Trent Professor Emeritus, Dr. Michael Peterman, was inducted to the Peterborough Pathway of Fame, during a fall ceremony at Showplace Peterborough, featuring a colour guard, the attendance of local politicians and a welcoming, heartfelt speech from Mayor Daryl Bennett.

“I’m very honoured to be among the few Trent University representatives inducted into the Pathway of Fame,” Professor Peterman said from his summer home in Nova Scotia. Prof. Peterman retired from Trent in 2008, after 37 years of service as a professor of English Literature, during which he also served as chair of the Department and principal of Traill College. Professor Tom Symons, founding president of Trent University, is among the inductees to the Pathway of Fame associated with Trent.

Prof. Peterman was nominated in the Literary/Journalist category for his extensive research and writing on local authors and literary figures, including Susanna Moodie, Catherine Parr Traill, Robertson Davies, Scott Young and John Craig, (also an inductee to the Pathway of Fame.)

Prof. Peterman was hired at Trent in 1972 to serve one year as a replacement and found himself a permanent fixture, staying on long after that year and working closely with his mentor, Professor Roper. Born in Peterborough, Prof. Roper was very familiar with the area and encouraged Prof. Peterman to explore its writers.

“I was immersed in American Literature as a young academic,” Prof. Peterman said. “I had no idea I would end up focusing my career on Canada’s, and Peterborough’s, literature. I’ve been very blessed by Peterborough. I was drawn into this area of study at a time when Canadian Literature was beginning to assert itself. As one of very few studying work from this area I was presented with a number of grant opportunities and very supported by the University.”

It was Trent’s generous sabbatical program that allowed Prof. Peterman the time to write and publish numerous books. He said that Trent’s positive attitude about his undertaking of what was, at the time, an obscure area of research speaks to the nature of the University and its commitment to Peterborough and Canadian studies.

“It wasn’t until coming to Trent that I really plunged into the literary work of my own country, an area I didn’t know a lot about at the time,” he said. “And it really shaped my career.

“I owe a lot of thanks to Prof. Roper and Tom Symons,” Prof. Peterman added. “Tom Symons had just retired when I started at Trent, but his influence – to make Trent a centre for Canadian studies –truly affected me in a positive way.”

Prof. Peterman served as editor of the Journal of Canadian Studies, which Tom Symons helped found, for ten years. Working on the interdisciplinary journal taught him a great deal about his country.

Currently working on four different books, Prof. Peterman retired from Trent in order to keep up with the demands of being a writer. He spends his mornings writing, whether he is in Nova Scotia for the summer or in Peterborough for the winter. He says he truly misses teaching at Trent.

The Peterborough Pathway of Fame was established in 1998 to pay tribute to Peterborough and Area’s abundant arts and culture contributors.

Posted on Thursday, October 6, 2011.