Professor, Department of English
1991
Bio:
Dr. Montague accepted an appointment as Adjunct Professor at University of Detroit in 1967; became a Professor in the Department of English and Protestant Chaplain in 1968; and, Professor and Chairman of the English Department in 1970. During 1978/1979 he served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and in August 1979 he returned to the English Department as a tenured Professor.
Dr. Montague earned a B.A. from Central Washington College (1950) and a M.A. (1952) and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas (1957). He attended both the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge, Mass., where he was a Hobson Fellow and Convention Scholar and Harvard Divinity School from 1965 through 1967.
A May 3, 1968 University of Detroit press release announced that “Dr. Gene B. Montague of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit, has been named the first Protestant Chaplain of the University by Fr. Malcolm Carron, S.J., president. Fr. Carron said, ‘We are very pleased to join the growing list of Catholic Universities that have established Chaplaincies to serve the religious needs of Protestant student. We feel especially fortunate in having a man of Dr. Montague’s experience and ability in this post.’”
Upon the announcement, Dr. Montague said: “I am grateful – as a Protestant, as a clergyman, as an individual – for the creation of the Protestant Chaplaincy at the University. Fr. Carron’s action was gracious, in both the contemporary and the New Testament sense of the word. Like most gracious acts, there is more to it than meets the eye.
“While it is true that over 1000 Protestant students are enrolled at the University of Detroit, the principle behind the appointment was not that these ‘unrepresented’ students should have their own clergyman and that now we should proceed to split the campus into Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations. Quite the opposite: Fr. Carron’s act is a recognition of the essential unity of all Christians. In my discussions with Fr. Norman McKendrick of the Office of Religious Activities, our purpose has been to plan programs of increased cooperation based on an awareness of our common ground. This was not, incidentally, an understanding we had to arrive at, it was the understanding we started from.”
As a member of the English Department, Dr. Montague taught academic writing, literature and film, film genres, commercial nonfiction, poetry and drama, major figures in 17th & 18th century literature, modern British writers, and writing poetry.
He served the university in many ways: as English Department chair (1971-1974), member of the Core Curriculum Committee, chair of the university Committee on Promotion and Tenure, Director of the M.A.in Humanities program (1971-1978), Director, Insignis Scholarship Program (1975), contributing author of two success Mellon grants, and co-author of a standard textbook used in the university's writing program. He served as a screening judge for the U of D Dudley Randall Poetry Award, college computer committee, university curriculum committee, and selection committee for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research.
In the Chairman of the English Department’s nomination letter, he wrote “Gene’s continual growth as a teacher since 1967 enriched the department’s major and service programs. He constantly experimented, showing us the merits of team teaching, seminar dialogues, and collaborative sessions. He transformed student/teacher conferences into creative learning experiences. He added fresh material to the study of his literary specialization, Victorian Studies. Equally remarkable was the range of original courses Gene created in the English Department: advanced composition, commercial non-fiction, creative writing/poetry, film genres, and film and literature.”
Deans of the College of Liberal Arts noted over the years that he wss superb in the classroom, one of the finest teachers in the college and he was a marvelous model of intelligence, sympathy, and balance.
In the community, he served on the Executive Board of the American Medical Writers’ Association, Michigan Chapter, Co-chair, Board of Examining Chaplains, Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, Theology Examiner, Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, and Editorial consultant for the College of Business Administration, Wayne State University.
Dr. Montague has published extensively. He authored The Experience of Literature, Poetry and a Principle, Four Worlds of Writing, co-authored with L.M Myers A Guide to American English, with M.B. Henshaw Colloquium, and with Robert Hosman Man: Paradox and Promise. He contributed scholarly articles to Texas Studies in English, Explicator, Arizona English Bulletin, College Composition and Communications, the Swanee Review, Conversations in Composition, and Twentieth Century Literature.
Dr. Eugene Montague was honored with Professor Emeritus status by Sr. Maureen A. Fay, O.P., President, University of Detroit Mercy on September 9, 1991.