Catching Up With Focus Columnist Joe Rector

By Mike Steely

Senior Writer

steelym@knoxfocus.com

You may read his column every week in The Focus and you may think you know him through his stories. Yet there are probably a lot of things you don’t know about Joe Rector.

Did you know where Joe went to school, what his profession was for many years, and what his likes and hobbies are? The Focus caught up with Joe as we go into the holidays and asked a few questions. Here are those questions and his replies.

 

Tell us about your childhood and education.

Parents (Dallas and Edna), older brother (Dallas), twin brother (Jim). My parents and older brother are deceased. Childhood in Ball Camp. Farmland then. We spent time outside almost every day. Jim and I always had a playmate. I grew up in a lower-middle-class family. Jim and I were both fat as boys until he lost weight due to hepatitis. I had buck teeth and unkind nicknames like Bucky or Bottle Opener. Played plenty of Cowboys and Indians and War. We had a TV that received two stations that we watched with family.

Education—1st-8th grades-Ball Camp Elementary; Karns High School; Tennessee Tech University B.S.; UTK Masters

 

What’s the story of your family?

Daddy worked at Southern Extract in Lonsdale. In 1965, he died from cancer. Mother was at home with us (poor woman) until we began school. She’d earned a teaching degree from a school in NC in her earlier days but had to attend night classes and summer classes at UTK to receive a BS. She herded three teen boys by herself and gave us a good life. She passed in 1996. Older brother Dallas became a father figure when our dad passed. He went to college and wrote scathing letters to Jim and me when we did something wrong. Dal died in 2004 from cancer. Our whole family smoked. Jim and I gave up the habit before the effects killed us. All three sons have master’s degrees. Jim and I became teachers. Although his undergraduate degree was in education, Dal never taught. He became a recruiter instead.

 

How many books have you written?

I’ve published two books and have three on the computer. The two are about baseball, one fiction and one nonfiction about my late son and me. It was hard to write and to admit my failures as a dad, but I am glad to have written it. I’d hoped future baseball dads might read it to not make the same mistakes. I’ve written pieces for the Chicken Soup series, as well as several magazines.

 

Are you working on another book?

The book I am working on is a compilation of columns that I’ve written. Readers have asked me to do this. It’s hard to choose which ones to include, and when I publish it, my hope is that it meets readers’ approval.

 

What have you learned from 30 years of teaching high school English?

I’ve learned much from 30 years of teaching high school English. First, all generations of teens are the same. Students asked how I knew what they were going to do, and I told them we did the same kinds of things when I was their age. I discovered that teens have some deep thoughts and enjoy learning how to write correctly. I still know that grammar is the most important thing in good communication. Each student can be successful in some courses. It’s a matter of recognizing that college is not for everyone and that curricula should include vocational offerings to students.

 

What did you want to become as a child and why?

I thought I wanted to be a vet when I was young, but I couldn’t deal with the death of pets. Since then, I’ve always wanted to be a high school teacher. I was going to be a choir director, but in college, I needed two classes of advanced French since I’d had two years in high school and didn’t do well. I chose to major in English because Mrs. Slusher taught me all the grammar I know by the end of 8th grade. I think it was just meant to be that I taught.

 

What are your hobbies and interests?

Hobbies include woodworking. I am not good at it. Only one thing I’ve ever made has made it into the house. This past summer, I nearly cut off my left ring finger on a table saw. I love to mow. I do so at home and work a part-time job mowing tee boxes at Knoxville Municipal Golf Course.

 

How would you like to be remembered?

I hope that people remember me as someone who cared about them. I loved my work with teens; in fact, they are my favorite age group. I want students to remember me as someone who was fair and who taught them to write a paper with ease. I’d also like to be remembered as a dad who did the best he knew how.