Burroughs Loses a Legend

Legendary JBS teacher, James "Skip" Alverson (Doran), 83, died at home on Saturday, November 14, from a rare form of leukemia. Mr. Alverson taught history and philosophy at Burroughs from 1958 to 1991. Soon after his retirement, he returned to continue teaching philosophy through the 1999-2000 school year.

A memorial service for Mr. Alverson will be held at 3:00 pm on Sunday, November 22 in Haertter Hall. Here is a link to his obituary in the November16 St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The next issue of The Reporter will pay tribute to Mr. Alverson, who taught and inspired so many students. But here is an excerpt from the 1991 yearbook which was dedicated to him by the senior class:

"Humanist and seer; philosopher and scholar; James Alverson, Simon Doran. Once a child actor, an opera singer, a used-car salesman. . . . Always, I think a teacher. Urging us with his words and his example not 'to consume life,' but to 'be consumed with life.'  Empowered, amidst the ongoing fragmentation of knowledge, to envision the whole. Mad to live; mad to learn; passing on the explosion of his excitement to his students in lightning epiphanies."