Alumni News
Gwynne Taraska, Ph.D., 2009
Gwynne is now working as a research scholar in the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is currently working on research projects in policy/environmental ethics, and is looking forward to teaching some logic courses in the future.
John Francis Keegan,
Graduate Studies in 1965-69
John died in February 2011 at the age of 79. After John served as a military police officer during the Korean War, he began his philosophical studies at San Francisco State College. While there, he took a side-trip into exploring life as a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. He never did take his final vows in that order, and instead returned to his graduate studies in philosophy, this time at the University of Washington. There, he met and married philosophy graduate student, Sydney Ruth Andrews (M.A., 1966).
In 1974, Keegan was offered the opportunity to help create a Law and Justice Administration for the Quileute Tribe at LaPush. Drawing on his experience in the military police, and his knowledge of the philosophy of law, he drafted a code of laws for the tribe. In 1975, Jefferson County hired him and Sydney to operate the Jefferson County Courthouse Annex, the county's law-enforcement substation at Clearwater on the coastal strip. He eventually transferred to Port Townsend and was quickly promoted to Major Crimes Investigator. There he was dedicated to bringing about cooperation between local law enforcement and the new domestic violence program, working diligently to promote progressive attitudes towards the abuse of women and children.