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Visiting Faculty Member Profile

Dr Charles "Chuck" Spurgeon

Humanities, Fall 2008

This Fall semester Regent’s American College London is delighted to host, as a visiting faculty member in Humanities, Dr Charles W 'Chuck' Spurgeon.

I was born and educated in Indianapolis, and I was a reasonably contented mid-westerner until I saw that first great internationally televised event, the Queen's Coronation.  The profound sense of history and mystery converted me instantaneously into an Anglophile and gave me ambitions of a British education, which it took many years to fulfil.

While in high school, I also "got the bug" to "Go west, young man, go west", so began college in California, where I dutifully earned a BA from Pepperdine University and an MA from Loyola University of Los Angeles (now Loyola Marymount University) and began teaching a wide variety of English and psychology courses at high school and college levels.  Forty years later, I am still happy to be teaching, and I am thrilled to be back at Regent's College, or more properly, at Regent's American College London.

The Regent's Connection

After several years of attending international summer schools in England, I helped create a study abroad programme for Marymount College students at Regent's College, and I was blessed with the opportunity to teach in London in the autumns of 1988, '89, and '90.  Thanks to the official work permit, I was able to attend the University of London while teaching at Regent's, and I completed the PhD at Birkbeck College in 1995.

Two years ago, Marymount College got a new President, Dr Michael Brophy, and thanks to his enthusiasm and support, I helped create a new 4-week study abroad opportunity for students, the Marymount Summer Session in London, and I was chosen to be the first person to serve in another new adventure, the Marymount / RACL faculty exchange.  So, with a very deep sense of meaningful pleasure, I know that over the past 20 years and last two summers, I have helped a few hundred students study at Regent's College and have introduced more than 30 colleagues, family and friends, to London, and, yes, all of them are now Anglophiles and lovers of London. 

Several Regent's faculty and friends have visited me in California over the years, and I am most grateful to "the powers that be" at Marymount and RACL that the Regent's American College London faculty will soon have the opportunity to teach at Marymount and experience life in the Los Angeles area. And, indeed, I hope this is a beginning opportunity that will continue many years to come.

Thanks to the generous hospitality and friendship of Sir John and Lady Sophie Laws, and to several English friends, I have the privilege of serving as a volunteer at Westminster Abbey, and I can still claim to be the only living American to be so honoured by the Abbey.  To express my gratitude, I have recently published "The Poetry of Westminster Abbey".  The introductory chapter is, in many ways, my autobiography.  So "Thanks be to God" and to the new Marymount / RACL faculty exchange, I will fulfill another life-long ambition, sharing Shakespeare with college students in London.  I am thrilled to be back!

Article by Dr Spurgeon