Taylor A. Marrow lll, or just Taylor, is a History instructor here at Chemeketa. This summer will mark the 20th year he has spent in Oregon. Taylor graciously accepted the offer to sit down with Tempest and be the first person interviewed for Eye of the Storm.

Q: How did you decide on majoring in History?

A: Majoring in History came my last year in undergraduate work…I was a major in Telecommunications, now it’s known as the School of Media Arts. My whole time attending Indiana University, while I was working to get my requirements done for Telecommunications, which was in the College of Arts and Sciences, History was also part of the College of Arts and Sciences…so some of the undergraduate requirements I had to get for the Telecommunications degree also covered for the History degree. My last year…my advisor was like, “Okay now you need to declare your minor what’d you want to do as a minor.” I was like, “Oh I need to do this before I graduate…I have no idea”. She was like, “You can take two more History classes and you can double major and not need a minor. I was like, “Oh okay, that was really easy.” I love History. I always took History classes cause they came easy to me. So whenever I was taking a hard math class or a science class, I’d…do History classes to balance it out. My last year it kind of fell into my lap to get a double degree.

Q: You mentioned you always loved History?

A: I love reading. I always spent a lot of time growing up reading. And it just happened that much of the reading in my home library was nonfiction. So I had two full sets of encyclopedias. Then I had this set of children’s books. Some of the more important ones that I remember were… Francis Marion…he’s known as the Swamp Fox in the [American] Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, and a couple other characters. I read a lot of History. I read a lot of nonfiction. Then I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, which is the seat of the Revolution. I couldn’t go anywhere without being steeped in Revolution. My life was always steeped around Colonial history. That’s part of the nature of Princeton. 

Q: Who is someone who really helped you get where you are now?

A: That’s my mom…my mom always had faith in me…[she] always understood I was a really smart and intelligent person. She was my model for reading. My mom read voraciously. Anything I needed, she supported. My parents never really pushed me with education…they just wanted me to be a good person, particularly my mom. I got straight A’s my senior year…and my school gives out a gold key award every year to someone who represents the ideals of my school. Some people didn’t want me to have it — the vice principal at the time because I spent a lot of time in the principal’s office. But my mom advocated voraciously for me. 

Q: How’d you get to Chemeketa?

A: Luck. Literally luck. I was driving across the country, moving from Indiana to Portland cause me and my ex-wife at the time decided Portland was where we were going to go. I got a call from the Director of the Social Sciences department, Laurie Murphy. I drew a 60 mile circle around Portland…cause I can commute 60 miles, I’m from New Jersey…that’s what we do. I sent out applications and Chemeketa called back. I came out, got the interview and got the job. Then luckily within a couple of years…for a full-time History person and I ended up getting that job. I was really lucky. 

Q: So it’s been awhile since in-person classes have resumed after the lockdowns, how do think things are going?

A: Now, awesome. Last year and the year before, it was kind of slow. So far every face to face class I’ve taught…my students have all been really engaged, the vast majority of them. I’d rather teach face to face…that’s my preferred method. 

Q: What do you like about that face to face instruction?

A: It’s easier. What makes it easier is I can probe students and get them to think outside the box and…to see what they’re thinking about. It’s a really good way to ask questions and get to where students are going and guide them to conclusions or guide them to historical facts for them to make their own conclusions about it, but also suggest to them how things have been interpreted in the past. It’s really good…watching students make the connection cause history is about understanding the past. My methodology of teaching History is showing the things that have changed and the things that have stayed the same, and I really love when students see that.