Joseph M. Bachelor

Who was Joseph M. Bachelor?

Joseph Morris Bachelor also known as Joseph Morris was an American author, poet, editor and educator.

Bachelor was educated at Miami University and Harvard University. As an undergraduate at Miami University, he joined a local organization which later became the national fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau. He is considered the author of the fraternity's Ritual and wrote the lyrics to its first song, with Joseph W. Clokey writing the music. After teaching English at Cornell College in Iowa, he worked as an editor for the Century Company in New York City where he was definitions editor of The New Century Dictionary in two volumes. He returned in 1927 to teach at his alma mater, Miami University where he remained until his death in 1947. He was a popular and rigorous professor teaching Shakespeare and a course he developed called "Words." Upon his death, he bequeathed over 400 acres of woodland and streams, including Harker's Run, to Miami University. The land is today known as the Bachelor Wildlife and Game Reserve. He collaboarated with other professors on at least ten English textbooks and edited a series of poetry collections in collaboration with St. Clair Adams which included poems by Bachelor and Adams.