ON A LONG AND
WINDING ROAD
Cincinnati to his cottage on St. Joseph Island in Northern Ontario, Canada. The goal-oriented Conyne pushed to complete the ride in just 10 days. The avid cyclist is equally intense in his career. Retirement for Conyne has not slowed his research or his passion for his work, which centers on group work, prevention work, and community-based ecological counseling. Nationally known, Conyne was invited to the College by Community Counseling Associate Professor Bill O’Connell, who had taken a course from Conyne in Cincinatti. “We wanted someone who was able to work with faculty across disciplines to inspire, mentor and promote scholarly research,” explains O’Connell.
“A professional journey is a work trek: a more-orless focused wandering, full of highs and lows, ups and downs, as the Beatles said, ‘a long and winding road’ for many. But, if we are mindful, we can take way-stops to reflect and find the meaning that’s there; to locate some magic in the ordinary.” The latest leg in the professional journey of Boeing – William M. Allen Endowed Chair & Distinguished Professor Bob Conyne is coming to a close after a year at the College of Education. This spring, the visiting professor from Ohio led a workshop for Seattle University faculty on “Professional Journey: The Trek and Its Meaning,” taking his colleagues through a series of exercises that prompted them to examine what they do, how they work, what it means, and what the future holds. Participants watched videos of six colleagues who shared key aspects of their work journeys, engaged in self-reflection, shared lessons learned with others, and talked in groups to explore their own journeys. Master in Teaching Professor Jeffrey Anderson appreciated the way in which the process caused him to reflect during a time of transition. “It reminded me that every time I’ve taken a risk and made a change in my life, it’s worked out for the better,” he said.
At SU, Conyne taught classes, shared his expertise with faculty and students, and helped with program development. He participated in community-engaged scholarship, mentored faculty members, and collaborated with colleagues on a manuscript that explores the intersections of work on prevention, ecology, wellness and social justice. Conyne is passionate about working on mental health prevention through teaching competencies and making environmental changes rather than “rescuing people from drowning one at a time.” This year, he finished 12 years of collaborative work with colleagues all over the U.S. to develop guidelines on prevention that were recently published by the American Psychological Association (APA). The journey that Conyne chose for his professional path takes time and persistence, something he may have predicted in his final thesis through the prescient use of a verse from Thyrsis by 19th century poet Matthew Arnold. The epic elegy, written to honor Arnold’s friend and Oxford classmate Arthur Hugh Clough, recounts another journey: a persistent, lifelong quest for truth. Conyne quotes the poem’s last verse: Why faintest thou! I wander’d till I died. Roam on! The light we sought is shining still. Dost thou ask proof? Our tree yet crowns the hill, Our Scholar travels yet the loved hill-side. “The light is still glimmering out there,” Conyne says with a smile. “I need to find it.”
Eight years ago Conyne ended one part of his own professional journey by beginning another. As he prepared to retire as director of counseling programs at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, after 30 years in academia, he was diagnosed with the painful disease, polymyalgia rheumatica. Only beginning to improve with a regimen of prednisone, he nevertheless embarked on a 700-mile bicycle ride from SUMMER 2014 | BANNER
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