A Day in the Life

Life is full of big questions – “Why are we here?” and “Is our fate predetermined?” For help in answering these kinds of questions, Dr. Kevin Marshall Meeker would be a good person to see.

Meeker is a philosophy professor here at USA, and he took a moment away from answering deep questions to sit down with The Vanguard and talk about the man behind the philosophy.

Meeker was born in Hollywood, Calif., and he and his family lived in Playa Del Rey until he was eight, when his family moved to upstate New York, where his parents still live.

“They are still together,” Meeker said. “My dad is retired, and my mother, a special education teacher, will retire soon.” He also has a brother and a sister.

After high school, Meeker went on to graduate from Wheaton College in Illinois with his undergraduate degree and then attended Notre Dame for graduate school. He then moved to Amsterdam for his post-doctoral studies.

“By this time, I had two kids, my wife was pregnant, and we decided to go to Amsterdam for a year,” Meeker said. “We owned a house in South Bend, Ind., where Notre Dame was, and we had to sell our house, move all of our stuff to New York, then pack four people into eight suitcases and fly over to Amsterdam for a year.”

After living in an assortment of places, Meeker said, “All of the places have pluses and minuses. I like warmer weather generally. I didn’t know how lucky I was at the time [in California] to be able to go to the beach whenever I wanted.”

After their time in Amsterdam, Meeker moved his family to Mobile, Ala., to accept this job at USA. He currently teaches about five classes a year and the rest of his time is spent on independent studies and honors thesis direction.

When asked about his job, Meeker said, “It depends on the day … my schedule varies. Sometimes I’m working from home, sometimes I’m here. When I’m here, I’m going nonstop. I used to bring an apple or some almonds to snack on for lunch, but I’m so busy that I don’t even bring lunch anymore … I just work right through. When I get done teaching, I go home and head to [my children’s sports] practices.”

He met his wife Patty early in life in New York, and they started dating in high school. In August, they will have been married for 20 years. Meeker says he usually doesn’t have any time off, but if he did, he would spend the day with her.

“We like to spend time together, but we don’t usually get to,” he said.

They have five children together, ages 15, 13, 10, 8, and 5; three boys and two girls.

“They all plays sports, sometimes two sports at a time, so I just run from place to place all weekend,” Meeker said.

If given an empty schedule to spend as he wished, he would spend the day with his family. He would also spend some time reading, both philosophy and science fiction literature. He enjoys classical music, with favorites including Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel.

When asked about his hero, Meeker said, “When I was a kid, I used to like reading comic books. My favorite hero was the Green Lantern. I told a class of students that, and one of them brought me a Green Lantern action figure.”

Meeker is also a self-described health nut. When asked what he does first thing in the morning, he said, “I drink a lot of water. It’s good for your system and gets your metabolism going. I don’t drink caffeinated drinks, I’m kind of a health nut. I’m a vegetarian and a vegan.”

He describes his favorite food as his wife’s vegan shepherd pie, and their family actually grows some of their own vegetables.

He also is a fan of the show “Lost,” and with a true philosophical perspective, it’s no wonder.

“Several of the characters are named after philosophers, and there are a lot of literary allusions and philosophical allusions that I recognize,” Meeker said, “John Locke, Rousseau … and one of the main issues of the show is free will vs. determinism; do you have a choice in doing something? And [the show also involves] time travel, [bringing up the issue of] whether your past determines what you do in the future. A ton of philosophical issues come out in the show.”

Philosophy is Meeker’s true passion.

“My favorite part about my day is interacting with the students. It’s fun to talk to students about philosophy,” he said.

And his least favorite part? “Grading,” he said. “I don’t like telling people that they did things wrong. And grading is very time-consuming, if you do it right.”

He offers this advice to the campus: “Slow down. Life goes much faster than you think it will, so take time to enjoy things, and think about things, and not be swept up by everything that happens. It seems like just yesterday I was in high school and college, and now I’m not. Slow down and enjoy it, because you’re oftentimes just swept along by life.”