[ATTW-L] Tribute to JC Mathes

[Stephen Bernhardt]

Such valuable memories for our discipline. Thanks to Ann and Carolyn for
keeping our history alive.

On Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 5:21 PM Ann Blakeslee <ablakesle at emich.edu> wrote:

> Dear ATTW Members,
>
>
> We are writing to share with you news of the passing of John C. Mathes,
> known to everyone as JC, who died on June 5, 2021, at the age of 90. JC was
> an ATTW Fellow, elected in 1992. His career was spent in the College of
> Engineering at the University of Michigan, first in the Department of
> Humanities and then in the Program in Technical Communication. He is best
> known as co-author with Dwight W. Stevenson of Designing Technical
> Reports: Writing for Audiences in Organizations, a book that helped
> transform the teaching of writing to engineering and other technical
> students.
>
> JC and Dwight organized and hosted a summer conference on Teaching
> Technical and Professional Writing for several years, starting in 1975.
> This conference was formative in the development of many of the teachers in
> the expansion wave of technical communication courses and programs in the
> late 1970s and 1980s.
>
> In addition, it was JC who brought to the attention of technical writing
> instructors the nuclear reactor accident at Three Mile Island as a teaching
> example, based on documentation revealed by the Presidential Commission
> that investigated the accident. JC's analysis of a series of internal memos
> demonstrated that the accident resulted, in part, from “inefficient
> management communication procedures [that] impeded timely decision-making.”
>
> A full obituary is available here:
> https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/annarbor/name/john-mathes-obituary?pid=198974681
>
>
> And attached is the full tribute with remembrances from several ATTW
> Fellows who had the opportunity to know and work with JC. Please feel free
> to share this tribute with others who may have known and/or admired JC and
> his many contributions to our field.
>
> All the best,
> Ann Blakeslee and Carolyn Miller, ATTW Fellows
>
> Ann M. Blakeslee, Ph.D. (she/hers)
> Professor of English
> Director of Campus & Community Writing
> Co-Founder of YpsiWrites
> Eastern Michigan University
> Ypsilanti, MI 48197
> ablakesle at emich.edu
> (734)502-1270
> www.ypsiwrites.com
>
>
>
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>
-- 
Steve Bernhardt
Bayside DE
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