Terry A. Telfer

1947 - 2022

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade staff writer

TEMPERANCE - Terry A. Telfer, a 25-year professor at Monroe County Community College who introduced students to connections among fiction, poetry, film, and history, died March 23 in his Temperance home. He was 74.

He had congestive heart failure, his wife, Ann Telfer, said.

At his retirement from the college in 2017, the board of trustees in a resolution commended his service as a professor in the humanities and social sciences division. The resolution also commended him for creating "four enduring, popular, and valuable courses" in the curriculum, "visual media literacy," "women's writings, film, and society (1920-1960)," and "film and society (1960-present)."

The resolution said, "Dr. Telfer motivated, inspired, and guided thousands of students in their writing, reading, and analyses of cinema and literature…Dr. Telfer learned and lived the maxim that being true to one's self is the most important requirement for both teaching and happiness."

He'd been inspired by the examples of his grandmother, who read constantly, and of his fifth-grade teacher, who treated students as adults by allowing them to choose which classic work of literature to read, his wife said.

Mr. Telfer in turn "would take great pieces of literature and place them in their historical context," his wife said. "It was important for him that history come alive.

"He was concerned about broadening the students' understanding," his wife said.

Carrie Nartker, a professor of English at the college, was a student of Mr. Telfer's in 1994. As each student made a final presentation, Mr. Telfer leaned back with eyes closed.

"You could tell he was absorbing everything you said," Ms. Nartker said. "Terry had a way of making you feel like you weren't a student, like you weren't an 18-year-old kid, that you were someone who mattered."

As a colleague, he stopped by Ms. Nartker's office to talk about students or films or anything else.

"You felt like you were having an important conversation. He gave you his full attention," Ms. Nartker said.

He'd attended Monroe County Community College and decided he wanted to teach at a community college.

"He wanted to be there for the working-class kids, because he was a working class kid," his wife said.

"He was a quiet man, but when it came to something getting done, he did not back off," she said, citing his role with the faculty union in negotiating a contract with the college during a term as president.

Mr. Telfer was a member the last 20 years of the Socialist Equality Party because "he believed in an evolving society, ideally for the better," his wife said. At the college, he was the campus adviser for International Youth and Students for Social Equality. He had been a regular contributor to the World Socialist Web Site, writing articles about film, television, history, and culture.

He was born Nov. 14, 1947, in Monroe to Mary and William Telfer and grew up in the nearby community of Detroit Beach. He was a graduate of Monroe High School. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, a master's degree from Western Michigan University, and a doctorate in early American literature and history from Bowling Green State University.

Surviving are his wife, the former Ann Michalski Hall, whom he married May 30, 1995; son, Daniel Telfer; stepsons Joshua Hall, Jeremy Hall, and Jason Hall; five grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

Visitation will be from 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Thursday at Sujkowski Funeral Home Northpointe, 114 E. Alexis Rd. with a sharing of memories at 3:30 p.m.

The family suggests tributes to ProMedica Hospice or Planned Pethood.