O.P. Kretzmann Award

recognizes alumni for long-time and exemplary service as a University employee.

John Feaster ’63 earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Valparaiso University. He then earned his Master of Arts degree in English in 1966 from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in the same field from Purdue University in 1970.  While at Purdue, he was an editorial assistant on the staff of the journal Modern Fiction Studies.  Since 1970 he has been a faculty member in Valparaiso University’s department of  English.  He has served as chair of the department, the assistant dean and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, chair of the administrative committee on American Studies and was the director of the overseas study centre in Cambridge, England, from 1985 to 1987.  From 1992 until his retirement in May 2011, he was the Walter G. Friedrich Professor of American Literature.  Feaster’s specialized areas of study are modern critical theory and practice, American literary and cultural history, and literary realism.  He has written numerous essays and papers and has given lectures both on and off campus in the fields of literary studies and pedagogy.  He and his wife, Susan (Sauer ’64), live in Valparaiso.