Catching Up with Former Faculty and Staff
Jon Seigel | Proctor
Arts Department 1979- 1989
Jon taught in Proctor’s Arts Department for a decade alongside his wife, Patrice Martin. Jon currently lives in Wilmot, New Hampshire and continues to teach woodturning. He occasionally is a special guest in Proctor’s art classes. How did you and Patrice find Proctor and become involved with the school? I arrived at Proctor by accident. Initially I came for three weeks to oversee a senior project in woodworking with three students. Of the three students who were doing the senior project, one of them, Bob Gagne ‘76 became my life-long friend until he died in 2014 and one of the other students also became a professional wood worker. The following January (1979) I came back as a temporary fill-in for a teacher who left suddenly. In the spring David Fowler unexpectedly asked me to stay on. Patrice joined me, and a year later she started teaching ceramics. I stayed for ten years, but Patrice taught ceramics and photography for 35 years. Reflecting on your (collective) time at Proctor, how did your friendships with colleagues shape your experience at the school? The friends I made at Proctor shaped my whole life. I loved being in an academic community where there were experts on every subject. George Emeny took me under his wing and showed me his vision of what the industrial arts department could be. We resurrected the blacksmithing program that had been dormant for decades and built the forge. George also taught me about the history of machine tools, and how that history is all around us in New England. Today the restoration of antique machine tools is a big part of my life.
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