Michael Torrence CHURCH

1938 - 2015

News Death Notice

CHURCH, Michael Torrence Was born July 12, 1938, in Lakedale, North Carolina, to Ruth Anne McCaskill Church and Torrence Nathaniel (Dock) Church. He grew up in this mill town, attending Massey Hill High School and serving as quarterback of the football team, and was voted most likely to find himself at Oxford, or Cambridge. On graduation, he entered the Army and served in Asmara, Ethiopia, decoding, um, something. Once free, he earned a B.A. at Pembroke College, an M.A. at Auburn, and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Kentucky, where he finally learned that royal blue looks better on a Wildcat than a Demon. True to his inquisitive and ferocious appetite for knowledge, he followed several career paths, including professor at Miami University and stock broker. He finished his working career with seventeen years at the University of Cincinnati Law Library. He spent the greatest length of time in Oxford, OH, where he pursued his greatest interests: family, education, and politics. He was a founding member of the board for McGuffey Foundation School, where he was a fixture reading medieval literature, acting as the Elvis-Pharaoh in "Joseph", and prepping Model UN delegates. He served as treasurer on a campaign against John Boehner, could wax very boring on the subject of the Federal Reserve, and was very pleased in his final days to hear that Bernie Sanders has entered the current race. A confirmed atheist, he read the Bible thoroughly, and found inspiration in J.R.R. Tolkien, Shakespeare, Joseph Campbell, and Babylon 5. He judged endless diving meets, supported classical music from amateur to professional, and had recently developed an interest in watching live soccer. Preceding him in death were his mother and father, his grandfather Ralph (Connie) McCaskill and great-aunt Florence, aunts Stella Gilreath and Marjorie Clark, much of the Church clan, and his granddaughter Keaton Macaskill Churchwright. He is survived by his wife, Janet Risty Church, daughter Kelly (Tom) Churchwright (all of Wyoming, OH); brother Timothy Carroll Church and niece Elizabeth Ann Church Shaffer (of Asheville, NC) and her children Mikayla Ketzenberger, Zebulun and Quinn Shaffer; cousins Dennis and Roddy Clark (of Greensboro, NC, and Pearisburg, VA, respectively), cousin Ronnie Gilreath (of Roswell, Georgia); and a whole passel of granddaughters: Amy Wright (of Hamilton, OH), Cerah Churchwright (of Durham, NC), Zoe Caswell, Risty, Berit and Polly Churchwright (all of Wyoming, OH). A memorial service will be held Wednesday, May 7, 2 pm at Ogle & Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 5086 College corner Pike, Oxford. Condolences may be sent online to www.oglepaulyoungfuneralhome.com