John H. Curry, Ph.D.
Professor, Instructional Design & Technology
Department Chair, Organizational Learning & Performance Department
Idaho State University
921 South 8th Ave, Stop 8081
Pocatello, ID 83209-8081
208-282-2585
currjohn@isu.edu
I was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 5, 1969, and lived there until November 1980 when I moved to Mustang, Oklahoma following my parents' divorce. I count Mustang as my home. I lived there pretty much from then until I got back from my mission.
I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission from March of 1988 to April of 1990. Those two years truly changed my life and who I am. Still not a day goes by that I don't think back to Guatemala. While there, I was lucky enough to not only learn Spanish, but also to serve in the Polochic region with the indians and learn the K'ekchi' dialect.
After my mission, I graduated from Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho). While here, I met my wife, Lori, in the women's showers in the Hart building (it's not what you were thinking--we were on the 4:00 am custodial crew!) We married April 24, 1992, and we have four wonderful kids, John, Natalie, Andrew, and Emma.
From Ricks, I graduated from BYU in Provo with a BA in English, and later a MA in the Theory and Practice of Writing from Utah State University. From there I had a hard time trying to figure out where to go for my Ph.D. I had a couple of really tempting scholarship offers, but I just couldn't get excited about them. ANOTHER degree in English?!? What was I going to learn? I already knew how to read a book and write a paper about it, so I took a semester off. At that time I had a couple of friends (shout-out to Rulon and Platte!) who were completing double Master's degrees in English and Instructional Technology. They figured since I was interested in what makes good teaching and I had done work with designing and developing online courses and online course delivery systems I would be a good fit in Instructional Technology. I resisted as long as I could . . .
Little did I know when I started studying Instructional Technology at Utah State University that it was one of the top programs in the world, nor that I would study under a legend in the field like David Merrill. I've been truly blessed.
Other than that, I consider my life a work in progess. I'll get back to you when the final chapter is written . . .
