John Welsh

1936 - 2024

John Welsh

December 2, 1936 - October 27, 2024

Overland Park, Kansas - Dr. John Harlan Welsh passed away peacefully on October 27th, 2024. John was born December 2, 1936, and was the oldest of the five children born to the late Elizabeth and Harry Harlan Welsh, Jr. John was raised in Kansas City, loved going to Bryant School and graduated from Pembroke Country Day. He attended Princeton University where he received his B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Religion with minor in English and was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. His Senior thesis on Emily Dickinson was displayed in the Princeton Library. He used the funds from the Fellowship to earn both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley with time spent studying in Oxford and Cambridge, England. While in graduate school at U. C. Berkeley, during the 60's, he experienced the Beat poets era and the Grateful Dead community and visited jazz clubs featuring Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck.

Upon the completion of his Doctorate, he returned to Kansas City where he taught Restoration and 18th Century Literature at the University of Missouri on the Kansas City campus. He then ventured into early multi-media for four years as a management consultant.

In 1968, he met a talented young artist named Kay Upton. They married and together they

shared their love of art and travel.

In 1977, he ventured still further afield - to Saudi Arabia - where he remained for the next 24 years, teaching all levels of English (beginners to Ph.D. candidates including members of the Royal family) at the King Faud University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran. He was thedirector of the University's English Language Center for two years, implementing a technical reading and writing emphasis throughout the program. For the next several years, he coordinated a technical communications course.

In 2001, he returned to the United States where he settled in San Francisco, California, and taught technical communications at UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. In 2021, he returned home to Kansas City where he spent time relearning and appreciating the history and beauty of the city. He loved reading, yoga, jazz, classical music, intellectual conversations, his Sphynx cat (Grace), and spending time with his family and friends. He had a unique talent for words, crafting delightful poetry and authoring several novels. He was an intelligent and kind man who fulfilled the goal of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship by teaching at a college level in a gifted and inspiring manner. His love for the English language combined with technology was well established and displayed throughout his teaching career.

John was preceded in death by his wife, Kay Welsh, parents, Elizabeth and Harry Harlan Welsh, Jr. and his brother, Harry Harlan Welsh, Ill. John is survived by his sisters, Jean Honan (Kansas City, MO), Karen Carmody (Tampa, Fl), Sue Macintosh (Bob) (Kansas City, MO), his cousin Linda Cozad (Woody) (Platte City, MO), 9 nieces and nephews and 19 great nieces and great nephews.