William "Bill" Murdick grew up in the Schenectady / Saratoga areas of upstate New York. He now lives in Tallahassee, FL. He has played sports all his life, mainly tennis and now golf. He is married to Yoshiko Murdick, a brilliant artist (see her works at ymurdick.com). 

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William earned a B.A. in English from the State University of New York at Albany; an MFA in creative writing at the University of Iowa (Kurt Vonnegut was his thesis adviser); and a Ph.D. in English (Rhetoric and Linguistics) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He taught English at California University of Pennsylvania for 30 years, retiring as a full professor, and worked on the side as a technical writer for most of that time.

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As a professor, Dr. Murdick regularly taught courses in first-year composition, business writing, technical writing, and the teaching of writing--the last on both undergraduate and graduate levels.

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As a faculty member, Dr. Murdick made important contributions to his department and university. In 1983, he created the first microcomputer lab at his university, beating out the computer science department at this achievement (mainly by unpacking the newly delivered computers faster). His lab started out as a facility for journalism majors to write their stories and then submit them via phone modem to local newspapers. In the end, it developed into a huge campus facility with computerized classrooms and a desktop publishing component.

 

Dr. Murdick started, and for many years ran, his department's writing center.  He also started a grant-funded, 4-course program in English as a Second language and taught the grammar course to students from all over the world.

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Near the end of his career, Dr. Murdick, working with high school teacher Mary Broglie, founded an educational association, The Alliance of California University and Western Pennsylvania English Teachers (ACUWPET). The organization published a quarterly journal and hosted an annual conference drawing hundreds of participants from Pennsylvania and neighboring states.