Behind the syllabus: Peter Kevin Morley

Peter Kevin Morley

What do you do on the weekends?

Since I work for a newspaper, I rarely have weekends off. But when I have a free weekend, I spend all the time I can with my family: my wife, Susan (WC '94); my son, Kieran, 7; and my daughter, Caroline, 6. I'll usually cook pizza or pasta from scratch. Late at night, I like to work on children's books which grow out of stories I tell my children. My second children's book is in the works. And I'll often get the itch to make black and white prints in my darkroom.

What's the craziest thing you did when you were in college?

I did so many crazy things, and I refuse to divulge the craziest. However, a handful of times, I would go onstage before the showing of weekend on-campus movies in college (at Missouri) and -- yelling at the audience -- would urge them to get up, yell and scream and wave their arms and make faces. Then, I would take pictures of them until the ushers would ask me to leave. Another one: I coordinated the world's largest photojournalism contest at University of Missouri one year, on a dare. The job description could have said: "Applicant must be nuts." But they say the hardest jobs are often the most rewarding.

What's one thing your students would never guess about you?

I brew beer.

If you could take a year off to do anything, what would you do?

I would live in Genoa, Italy with my family. I have close Italian friends there. I would travel a bit with my family, take cooking classes, work on speaking the language, help my friends with their flower businesses and publish a book of photos of Italian life.

If you hadn't become a professor, what do you think you would have done for a profession?

My initial goal was to become a science writer, but I was happily sidetracked into journalism, where I have remained for the last 26 years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a staff photographer. I was thrilled to be asked to teach at Richmond in 1989, since one of my goals was to teach on the college level. So, the question should be: What would I be doing if I were not a newspaper photojournalist? I would love to teach full time at Richmond.