User:Benfeese

I am Ben T. Feese and I am starting this User page on 30 January, 2014.

Here is a brief biography (taken from my Profile on Facebook as of this date; for further information about me, please consult my Facebook page):

After graduating from Centre College in 1959 I stayed on there for a year as an assistant in the Chemistry dept. Then I went to Washington University in St. Louis, taking my degree in molecular biology in 1965.

During that time I married Shirley Carmichael (Centre '58)and we had two daughters, Suzanne (b. 10-27-62)and Laura (b. 10-31-63).

In the fall of 1965 I came back to teach at Centre and continued there 32 years until I retired in 1997. While there I helped to develop the program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which at that time was one of the few such programs at liberal arts colleges in the country.

I loved teaching and I treasured my students, but I became burned out with the administrative demands, so I retired as early as I could financially, at age 57 in 1997.

In 1998 we moved here, out in the country just east of Maysville, in northern Kentucky, about 60 miles east of Cincinnati. OH. I have loved it here partly because I have some space to pursue my horticultural interests (13.5 acres with orchard, vineyard, large greenhouse, etc). But even more I have loved being here because my daughter, Laura (who is an OB/GYN in Maysvile), and son-in-law, Bill Shower, live next door to us, with our two grandchildren, Patrick (b. 2-15-93) and Rachel (b. 10-19-95). These kids have been an unending joy at all ages, even now as Rachel will be graduating from high school and Patrick from Georgia Tech (after only 3 years spring 2014. My daughter, Suzanne, was an attorney in Atlanta until she took early retirement in 2008 and now is a world traveler and photographer.

The dark side of my story is that Shirley developed Parkinson's disease (now diagnosed as dementia of unknown origin) over the last 15 years, and is now almost entirely incapable of caring for herself, along with considerable cognitive loss. My father died in 2000, and in 2003 my mother came to live with us after having a major stroke which left her paralyzed and aphasic (unable either to speak or to understand language). Thus for 8 years, until Mom died in late 2010, I had the major responsibility for caring for an invalid wife and an invalid mother. Even now that mother has gone I still have total responsibility for my wife for all the time when our wonderful caregivers are not here. Since it is very difficult for me to get away from here for significant periods, I often feel as if I am a prisoner in my own home.

Depression has become a near constant companion, although I am getting some respite in the present moment from certain antidepressant drugs...and, alas, wine.I used to make considerable quantities of wine in the winery in my basement. Winemaking, along with my many other projects (including my large greenhouse,my home computer network, gardening, orchard, vineyard, berry patches and tending about 10 acres of lawn, etc.) have had largely to be abandoned.

In 2009 I had a hip replacement and in Dec. 2013 I had spine surgery from which I am slowly recovering. I feel very old and am wondering how I got that way, where has my life, our life together, gone?

Since about 2006 I have totally lost my Christian faith and now consider myself a "christian agnostic". It was a long time coming, after a lifetime of active believing while rationalizing that belief with my scientific way of thinking. Then suddenly something clicked and scientific "faith" won out over religious faith. And I am certainly the worse for that final bit of "growing up."