Pasco-Hernando State College Volume XV, Issue I SPRING 2021 | Page 22

FACULTY
PROFILE

Professor , author , environmentalist Richard Downing , professor emeritus

Richard Downing has worked for the College

since 1981 , and although officially retired in 2010 , he did not take a break from teaching . Since retiring , Richard has taught Creative Writing I , II and III as an adjunct and holds the title of Professor Emeritus . His passion for teaching is almost as strong as his passion for the written word . Even though , by his own admission , he almost stopped teaching in March of 2020 .
Downing enjoying a copy of recently published Impact : Personal Portraits of Activism that contains his poem “ Gavage .”
A long-time face-to-face instructor , Richard was comfortable in a classroom of students . In the midst of the interaction , dialog and discussion that go with in-person instruction was where he spent his PHSC teaching and retirement careers . However , the COVID-19 Pandemic changed all that when PHSC transitioned all classes online . Initially , he opposed the online teaching option and the E-Certification course all PHSC online instructors need to complete . A losing battle , he dutifully took the certification course and was appreciative of assistance from Maya Pakhomova and Fernando Ortiz-Babilonia in PHSC ’ s E-Learning and Instructional Technology department .
His online teaching hesitation continued to the first day of online class . “ There are always some nerves before the start of the first class , but this was different as it was my first time teaching online ,” said Richard . His classes transitioned to the Remote Teaching format , where the professor and students log in at the assigned day and time for class via Zoom . The teaching , lecturing and discussions are all live , just using the computer , web camera and microphone . He let his students know it was his first time “ Zooming ” and there were going to be glitches . “ Don ’ t worry about it ; we ’ ll get through it ,” he said . And , in no time , they were back to the class business of writing creatively .
An avid creative writer himself , Richard published a novel , The Waking Rooms , and two poetry chapbooks , Four Steps Off the Path and My God . He won the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation ’ s Barbara Mandigo Poetry Contest , the Omnibus First Place Prize for Poetry , the Write Corner Press Editor ’ s Award , New Delta Review ’ s Matt Clark Poetry Prize , New Woman magazine ’ s Grand Prize for Fiction and Solstice Literary Magazine ’ s Editor ’ s Award for Short Fiction .
Richard has also received poetry and short story awards from the Boston Review , Juked , Yellow Jacket Press and the Firewheel Press . More than 80 of his poems and short stories appeared in various literary journals and anthologies . Richard finds he always goes back to poetry writing as he likes the compactness and wordplay .
In addition to teaching and his accomplished writing career , Richard is also an environmentalist . He lives in Hudson on the water and preserving Florida ’ s Nature Coast is a cause he champions . He is the co-founder of Save Our Nature Coast , an environmental group that seeks to stall efforts to plow up every mangrove and develop every wetland area .
He infuses environmentalism into his classes . The research paper topic in one of his English Comp 2 classes was an environmental current event . Richard had a student who thought he would fail because he didn ’ t believe he could write convincingly about an environmental issue . Richard wisely suggested to “ write the other side — the side you believe in .” Although he is passionate about the environment and environmental issues , Richard displays an openmindedness to allow others to state , or write , their case , based on their beliefs and values .
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