Millennium Magazine_4th Ed

137 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine P rofessor Laura Thomas Weddle’s teaching and writing career appears as wholesome as they come. She has achieved multiple accomplishments in academia and her community, but she still calls her writing and her family the center of her universe. Ms. Weddle was a loyal professor of Big Sandy Community and Technical College, formerly known as Prestonsburg Community College, in eastern Kentucky for 27 years until her retirement in 1994. She also had previous assistant professor experience at Somerset Community College and what is now Campbellsville University. Ms. Weddle became involved in her profession because she always had an interest in college work and teaching, but opportunities for teaching arose during studies of her own and it seemed like the right path. Ms. Weddle holds three master’s degrees, two from Morehead State University in 1986 and 1977 and one from the University of Kentucky in 1959. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1955. Writing is Ms. Weddle’s passion, and while teaching she has written two books of short stories, “People Like Us” published in 2008, and “Better Than My Own Life,” published in 2015. Her novel is entitled “The Book of Vernie,” published in 2018, and she has two more works in the process of publication, one titled “The CollectedWorks of Laura Weddle,” and the other a collection of short stories regarding the Bradford family. Ms. Weddle calls the publication of her first book the highlight of her career. When she is not writing, Ms. Weddle’s hobbies include reading, traveling and collecting vintage and antique jewelry. She was the director of the Children’s Theater of Prestonsburg from 1970 to 1975. Ms. Weddle is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women, a nonprofit organization of professional women in arts, letters and music, as of 2009. Throughout her many years of writing and teaching, Ms. Weddle always had a strong support system, including her husband Leo Franklin Weddle and her sister Wanda Thomas Woosley, along with three mentors who continuously motivated her: Wyatt Shely, Rena Calhoun and LillianMcGuire. EDUCATION PROFESSOR LAURA THOMAS WEDDLE LANGUAGE EDUCATOR (RETIRED) Big Sandy Community and Technical College Somerset, KY