The Figure of the Preacher in Twentieth-Century American Literature,” 1990 Modern Language Association Convention
Selected Committee Assignments at Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville:
University Research and Development Committee, 1999-2000
College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee, Spring 1999, Spring 2000
SIUE Teaching Excellence Awards Committee, 1997
SIUE Phi Kappa Phi Chapter Board, 1996-99
Department of English Chair Search Committee, 1994-1995
School of Humanities Executive Committee, 1993-94
School of Humanities Research and Projects Committee, 1992-94 (Chair 1993-94)
School of Humanities Faculty Welfare Committee, 1992-94 (Chair 1993-94)
English Department Executive Committee, 1990-1992, 1996
CURRENT PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics (Life Member)
American Culture Association (Life Member)
American Studies Association (Life Member)
Church Music Association of America
Conference on Christianity and Literature (Life Member)
Flannery O’Connor Society (Life Member)
Heraldry Society (Life Member)
Heraldry Society of Scotland
Modern Language Association of America (Life Member)
Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (Life Member)
Royal Heraldry Society of Canada
Non-Academic Information
PHILANTHROPIC COMMITMENTS:
Pomona College
Established Brian Abel Ragen Scholarship
Alumni Admissions Volunteer, 1980-2024
Princeton University
Established two Brian Abel Ragen Graduate Fellowships,
Alumni Schools Committee (interviewing applicants), 1981-
Board Member for Graduate Alumni, Princeton Club of St. Louis
William Penn University
Established the Ragen Family Scholarship
Fontbonne University
Spearheaded and funded petition for Devisal of Arms (Letter Patent presented
2022)
Established Professorship in the Humanities
Established the Brian Abel Ragen Scholarship
Established the Brian Abel Ragen Promise Scholarship
St. Louis Cathedral Concerts Series
Treasurer, 2018-
Board Member, 2001-
Honorary Chairperson, Cathedral Concerts Gala, 2013, 2020
Friends of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis
Created Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Endowment Fund, Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri, 2015.
English-Speaking Union of the United States
St. Louis Coordinator,
Walter Hines Page Scholars Program
(Entertained and arranged programs of scholarly visits for secondary school
teachers from Britain and Argentina.)
Planning Committee, English-Speaking Union Region VI, 2000
Board Member, St. Louis Branch, English-Speaking Union, 2000-
National Patron, 2000-
Eugene Field House Museum (Life Member)
Sponsored exhibits from the Charles M. Schulz Museum: “The Life and Art of Charles M. Schulz,” 2023; “Franklin,” 2025.
Organized Field Museum benefit concert at Sheldon Concert Hall, “Words to Music” featuring Christine Brewer and Scott Kennebeck, 2018.
Lead role in planning, fund-raising, and design for the expansion of the museum opening that opened 2016.
Secretary, 2012-
Board Member, 2002- (Eugene Field House and St. Louis Toy Museum Foundation)
Friends of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor (Life Member)
Endowed historic volume in Library of the College of St. George, 1998
Endowed one of the Chapel bosses, 2013
St. Louis CORO Fellowship Program (Fellowships for those
seeking careers in public service.)
Interviewed applicants and reviewing applications, 2010-13.
Fathers Support Center (provider of training in parenting and
job skills for needy men.)
Committee Member, “A Toast to Fathers” Fund-Raising Dinner, 2016
American Recorder Society (Life Member)
Treasurer, St. Louis Recorder Society, 2001-3
Country Dance & Song Society (Life Member)
National Eagle Scout Association (Life Member)
White Lion Society, A Society of Friends of the College of Arms
Regular supporter of Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Saint Louis Public Radio, Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Opera, Charles M. Schulz Museum, etc.
SERVICE TO THE CHURCH:
Archdiocese of St. Louis
Member, Archdiocesan Committee on Affordable Housing, 2024-
Council Member, Annual Catholic Appeal for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, 2021-2025
Sponsor, Organ for the Chapel of St. Joseph, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, 2015.
Major supporter, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis the King (the Old Cathedral) restoration, 2014.
Major supporter, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary modernization campaign, 2013.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis
Sponsor, acquisition of Heritage Edition of the St. John’s Bible for display in the All Saints Chapel of the Cathedral Basilica.
“Beyond Sunday” (Parish & School Endowment) Committee, 2016
Sponsor, acquisition of an electronic harpsichord to accompany the Schola at the Cathedral Basilica.
Sponsor, funding of instrumentalists for Mozart masses on Christmas Day, 2012 & 2013.
Sponsor, acquisition and installation of historic organ console of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Park Ave., NYC for the Great Organ at the Cathedral Basilica.
Sponsor, project to case the organ in the St. Cecelia Chapel at the Cathedral Basilica.
Sponsor, project to acquire a rehearsal piano for the Cathedral.
Speaker, Cathedral University Program, 20--, & 20--.
Parish Council, 2001-03
Parish Liturgy Commission, 1999-2019.
Heraldic designer for
The Cathedral of St. Joseph, La Crosse, WI
The Marian Catechist Apostolate
The Rev’d Msgr. Vernon Gardin, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of St. Louis
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, WI
Communications support for St. Roch’s School, St. Louis, Missouri
Lector and Eucharistic Minister, Aquinas Institute (Roman Catholic Chaplaincy at Princeton University), 1983-88, St. Roch’s Church, St. Louis, 1988-95, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 1996-.
HONORS & AWARDS
St. Louis Crisis Nursery Kids’ Award, 2025 (for Malta Mobile Ministry work, both as a driver and as scheduling officer).
St. Louis Catholic Man of the Year, 2022. St. Joseph Radio.
Médaille de Or, Académie du Dévouement National, 2019.
Blutspendemedaille, Österreichische Albert Schweitzer — Gesellschaft, 2017.
Named to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels by Governor Matthew G. Bivens, August 8, 2016.
Médaille d’Honneur des Service Bénévoles, Échelon Or, Action National pour la Promotion et le Développement de Service Bénévole, 2016.
Design Award for Corporate Heraldry, Best Heraldic Design of the Year, American Heraldry Society, 2009.
Medal of Leo XII for Pilgrims to the Holy Land, 2008.
Named an Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska by Governor Kay Orr, 1989.
CHIVALRIC HONORS/MEMBERSHPS & SERVICE:
The Most Venerable Order
of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem
(An order of the British Crown)
Service Medal of the Order of St. John with three silver bars, 2022
Member, Priory Heraldry Committee, 2020-
Compiled and edited A St. John Prayerbook for Priory in the United States.
Priory Chapter, 2008-2012.
Promoted to Knight of Grace and Reclassified as Knight of Justice, 2004
Promoted to Commander (Brother), 1999
Member of St. Louis Regional Council, 1996-2020
Composed History of the St. Louis Region, “St. John’s Day and Everyday”, 2016.
Coordinated service and prepared service leaflet for national investiture, 2006.
Created and was responsible for the St. John’s Day Service, 1998-2020. This service was imitated across the priory.
Admitted to the order as Officer (Brother), 1995
St. John Volunteer Corps (a Foundation of the Order of St. John)
St. Louis Coordinator, St. John Volunteer Corps, 2014-2020
Volunteer, Department of Veterans Affairs, Caregivers Support Program. (Awards for 100 hours of service, 2016; 300 hours, 2018, 700 hours, 2022, 1000, 2023.)
Coordinator, monthly meals at St. Louis Fisher House (Residence for those with family members undergoing treatment in the St. Louis Area VA hospitals), 2014-2020.
Regular volunteer, Fisher House, St. Pius X Food Bank.
The Equestrian Order of
the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
(An order under the protection of the Holy See)
Promoted to Knight Grand Cross, 2018.
Promoted to Knight Commander with Star, 2014
Promoted to Knight Commander, 2010
Admitted to the order as Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, 2006
The Order of St. Michael
of the Wing
(An order of the Portuguese Royal House)
Appointed to the order as Knight Commander, 2011.
The Sovereign Military
Order of Malta|
(An order itself sovereign in international law, under obedience to the Holy
See)
Order of Malta Campaign Medal with “COVID-19” bar, 2022.
Communications Co-Ordinator for SMOM Missouri Area and Malta Mobile Ministry Missouri, 2021-.
Invested in the SMOM as a knight of magisterial grace, 2019.
Assisting Caregiver, Malta
Lourdes Pilgrimages 2010, 2011, 2012, & 2019, 2024.
(SMOM Lourdes medal with four stars.)
Member, Malta Auxiliary Corps, 2008-2019.
Malta Mobile Ministries (a Ministry of the Order of St. Malta)
Scheduling Officer,
2023-
Missouri Area Board, 2023-
Driver, 2019-
MUSICAL:
Studied the recorder at the Princeton Adult School and Westminster Conservatory (a division of Westminster Choir College), Princeton, N.J., 1984-1988.
Attended early music summer workshops offered by the Country Dance & Song Society, 1985-2002.
Performed publicly in various reorder ensembles in the St. Louis area, including as a liturgical musician at Roman Catholic and Episcopal parishes, as a roving musician at the St. Louis Renaissance Faire and as part of the ground show at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and at madrigal dinners, 1990-.
St. Roch Church (St. Louis) Choir, 1989-2001
Composed program notes for Benjamin Britten’s Jubilate Agno, performed at the Church of St. Michael & St. George, Clayton, MO, 2012.
Managed English Tour of the Choir of the Church of St. Michael and St. George (Clayton, MO), including periods in residence and daily performances at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, August 1998.
Organized and performed in seasonal music programs for the St. Louis English-Speaking Union, 2008, 2000, 2011, 2012.
Studied voice at Washington University in St. Louis, 2011-2019.
Recorded privately released CD, Songs of Travel, 2014
Commissioned and specified texts for several original musical compositions:
“Blameless,” David Goldstein;” text by the composer.
“Yes! It Was Well,” Bruce Neswick; text by Frederick Faber. Premiered 2012.
“The Knights of St. John: A Dyptich, Robert Lehmann;” texts by Friedrich Schiller as translated by Lord Bulwer-Lytton & E. P. Arnold-Forster. Premiered June 2013.
“Die Johanniter,” text by Friedrich Schiller, Horst Buchholst. Premiered June 2014.
“Armenian Lullaby” and “Jewish Lullaby,” text by Eugene Field, Hunter Johnson. Premiered November 15, 2018.
Cataloged settings of poems by Eugene Field; prepared copies for preservation in the collections of the Library of the Field House Museum, St. Louis, MO, 2015.
Organized Musical Evenings and performed as Baritone, St. Louis, Missouri:
“Orange Juice for One: Songs for Bachelors and Spinsters,” May 2009.
“An Evening of Victorian Songs,” January 2011.
“Girls and Other Stimulants,” April 2012.
“I Wish I Was in New Orleans: Music Related to the City,” April 2013.
“Songs of the World Wars,” May 2014.
“An Evening of Eugene Field Songs,” February 2015.
“Songs of the Sea,” August 2016.
Choir of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 2016-2019
Attended Church Music Association of America colloquia and workshops at least annually
Recorded privately released CD, If Only She Would Call, distributed 2025
EARLY YOUTH:
Date & Place of Pirth: October 23, 1958, San Diego, CA
Schools Attended:
Point Loma High School (public: San Diego Unified School District), 1973-76. 10th-12th grades. Diploma. Honors in History and English. “Free Enterprise Merit Award” for excellence in history and political science. Independent Study program.
D.C. Collier Junior High School (public: San Diego Unified School District), 1970-71. 7th-9th grades. Student representative to Citizens Advisory Committee. Uniquely took part in programs for both gifted and educationally handicapped students.
Loma Portal Elementary School (public: San Diego Unified School District), 1968-69. 4th & 5th grades.
Warren-Walker School (private: San Diego, CA), 1961-68. Nursery school, kindergarten, 1st-4th grades.
Scouting:
National Eagle Scout Association
Life Member from 1976.
Order of the Arrow:
Vigil Honor Member, 1979. Brotherhood Member, 1971. Ordeal Member, 1970.
Secretary, Ashe Lodge 1975-77. Secretary, Yei Clan, 1974-75.
Attended OA national conferences in 1973 (University of California at Santa Barbara) and 1975 (Miami University, Oxford, OH).
Boy Scouting
Eagle Scout. Board of Review, August 9, 1976. Service project: Assistance with Memorial Day Service at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, 1976.
Ranks (achievement awards): Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life prior to Eagle Award.
24 merit badges: Public Speaking, Citizenship in the Nation, Swimming, Life-Saving, Conservation of Natural Resources, Camping, Reading, Citizenship in the Community, Leatherworking, Cooking, First Aid, Personal Management, Environmental Science, Nature, Basketry, Pioneering, Citizenship in the World, Emergency Preparedness, Orienteering, Wilderness Survival, Communications, Safety, American Heritage.
Troop 567, sponsored by St. Peter’s by the Sea Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA.
Troop 567 Scout of the Year 1971 and 1973.
Leadership: Assistant Patrol Leader (Vulture Patrol), Troop Scribe, Troop Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Den Chief, Junior Assistant Scout Master.
Other awards: Camelback (California Riding and Hiking Trail) Award, Mile-Swim Award (twice), 50 and 100 Nights of Camping patches.
Cub Scouting
Bobcat, Wolf, and Bear ranks.