The Accidental Educator: Life-Defining Stories of Rites and Wrongs

Eric Reno sought to write about the lives lived throughout a life. Structuring his memoir similar to how one experiences French Impressionist paintings, nose to canvas dazzles the eye with riotous colors, but upon retreat, shapes and shadows emerge. The painting's beauty increases with changed distance and angles, generating different emotions while seeing multiple stories. In a similar experiential metaphor, his memoir tells life-defining stories and shares insights of people met, places lived, decisions made, and both tragedies and joyous experiences.

Eric participated in many historical events of the latter20th Century and the beginning of the 21st. A year after high school graduation he was an Air Force intelligence analyst in the United Kingdom monitoring Cold War events that included the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy assassination, and the beginning of the Viet Nam conflict. His three years in the UK prepared him to become the first college graduate in his family and fostered his late-in-life desire to become an educator.

Famous encounters included: football player Brian Piccolo, holding the first-ever World Champion 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers in the palm of his hand, a week in awe of Maya Angelou, a semester mesmerized by novelist Harry Crews, an attitude-changing phone call with poet Judith Ortiz Cofer, a delightful afternoon encounter with Carmen McRae, a evening in the company of Dave Brubeck and family, dinner with and advice from Julian Bond, and a career-saving year of encouragement from Elizabeth Snead.

Eric Reno is a child of the American Midwest, with its accompanying values. He served four years in the United States Air Force and attended the Junior College of Broward County, Florida, Florida Atlantic University, and San Francisco State University. After five years of San Francisco corporate life, he decided it wasn't a fit. His next ambition was to teach college English despite no experience at the front of a classroom. At thirty he began to pursue his dream, with no job, no teaching experience, no money, but blessed with a supportive wife, an understanding mother-in-law, and a first child on the way. He eventually retired as a college president, a seemingly impossible achievement that was never envisioned those many years ago.