SR0929 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0929 LRB102 26802 LAW 37795 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Allan Albert Metcalf, Ph.D., who passed away on February 24, 2022; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Metcalf was born to George Joseph Metcalf and Mary Ellen Stephens in Clayton, Missouri on April 18, 1940; he moved with his family to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago as a toddler, when his father accepted a faculty position at the University of Chicago; he formed a barbershop quartet boy band in his youth; he was an Eagle Scout and earned The Order of the Arrow, the highest Boy Scout honor; he graduated the University of Chicago Laboratory School as valedictorian in 1957; he received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1961, where he served as editor in chief of the Cornell Daily Sun; he received a year's fellowship to study at the Free University of Berlin in West Berlin, Germany from 1961 to 1962; he earned his Master of Arts in English in 1964 and his Ph.D. in English in 1966, both from the University of California, Berkeley; he married Teri Flynn, and they had four children; and

WHEREAS, After settling in Southern California, Dr. Metcalf began his faculty career as an assistant professor of English at the University of California in Riverside from 1966 to 1973; he was invited to become chair of the English Department at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois; he returned to his home state as a tenured professor of English and Journalism at MacMurray College in 1973, where he was an esteemed faculty member for 46 years and was named professor emeritus; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Metcalf became a world-renowned linguist and dialectologist in between teaching rhetoric; his passion for words, their origins, and how people talk led him to be appointed executive secretary of the American Dialect Society (ADS), a post he held for 41 years, where he originated the ADS's now popular Word of the Year vote; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Metcalf became a celebrated author of eight English language books, with his work including OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word, From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generations, and Presidential Voices, chronicling the speaking styles of U.S. Presidents; his final book was The Life of Guy, an entertaining history of one of America's favorite pronouns; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Metcalf was known as a lover of all words great and small, written and spoken, from prose to songs and sonnets; he loved the Chicago Cubs; while struggling with Parkinson's in his final years, he never stopped smiling, singing, or quipping a pun or word play to the delight of others; he will be remembered as a beloved teacher to tens of thousands of students and a standout guy who had a positive influence on the lives of many; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Metcalf was the husband of Teri; the father of Stephen Joseph Metcalf, David Harker Metcalf, Michael Bailard Metcalf, and Sara Susanne Metcalf; the grandfather of seven; and the older brother of Robert Harker "Bobby" Metcalf; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Allan Albert Metcalf, Ph.D. and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Dr. Metcalf as an expression of our deepest sympathy.