by his side first as a student, then as his collegue. He has always been a calm, stable person. He has a very commanding presence. Professor O’ Grady was probably the reason why I eventually took up English. The other professor who has a_ big influence on him was his biology teacher. "He was extremely intelligent and he was also knowledgeble about what goes on between biology and life, therefore he made a great deal of sense to me. I took a course with him and I loved every minute of it! I can still remember almost every single word he said."

Professor Ledwell wanted to teach for as long as he can remember. "When I was 14, I was a red-cross swimming instructor. It involved a lot of teaching, and I like teaching. At the age of 16, I taught grade school. It was a one-room school in P.E.I. with 43 students. I also taught in high school and college, then I started teaching English. This is my 37th year of my teaching. I have been happy as a teacher. It’s been a great career, and I still have the greatest of enthusiam for it. I love my students."

During his career as a professor, the funniest thing that ever happened to him was when he was leaving his home to teach at night one time, when a young German Shepherd dog started to follow his car. "I didn’t have time to take him home, he was my neighbour’s dog," Professor Ledwell said; "I took him with me to

class. This was a class of 85 people, from 7pm till 10pm. The dog was O.K. for a while, then he got bored. First, he started yaping and yawning, then he got restless and he started pacing up and down the aisle. Finally I noticed the people from the back of the class gradually moving up front and I wondered what the problem was and I asked. They Said that the dog had crapped, and the smell was driving them out. So, we cancelled the rest of the Class, cleaned up the

mess and took the dog home." Through this rare experience, Professor Ledwell wrote a poem called "Ever To Confess If You Are Bored."

It is hard to conjure an image of Professor Ledwell as a Priest, but he was indeed a priest for 14 years! He enjoyed being a priest, but it wasn’t his cup of

tea as he discovered; "it just wasn’t for me." If there is a doubt of missing his priesthood, he said; "no, never!"

It is known that Professor Ledwell is a fairly successful writer. However, not all his times are devoted to writing. "I have been a councillor for social sciences for research council of Canada. In addition to that, I garden and enjoy it. I like painting, carpentry, I love fishing and I read for at least a couple of hours a day. I enjoy music immensely, jazz in particular. Dave Bluebeck has always been my favourite. I like him because of his ability to improvise. I love improvisation. I also sang with choirs,” he smiled. To those who say that men can’t cook, Professor Ledwell will have the ultimate

pleasure of proving them wrong. "COOKING!!! I have always been a big cooking fan! Gourmet cooking is a major interest, it’s a really MAJOR interest!" his eyes glowed happily. "My mother was an excellent cook, my wife is a fine cook, she and I do a lot of things together. We love to experiment with food. We are really interested in fish dishes. We make the MEANEST fish chowder in P.E.I. I used to make it out of cod fish heads just to gross out the people. Put some eyes on top of the soup so that they will have those cod fish eyes staring up at them. We do this just for the sheer fun of it!" If you are ever his guest for supper, don’t worry too much about any eye-balls peering out at you. He is truthfully an excellent cook!

When he was young, he had a very good friend called Carolyn. " I knew her from since she was 13 or 14 years old. She was also a student of mine too. We were good friends for about five years before we were lovers, then we decided to get married. I do think it is primarily important to be good friends before becoming lovers. It makes one’s living together so much easier," said Professor Ledwell bashfully! They have now been married for 20 years with 6 children. “Having at least four conversations going at once exactly characterized our house. It’s that way all the time except from 10 o’clock at night until 7 o’clock in the morning.” To balance their lively lives together, they live on a

The UPEI X-Press

October 18, 1990

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