James Sunwall

James Sunwall was born in Hayfield Minnesota in 1922 to Victor and Olive Sunwall.After graduating from High School, he attended the college of St. Thomas in St. Paul pursuing a pre-Law course. The following year Pearl Harbour was attacked and he dropped out of school and volunteered for duty. During the war he served as an armymedic in the Pacific.After the war he was discharged and went back to school. His goal had changed. He was determined to be a writer.The University of Minnesota had a promising program with teachers such as Robert Penn Warren and Saul Bellow. So he enrolled at Minnesota U. and took as many writing courses as he could.When he got his B.A. Degree he married his college sweetheartBetty Ann Rouse,(1925-2007) daughter of Howard andAnnasRouseof Waterloo Iowa,and they went to New Orleans,where theylived in the French quarter and he worked at anewspaper, theNew Orleans Item.Jamescontinued to write and publish in literary magazines, but James and Betty's lives changed when it turnedout they were going to have a child.As a family they thought itwould be better if he were a teacher of Creative Writing and English.He continued to write and was accepted as a student in the famed Writer's Workshopat the University of Iowa. There he got a Masters in Fine Arts degree. Howeverhis mentor Robert Penn Warren wasnowteaching at Yale,so he moved onto Yale Graduate School.After getting his Master's degree from Yale,a job opened up at Colgate University wherehe was hired to teach journalism and Creative Writing. After three years at Colgate he was offered apositionteachingWriting and the Humanities at theUniversity of Florida. He spent the rest of his professional life teaching in Gainesville, returning briefly to Iowa to complete his Ph.D. dissertation.Though post-MarjoryKinnanRawlings, theHumanities program at the University of Florida at that time was still in its "Golden Age." It featuredsuch charismatic lecturers such as DidierGraffe, and musician/artist Bob Carson, and was able to drawsuchvisiting luminariesaspoet laurateRobert Frost. James was also on close terms with JanosShoemyenand Corbin Carnell, a duo with a claim to betheGainesville version of the famous Oxbridge "inklings"(i.e.,Tolkein, Lewis et al).In spite of his academic accomplishments, there was nothing of the crabbed professorial manner in James Sunwall, though hecontinued to teach and writeas a Full Professoruntil retiring as Professor Emeritus in English and Humanities.He delighted infrequentroundsof golf with his close friend,Professor of Music PhilKnesleyat the University Golf Course.He was best known in social circles for anacerbic wit offset by hisgenial personality.He was also a committed churchman, who served several terms as a vestryman at his Episcopal (later Anglican) parish. Finally, he was a loving and faithful family man who stood by his wife through a series ofdifficultemotional and physical illnesses. Through example he also inspired his son to take up a career in higher education. Everyone knew him as a man of deep convictions, but who never let his convictions get in the way of kindness.In retirement he continued to edit and republish his works. In 2016his historical drama,The Escape of the Unicorn, was performed on stage at the Across Town Repertoire Theatre in Gainesville. Young artists who came into contact with him, the last survivor of the University of Florida's"Golden Age" in theHumanities, were inspired by the sensitive and intelligent way in which he treated common human themes in his works.He is survived by his son Mark, his daughter-in-law Kuniko, and two grandsons, Raymond and Carl.His plays, fiction, and poetry continue toexist in published forms. Funeral Home Forest Meadows Funeral Home 725 NW 23rd Avenue Gainsville FL - 32609 US 352-378-2528