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Dr. John Algeo

John Algeo is an American Theosophist who was President of the Theosophical Society in America from 1993–2002. He had a distinguished academic career at the University of Georgia as a professor of English _________

Early life

John Thomas Algeo was born November 12, 1930 in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Thomas and Julia Algeo. When both of the parents were working, Julia's aunt Kitty taught young John to read, using adult classics like Robinson Crusoe for practice. In 1941, the family moved to Miami, Florida, where Thomas worked as a plumber and Julia as a waitress. As a middle school student, John worked in a public library, where he "discovered a book entitled Words and Ways of American English by Thomas Pyles, then of the University of Florida. I read it and found it so interesting that I determined to go to the University of Florida to study with him, which I eventually did."

Joining the Theosophical Society

The Algeos were nominally Roman Catholic, but John had little religious instruction until he took a catechism class at a Catholic church in Miami.

We used the old Baltimore Catechism, a conventional exposition of the faith. But we were also encouraged to borrow books from the parish library.
Poking about in the parish library, I came upon a series of little pamphlets on “dangerous heresies,” one of which dealt with Theosophy, which was completely new to me. When I read the pamphlet, however, I was immediately interested … The Theosophy of the pamphlet brought together a good many ideas and themes that I had cobbled together on my own while reading about various religions in my uncle’s encyclopedia.

Soon afterward John attended a public meeting of the Theosophical Society in Miami, and he was offered the loan of Elementary Theosophy, by L. W. Rogers. With his mother's consent he joined the Society at age 17 in 1947.

Military service

After two years at the University of Miami, John dropped out to go to New York for a couple of years, then joined the army.

I served in the United States Army for three years, 1951–54. In the US, I was stationed in South Carolina, then in North Carolina, and finally was sent overseas to Korea. That was during the final years of the Korean conflict... I was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in Korea, where my principal duty assignment was with the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, in Munsan-ni, Korea.
After completing my tour of duty in Korea, I returned to the U.S. and was discharged.

Academic career

After his military service, John returned to the University of Miami to complete his bachelor’s degree. He went on to the University of Florida to study with C. W. Wrenn (visiting from Oxford University) and then Thomas Pyles, whose book had impressed him at a young age.

At the University of Florida, my major professor and thus academic godfather was Thomas Pyles, whose major work was a history of the English language entitled The Origins and Development of the English Language. When he produced the first edition of that book, the publishers … decided it needed a workbook to accompany it. Pyles was not a work-book sort, so he passed the job on to me, and in 1966 I produced the first edition of Problems in the Origins and Development of the English Language, which went through many subsequent editions, as did the primary text.

Dr. John Algeo

After completing the PhD in Gainesille, Dr. Algeo's first full-time teaching job was at Florida State University in Tallahassee; he worked summer terms at Troy State College in Alabama. The University of Florida offered a position as Assistant Professor, and Dr. Algeo rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor, then full Professor. He also served as Assistant Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Program in Linguistics. When he was offered the Deanship, he chose instead to take a position as Professor of English (1971–88) at the University of Georgia in Athens. Subsequently he became Head of the Department of English (1975–79), and Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of English (1988–94), and finally Professor Emeritus. In 1985, he served as an Exchange Professor at the University of Erlangen, Germany, and in 1986 as an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London.

Education

This is a summary of John Algeo's education:

• B.Ed., cum laude, University of Miami, 1955; major: English
• M.A., University of Florida, 1957; major: English, minor: religion
• Ph.D., University of Florida, 1960; major: English, linguistics, minor: foreign languages, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Kappa
• Linguistic Institute, University of Michigan, summers: 1957, 1967

Marriage

On September 6, 1958, John married Adele Marie Silbereisen ( - 15 March 2010), in the Episcopal Chapel of the University of Florida, in Gainesville. They had met on campus while attending the same class in Anglo-Saxon, taught by the famous C. W. Wrenn. Adele was majoring in anthropology/archeology, and minoring in English at the time John was studying for his doctorate in English. From that time on, the two worked together on all of John's many projects in academia, in the Theosophical Society, and in Co-Freemasonry. They had two children.

Lecturing at Olcott

Theosophical Society activities

On August 31, 1947, John Algeo became a member of the Theosophical Society in America.

Because of my young age … I became a sort of wunderkind in Miami. I was soon elected president of the [Florida] Lodge [now known as Deerfield Lodge] and then of the Florida Federation. In later years, I became president of the Atlanta, Georgia, Lodge and chairman of the board for the Stil-Light Theosophical Center in North Carolina. In the American Section, I served on the National Board of Directors (1984-7), and then as First Vice President (1987-93), and as National President (1993-2002). Thereafter, I also served as international Vice President (2002-8).

These are some highlights of his service to the Theosophical Society:

1970s – 1980s: President of Atlanta Lodge; President of Mid-South Federation; Chair of Board of Directors of Stil-Light Theosophical Center, North Carolina.

1984 – 1987: Member of the National Board of Directors, Southeast District of the Theosophical Society in America

1987 – 1993: First Vice-President of the Theosophical Society in America during the administration of Dorothy Abbenhouse.

1993 – 2002: National President of the Theosophical Society in America; Editor of The American Theosophist and The Quest magazine.

2002 - 2008: International Vice-President of the Theosophical Society in the administration of Radha Burnier; Board member of the Manor Foundation, Mossman, Australia.

During all these years, Dr. Algeo was much in demand as a lecturer in countries on five continents. He has always been a very engaging speaker.

Algeo is Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia and was Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of English until his retirement. He has been a Fulbright Research Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow at the University of London. He is a past President of the American Dialect Society, the American Name Society, and the Dictionary Society of North America. He was editor of American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society, for ten years and is the author of numerous academic books and articles dealing with the history of the English language, British-American differences, and current usage. With his wife, Adele, for ten years he co-edited “Among the New Words,” a quarterly article concerning additions to the English vocabulary. His most recent academic work is as editor and contributing author of volume 6 of the Cambridge History of the English Language (Cambridge University Press) on the history of English in North America. He is currently revising his and Thomas Pyles’s textbook, Origins and Development of the English Language for its fifth edition. He has spoken at academic and Theosophical meetings throughout the United States and in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and Wales.

Academic career

Dr. Algeo served as President of several professional groups: the American Dialect Society, the American Name Society, and the Dictionary Society of North America.He was editor of American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society, and he co-edited with his wife, Adele, Among the New Words, a regular feature of American Speech. He is the editor of Fifty Years Among the New Words (Cambridge UP, 1991). His ongoing research project is a dictionary of Briticisms based on Allen Walker Read's collection of citations.

Academic writings

The University of Georgia has posted several of Algeo's articles online at Academia.edu, reprinted from various journals. These examples give an indication of the range of his interests:

• "The American Language and Its British Dialect"
• "The Australianness of Australian Place Names"
• "Cantjara Datreveno de Esperanto"
• "The Earliest English Grammars"
• "Korean Bamboo English"
• "Magic Names: Onomastics in the Fantasies of Ursula Le Guin"
• "Onomastics as an Interdisciplinary Study"
• "What Makes English Good?"

Theosophical writings

Books:

• Reincarnation Explored
• Getting Acquainted with “The Secret Doctrine”. Study guide
• Theosophy: An Introductory Study Guide
• Unlocking the Door: Studies in “The Key To Theosophy
• The Power of Thought co-editor
• Letters of H. P. Blavatsky Volume I editor (2003)
• Echoes from the Gnosis by G. R. S. Mead. Edited new edition published in 2006 by Quest Books.

e has made many contributions to various Theosophical journals around the world, as well as He also has a particular interest and talent for art and fantasy literature.

Academic Publications: about 11 books, 150 articles, 95 book reviews, and 100 presentations at scholarly meetings

used pseudonym Prof. Abditus Questor in Theosophy Forward

Co-Freemasonry

Dr. Algeo writes,

I became a Co-Freemason while on a year’s academic appointment at the University of London. While there I met a wonderful woman, Elisabeth Dowdle. She was from Hungary, where her family had run a large and prestigious legitimate theater in Budapest. At the start of World War II, Elisabeth was in England working as an au pair, and that saved her life, as the rest of her family, who were Jews, were shipped off to Buchenwald and killed…
Elisabeth Dowdle was a Co-Mason, and through her, I was made an Entered Apprentice on April 2, 1987, in Lodge St. Germain, No. 904, Orient of London. Over the years I gradually rose through all the Degrees to the thirty-third in 2002. Co-Freemasonry and Theosophy have no formal connection, but they fit together nicely in that Masonry is a practice in need of a theory and Theosophy is a theory in need of a practice. Theosophy, of course, also has other and more applied practices, such as the Theosophical Order of Service, but various kinds of practices have their own uses and benefits. … I eventually became in our Masonic Order “Most Illustrious Grand Master of the North American Administration, and Vice President and Secretary to the Supreme Council, Eastern Order of International Co-Freemasonry.”