McClatchey, Joe Hill.
Biographical Statement
Joe Hill McClatchey was born in July 1935 in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Dr. McClatchey held a bachelor of arts degree from Bob Jones University, a bachelor of divinity and a bachelor of theology from Southwest Christian Seminary, and a masters degree. and a Ph.D. in English from Arizona State University. He joined Wheaton’s faculty in 1970. In 1984 he was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood and served as assistant rector at St. Barnabas’s Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
He was a popular teacher at Wheaton who frequently led Wheaton in England trips and year after year enthusiastically shared with his students the joys of 19th and 20th century literature, Arthurian literature, classical and modern mythology, and the works of C.S. Lewis. He was honored as Junior Teacher of the Year in 1976 and Senior Teacher of the Year in 1991. In 1979, Dr. McClatchey was awarded a Wheaton College Alumni Association Faculty Development Grant to help him research and write a book manuscript on The Praise of God in Literature.
Dr. McClatchey was a member of the Modern Language Association, the Conference on Christianity and Literature, the International Arthurian Society and the Mythopoeic Society. He was author of many articles and book reviews for Christian and scholarly journals and was an enthusiastic supporter of Wheaton’s Wade Center, holder of a renowned collection of the works of seven British authors, including C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams.
Dr. McClatchey was married to Barbara L. McClatchey and had four children. He died May 17, 1991.
Citation:
Author: Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections staffFound in 1 Collection or Record:
Joe Hill McClatchey Papers
The McClatchey papers are organized into seven series: Biographical, Correspondence, Manuscripts, Published Works, Syllabi, Teaching Materials (Files), Video. Nearly the entire collection is found in the Teaching Materials series. These files served as the background material for his classroom lectures. Another significant element of the collection is the unpublished manuscript "The praise of God in literature: from Homer to Hopkins."