Evelyn Ferchau

author of "Shawn: Years Three and Four"

February 4, 2014

Evelyn Ferchau has been in the habit of composing (mostly) rhyming poetry since she was six. As with her favorite artist, Norman Rockwell, she attempts to write about feelings in such a way that it will trigger a general cord of recognition in others. Along with these two personally published booklets, Ferchau has written more than 100 additional poems that she hopes to incorporate into an autobiography titled "Taking the Back Roads Home." Ferchau attended Kingston, Michigan, public schools, and graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor's in education from Central Michigan University. Shortly thereafter, she entered the Regular Army where she was an E5 training NCO, 45th Medical Battalion, Federal Republic of Germany, for three years. Since joining the OSU staff in 1978, she has risen from secretary of the psychology department to manager in Correspondence Education. Much of her free time is spent administering the Ben Ferchau Memorial Fund, named for her 15-year-old son who passed away in 2001. The Fund annually donates a music camp scholarship to Stillwater High School and a youth news carrier's tuition scholarship in conjunction with the Stillwater News Press.

The two booklets of original poetry were composed and produced by the author to celebrate the birth of her first grandson, Shawn Rose, in 2009. Her poetry attempts to express the many changes children and their parents undergo in the first few years of a child's life – some very visible and others, not so much. Happily, in April 2014, she hopes to begin writing another series of booklets for a new grandson, yet unnamed.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2014-honorees/evelyn-ferchau

Last Updated: 12 January 2022