Barbara Child

Barbara Child's first retirement came in 1978 when she gave up her position as tenured English professor at Kent State University after 15 years there, teaching nearly every kind of writing course anybody ever thought of - essay writing, poetry writing, fiction writing, and eventually legal writing. She left to practice poverty law as an attorney with the Legal Services Corporation, then went back to academia to teach in law schools, first at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she...See more

Barbara Child's first retirement came in 1978 when she gave up her position as tenured English professor at Kent State University after 15 years there, teaching nearly every kind of writing course anybody ever thought of - essay writing, poetry writing, fiction writing, and eventually legal writing. She left to practice poverty law as an attorney with the Legal Services Corporation, then went back to academia to teach in law schools, first at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she served as Director of Writing and Research and then at University of Florida where she created the position of Director of Legal Drafting. She advocated drafting legal documents in plain language and taught this approach in workshops for state legislative drafting bureaus through the National Conference of State Legislatures. The second edition of her textbook, Drafting Legal Documents, is still in use over two decades after its publication. When Barbara left academia in 1993 after 15 years in law, that was her second retirement. She left to go to seminary. A Unitarian Universalist, she became an Accredited Interim Minister, and she retired for the third time when she completed her last full-time interim ministry in 2010. Since then the second edition of In the Interim: Strategies for Interim Ministers and Congregations was published, edited by Barbara and Keith Kron. Forthcoming in 2019 will be the collection of readings and rituals she has edited for congregations in times of change and transition. Barbara does not anticipate any more retirements. She continues to mentor ministers and serve congregations as short-term consultant. She lives in her log cabin in the woods of Brown County, outside the small artists' colony of Nashville, Indiana. She expects to die a long time from now, either composing editorial notes at the computer or pausing for the next thought with a pen in her hand. See less