Ed Zelley '88
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- Ben DoehrBen: Okay, so could you say your--
- Ed Zelley & Ben DoehrEd: Yep, follow the script on number 5?Ben: Yep.Ed: Alright. Tell me when.Ben: Go ahead.Ed: 'Kay.
- Ed Zelley & Ben DoehrEd: My name is Ed Zelley. I currently live in Winona, New Jersey, and I am a member of the Grinnell College Class of 1988.Ben: So why did you come to Grinnell College?Ed: Well, I came to Grinnell College because they offered me more money than any other school, and I knew I wanted to get as far away from my high school and that group of people as possible, and, growing up in New Jersey, 1,300 miles seemed like a good distance. Ben: Yep, definitely.Ed: I was attracted to Grinnell, first by the books I was reading when I was doing my college search and they had this thing called the Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program, and I was a Boy Scout, I loved camping and all that, and that appealed to me. I never did a single thing with GORP in four years here, but that was the initial selling point, was that this was what you did on weekends.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what was your first memory when you got- came on the campus?Ed: Just the sheer, kinda, size of the place. The... meeting all these people from all over the country.Ben: Did you come as a prospective student?Ed: I did. I came out the summer before my senior year. My mother and I drove out and we did, sort of a little Midwest tour and went to Grinnell and to Knox College and to Earlham.Ben: Hm. Okay.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what are your best memories of your time at Grinnell College? Ed: Oh, easily, the people that I met and the lifelong friends that I still have. Yeah. I don’t really keep in touch with anybody from high school, but Grinnell College, for sure! Playing rugby, having a heavy metal radio show from midnight to three.Ben: Mhm.Ed: I was in- played soccer, sang in the choir, did a lot of things, and I think also, coming back about a year or two after graduating and running into a professor who I’d had two times and he asked me how I was doing, "Ed". He didn’t ask, "Tell me your name again;" he remembered me and that was the kind of specialness about this place for me.Ben: Which professor was it?Ed: It was Professor Hass. He was the Religious Studies Chair.Ben: Mhm.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what was your major at Grinnell?Ed: I was a History major.Ben: Any concentrations?Ed: Uh, no. Just kind of general.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what did your dorm room look like at Grinnell?Ed: Well, the first one was a large room on North Younker second, which is now- they broke it up into a couple of rooms, but it looked like one large living room with three beds and I had a roommate who was from Omaha, Nebraska, and another one from a Seattle suburb. So I think they tried to mix it up so there was a kid from the East Coast, a kid from the Midwest, and a kid from the West Coast; and you could tell whose corner was whose based on what the posters were on the walls.Ben: Mhm.Ed: And... then from there, I guess every year was a little bit different.Ben: Mhm.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: Were you in North Campus or South Campus?Ed: I was always in North Campus. This is the first time I've ev- I’ve spent more time on South Campus the last two days than I had in four years.Ben: Yeah. I’m a South person myself; never get to North.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what book influenced you most in college?Ed: What book?Ben: Yes.Ed: I would have to s- Actually, reading the Bible for the first time outside of church in my Christian Scripture class and my Hebrew Scripture class, because.. I was a churchgoer. I knew the stories, but had never read it that in depth and thought about it in other ways other than 'This is what my faith tells me.' And I thought that was... it certainly led in an interesting direction.Ben: Okay.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So how has Grinnell changed since you were a student? Like, we don’t have Christian-- We might have... Oh, go ahead.Ed: Well, the biggest change is the buildings. That- there are so many new buildings here that when I came through campus two years ago. I was like, “Wow! This is so cool.”Ben: Mhm. Yeah, we have the Joe Rosenfeld Center.Ed: The new sci- even though I never did much in science, just impressed by the new science center, the new gym, the new pool.Ben: Mhm.Ed: All these things that, I’d heard people lamenting the loss of all these buildings and like, “You’re crazy! I want to come here. I want to come back. This is even better.”
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what was around when you were here that isn't anymore?Ed: Darby Gymnasium.Ben: Mhm.Ed: A thing called the Physical Education Complex, which was this no- a windowless monolith in the middle of- which is now a parking lot and trees, kind of across from Cowles. I think it was on the other side of the track, or it may not have quite been and obviously, all that East Campus dorm was nothing.Ben: Mhm, yeah. Was it just grass over there?Ed: Yup!Ben: Weird.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So what was your favorite academic experience or class, besides.. that's not- that's not the Bible...?Ed: Probably a class called 'Europe in the Age of Total War'. It was a European History class for basically the early twent- early to mid-twentieth century, and getting to write a pap- an exam question was on... we were given four choices and we had to argue who was guilty of starting World War II.Ben: Hmm. So everthing you learned--Ed: You could choose Chamberlain, Hitler--Ben: Yeah.Ed: Yep-- and I went with... I went with the French, ‘cause I said if they hadn’t been so vicious in their reparations against the Germans, Hitler would not have had the atmosphere. He would have been ignored.Ben: Mhm.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: Okay, so describe- what’s your favorite place on campus?Ed: Probably the Clark Loggia. Just that Loggia on that part. I had a, my senior year, I had a room on the Loggia--Ben: Ah.Ed: So I would be able to go and sit out there. Would have been my favorite place as a student, I’d say. If I were here now, probably the- I like that Rosenfield Center. There’s something about that.Ben: Yeah, I heard mixed reviews saying, “It feels great!” to “It looks like a Marriott.” But..Ed: Well, it does look like a Marriott, but...Ben: It's a good Marriott..Ed: My breakfast was far superior to anything I ever had here.Ben: Yeah, with the-
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: When you were here there were two dining halls, right?Ed: Right, Cowles and Quad.Ben: So yeah, that’s changed. Did you meet your spouse or partner at Grinnell?Ed: No, I did not. I had a high school sweetheart that I wasted four years of... with and she dumped me at the end- as soon as I graduated and found my wife at my first job.Ben: Fair enough. Well, it worked out.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So how would you compare the students of today with the students when you were here?Ed: They seem about the same, just now they’re closer to my kid’s age. But I think the same- they strike me as sort of the same people who probably did a lot for their high school, but never got any real credit for what they did.Ben: Mhm.Ed: They were never part of the beautiful crowd.Ben: Mhm. Wh--Ed: But--Ben: What class year were you?Ed: '88.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So, were you a part of the- was social activism still a big thing when you were here?Ed: Mhm. There was a lot of work around ending Apartheid, was the big thing in the late 80s.Ben: Hm, okay.Ed: And at that point, just started having much more active gay and lesbian- Grinnell College gay and lesbian community.Ben: Yeah, that’s definitely a big thing.Ed: So in- now, obviously with so many- with people being out being certainly acceptable in most places, it was- certainly wasn’t as prominent in the 80s. So for a lot of us, this is our first experience of actually meeting somebody who was gay or lesbian, and sayin', “Oh, well, they're no different from me except they are attracted to somebody else.”Ben: Yeah.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: Yeah, so, if you were writing a history of Grinnell College, what would you include from your years here?Ed: I would say, probably the transitioning of, probably an older guard of professors. You started to see the professors who were here were no longer even alive. I think the town seems to have changed, and obviously the campus for- a lot--Ben: Yeah.Ed: But the… I think the 80s still seemed to have, that sort of last remnant of, “We’re a hippie college.”Ben: Mhm.Ed: And I'm not sayi- I haven’t seen any students here who are trying to be that, but still in the 80s, there were enough people born in the 60s, who wanted to relive something they were four years old with.Ben: Mhm, gotcha’.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So, was there anything I missed that you would like to touch on, any particular stories you remember?Ed: Nah, I think for the most part, I was just so happy with my four years here. I consider them the best years of my life. I figure that it probably saved me; coming to Iowa slowed me down, calmed me down.Ben: Mhm.Ed: Certainly opened my mind, and... really, to see a much bigger world than the New Jersey suburbs.Ben: Mhm.Ed: And making those, sort of, lifelong friends who, even if you don’t see each other constantly, it's- when you do- are able to get together, it’s as if nothing had changed.Ben: Mhm.
- Ben Doehr & Ed ZelleyBen: So, as- what advice, parting advice, would you give to me? I'm entering my third year at Grinnell College. Just based on your experiences.Ed: Enjoy your senior year. Don’t worry so much about what’s the next- what the next chapter of your life looks like, because you think it’s going to be one thing- I left here wanting to be a, eventually, a Director of Admissions, I am now an Episcopal Priest, and you would not have told me that in 1988, so..Ben: Okay.Ed: The spirit of openness and wanting to think things through- keep using what you've learned.Ben: Okay, will do!
Alumni oral history interview with Ed Zelley '88. Recorded May 31, 2013.