John Joseph McKernan

John McKernan was born May 11, 1942, in Omaha, Nebraska.  He grew up there, and as an adult, he taught at Marshall University from 1967 to 2010 (43 years).  He arrived with one post-graduate degree, a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Arkansas, and during his years there as a writing and literature teacher, he added two more: A Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York and a PhD in English from Boston University.  

While he was teaching full-time, he continued to write and publish poetry in many fine literary journals and magazines, among them the Boston Review, Slant, Petrograph, Studio, Western Humanities Review, White Pelican Review, Prairie Schooner, The Ohio Review, Tar River Poetry, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Field, Kestrel, Tantra, The New York Quarterly Review, to name only a few.  He even got a poem published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review, which are the three most distinguished publishers of poetry. He has also had four poetry books published:  Resurrection of the Dust, a full-length book published by the Backwaters Press in 2007; Postcard from Dublin, a chapbook published by Dead Metaphor Press in 1999; Walking Along The Missouri River, a chapbook published by Frank Stanford’s Lost Roads Press in 1977; Annex 21, published by The University of Nebraska in 1978.  He also had a rhetoric handbook published for English composition classes on the national level called The Writer’s Handbook, published  by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1988 that went through three editions.

During the years he taught at Marshall he went from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. He also started the West Virginia Writing Across the Curriculum Program for the public school teachers and directed the program until it was well-established and others could take his place. He also started the Writing Lab at Marshall and directed it until it became well-established, too.  He was one of three finalists for the 200l Professor of the Year Award by the Faculty Merritt Foundation, and one year won the faculty’s Distinguished Artist and Scholar Award.
 
He lived the life of a poet and professor well and loved doing it all. He was deeply devoted to Llewellyn, his wife.  He dearly loved his daughter, Kathleen Claire Borgman, and his three grandchildren, Ashley, Kyle, and Alyssa.  He was a member of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church all the many years he lived in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Llewellyn McKernan, daughter Katie Borgman, son-in-law Mike Borgman, grandchildren Ashley, Kyle, and Alyssa Borgman, brothers James, Dan, David, Peter, and sister, Margo Schmeising, and sister-in-law, Elizabeth McKernan, along with many nieces, and nephews.

Viewing will be Thursday, April 24, 2025 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at Our Lady Star of the Sea. Catholic Church. Funeral Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church with Father Patrick Quinn, officiating. Burial will be at 12:00 Noon Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Edgewater-New Smyrna Cemetery.

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