Geoffrey Hewings - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Geoffrey Hewings was born in Wales into a family where successive generations had worked in the coal mines near Cwmbran. He grew up in post-war London, attending high school there and spending several weeks each summer with his grandparents in Wales. His passion for football (soccer) was such that he became the youngest qualified referee in England at the age of 16. He also spent vacation time in Scotland, working as a grouse beater (although often directing the birds away from the folks who were there to shoot them) and helping in the preservation of the endangered osprey. His parents and sisters emigrated to Canada in 1958, but he remained behind to in London to finish high school. Before going to university, he took a year off, working in a bookstore in Fleet Street and spending almost all that he earned attending symphony concerts and opera two to three times each week. After graduating from the University of Birmingham, he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington where he obtained his MA and PhD. While there, he also worked as an announcer and Seattle Symphony reviewer on KRAB-FM, a community-owned radio station. For the last three years in Seattle, he commuted from Bainbridge Island to the campus by ferry on an ancient Vespa motorcycle.

In 1968, Geoffrey taught summer school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he first met Adrianna; they were married in 1970 in England during an 18-month tenure at the University of Kent in Canterbury. In 1971, they emigrated to Canada where Geoffrey taught at the University of Toronto; in 1974, Adrianna and Geoffrey adopted her children, John, Matthew and Aaron and later that year moved to Urbana where he was appointed to the University of Illinois.