HUMPHREYS, J(ohn) R(ichard Adams) 1918-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 7, 1918, in Mancelona, MI; died August 25, 2003, in Santa Fe, NM. Educator and author. Humphreys was a fiction and nonfiction author and creative writing professor who founded the writers' program at Columbia University. He completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Michigan in 1940 and became a feature writer for the Detroit Free Press before enlisting in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. He served in England and France, returning home to publish his first book, Vandameer's Road (1946). He then joined the faculty at Columbia, where he taught in the English department from 1946 until 1988 and was director of the creative writing program from 1962 to 1988. Humphreys was also interested in photography, and after studying the art at the New York Institute of Photography in 1955, he became a photographer for Paddock Studios and then Dingee Studio during the late 1950s; he also tried his hand at being a disc jockey for station KTRC in 1960. After retiring from Columbia, Humphreys became an editor for Cane Hill Press in Santa Fe. Humphreys, who spent part of his time as a literary consultant for Doubleday, was the author of seven books in all, including the nonfiction works The Last of the Middle West (1966) and Timeless Towns and Haunted Places (1989), and the fiction works Subway to Samarkand (1977) and Maya Red (1989).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, September 14, 2003, p. A22.