Scott Terrell

Instructor

Scott Terrell Updates

Winter 2025 Update

Fall 2025 will mark year 14 working as an adjunct professor with the journalism department at Western. In fall 2011, I nervously walked into that first-ever teaching job in CF 202, wondering if I’d be able to clearly present the material for J305. Wondering if the 18 pairs of eyes looking to the front of class would slowly close, their owners drifting off towards thoughts of “get me outta here.” Fortunately for me, the students were engaged and interested, and willing to work. And I’m still here.

This year has been busy. I take multiple trips to Grove City, Pennsylvania, to visit my mother by way of Pittsburgh International. Thanks to a regularly scheduled nonstop flight on Alaska Airlines from SeaTac, it’s not a huge travel issue.

Marilyn in the cab of my pickup truck in August. // Photo by Scott Terrell

My oldest son, Andrew, his wife, Christina, and their daughter, Marilyn (our granddaughter named after my mom), spent the summer at our house in Bow. We celebrated Marilyn’s first birthday together in July. In June, they accompanied my wife and I for a visit to Pennsylvania to celebrate my mother’s 95th birthday. Andrew moved his family to Los Angeles in October, so Karen and I paid them a visit in December, after fall quarter but before Christmas. We all know what happened the following month. Fortunately, they had just moved to an area, Venice (two blocks from the beach), that was about six miles south of the Paradise fire.

Our youngest son, Alexander, who carries for the U.S. postal Service, and his wife, Kyla, bought a house in Sedro-Woolley. It’s small, but has a yard in a quiet, established neighborhood. On the weekend following Valentines Day, I planted a couple of apple trees in their backyard.

I have a lot to be thankful for: my family, the opportunity to hike in our Pacific Northwest, lots of rain, backyard fruit, and a teaching job at Western.
Spring 2024 Update

Personally, there have been significant changes to my family life since last year. My wife, Karen and I traveled to Australia to be with our son, Andrew, and his wife Christina, as they welcomed our grandchild, Marilyn, into the world. We stayed in the Sydney area, delt with a bout of Covid, and took in the Down Under culture. The baby arrived healthy and opinionated. Nine months later, we welcomed them to our home in Bow for the spring and summer. Now we are immersed in 9-month-old baby energy. Our other son, Alexander. and hid wife Kyla, live in the Ham. We are waiting for grandchild number two, but hey – no pressure, kids!

My back-yard apple/pear/plum/hardy kiwi/blueberry orchard continues to evolve. I swear – every year – that I won’t plant any more trees, but this spring I popped a Sweet Tree Pluerry into the ground. It’s a cross between a plum and sweet cherry. The fruit is supposed to look like a plum but has sweet cherry flavors. The tree was given to me through my membership with Northwest Fruit, a volunteer group that maintains a demonstration orchard on the grounds of the Washington State University research station in Mount Vernon, Washington (down I-5 in Skagit County). It’s open to the public and new members are always welcome.

I also continue to serve as a Bow Cemetery commissioner, a small cemetery located near Edison in Skagit County. Besides providing a final resting place for earthly human denizens, we host a Memorial Day service, to which all are welcome to attend. The cemetery will be decorated with rows of Old Glory, with small versions marking the graves of military veterans.

The classes I teach at Western, newswriting and photojournalism (J207 and J305), have kept me engaged with students since 2011. When I retired from the Skagit Valley Herald in 2019, I started teaching a class in fall, winter and spring. The experience continues to be rewarding, and it is so cool to see Western’s journalism grads flourish in the news field.

Any illusions that life would become simple after retiring from a full-time job have been shattered. I guess I’m OK with that.

Scott Terrell
Winter 2023 Update

Thank goodness we are back in the classroom. Online teaching is OK, and there are many advantages, but hanging out with the students in the classroom is more my style. Spring of 2022 was fun because the mask mandate was withdrawn. I was cautious. But speaking to the students without fabric over my lower face made a huge difference.

One of Scott Terrell’s apple trees, ripe for the picking. Terrell’s students often enjoyed the literal fruits of his labor by tasting the harvest. // Photo by Scott Terrell

I enjoy seeing the names of students who previously took newswriting or intro to photojournalism with me. Finn Wendt, who I had in spring J305, is interning at Cascadia Daily News. He is tearing up the sports coverage of the Western men’s and women’s basketball teams, writing stories and taking great photographs.

It’s terrific to see Jaya Flanary, a former photo J student designing the newspaper and editing digital content. Western alum Hailey Hoffman is a mainstay at Cascadia. Technically, I didn’t have her as a student, but she was a photo intern at the Skagit Valley Herald while I was photo editor there. And speaking of the Skagit Valley Herald, former Western student Oliver Hamlin has taken over photo duties there. He is giving their readers wonderful front-page and prep sports photographs to look at.

In a personal note, my life has gotten busier and busier during retirement. I am a cemetery commissioner in Bow, and I was drafted to serve on the board of Northwest Fruit (formerly known as the Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation, WWFRF), which is based at Washington State University’s research station in Mount Vernon. Between those duties and teaching at Western, I feel like my life is busier than ever. But the truth is, I’m slowing down and becoming a grumpy old man. And I love it!

Aside from the above-mentioned duties, I also have a big fruit orchard of my own to manage. I keep learning more every year as I interact with apple, pear, plum and cherry trees. (The same can be said about teaching and interacting with students – I keep learning.) The fall class I teach is a beneficiary of the fruits harvested.

Probably the most impactful, self-inflicted event during the past year was my partial knee replacement in summer. By the time fall quarter started, I was getting ready to retire my walking stick.

Within three months of surgery, I was biking and hiking. John Harris and I made a snowy foray to Lizard Lake on Blanchard Mountain. Joe Gosen, John and I took an urban stroll around Fairhaven and Marine Park. My youngest son, Alexander joined me for a hike to Fragrance Lake. I feel blessed to be active without knee pain, once again.

Scott Terrell and John Harris of Western Washington University’s journalism department pose for a selfie on the snowy trail. After recovering from knee surgery, Terrell was able to get back to outdoor recreation. // Photo by Scott Terrell

Fragrance lake reflects the sky on a sunny afternoon in December 2022. This is a popular destnation in the Chuckanuts, with access at Larrabee State Park. // Photo by Scott Terrell
Winter 2021 Update

After dipping my toes in the Canvas ocean during my adjunct career in the journalism department, I found myself body surfing as spring quarter 2020 got under way. Thankfully, experts on the Keep Teaching crew helped me along the way. After a summer of praying the coronavirus would disappear into the ether, and realizing that would not happen, I was able to prepare for fall and photojournalism 305.

The pandemic was bearable, in part, because of the outdoor opportunities a stone’s throw from my back door. Hiking in the Chuckanuts with friends in the journalism department provided a sense of camaraderie and escape from the long hours staring at a screen. But as the winter quarter progresses and spring online classes loom ahead, I pray by fall we are back in the classroom. Seeing students face to face will be a treat. And I know they will be served better.