Term Essay: Oral History Interview
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW/AND FINAL REVIEW
FOR: Professor C. Scaros
P5 IP
BY: Sandra Harper
December 24, 2012
Eugene Brundige (Gene), was born July 19th 1944 in Athens County Ohio. He has been my Pastor for the last 13 years during which time we have become very close. He has been my mentor, personal counselor, spiritual councilor and friend for many years. My girls adore this man and respect just about anything he says and does. I chose to set with him because I have been fascinated with watching how he operates in two worlds that do not seem on the surface to be compatible in any way. He is completely at home in his duties as a pastor such as preaching, teaching Sunday School, visiting, counseling and mentoring, as well as being equally comfortable operating in the political world. I have witnessed and experienced time after time where his political connections have helped parishioners’ with information they may have needed. He is very well known in the community as a professional mediator and Pastor, and he knows people.
Gene grew up near Athens Ohio, (which is currently Ohio’s 6th congressional district) (govtrack.us, 2012), a very small town at the time. The population from 1940 to 1950 was a modest, 40’ – 7,696 and 50’ 11,660 (census, 1995). He went to a very small school (The Plains) and graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree. He did his seminary work at Garrett Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. Gene says that because he was raised in the country and went to school in a very small village he was pretty much sheltered. He knew all his teachers and classmates and thought the world was a very safe place. He said that he remembers thinking that The Plains had very little crime or evil.
Gene’s first awakening to this reality was after he started Ohio University. It was during the time that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He recalls that “all at once I
FOR: Professor C. Scaros
P5 IP
BY: Sandra Harper
December 24, 2012
Eugene Brundige (Gene), was born July 19th 1944 in Athens County Ohio. He has been my Pastor for the last 13 years during which time we have become very close. He has been my mentor, personal counselor, spiritual councilor and friend for many years. My girls adore this man and respect just about anything he says and does. I chose to set with him because I have been fascinated with watching how he operates in two worlds that do not seem on the surface to be compatible in any way. He is completely at home in his duties as a pastor such as preaching, teaching Sunday School, visiting, counseling and mentoring, as well as being equally comfortable operating in the political world. I have witnessed and experienced time after time where his political connections have helped parishioners’ with information they may have needed. He is very well known in the community as a professional mediator and Pastor, and he knows people.
Gene grew up near Athens Ohio, (which is currently Ohio’s 6th congressional district) (govtrack.us, 2012), a very small town at the time. The population from 1940 to 1950 was a modest, 40’ – 7,696 and 50’ 11,660 (census, 1995). He went to a very small school (The Plains) and graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree. He did his seminary work at Garrett Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio. Gene says that because he was raised in the country and went to school in a very small village he was pretty much sheltered. He knew all his teachers and classmates and thought the world was a very safe place. He said that he remembers thinking that The Plains had very little crime or evil.
Gene’s first awakening to this reality was after he started Ohio University. It was during the time that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He recalls that “all at once I