Dr. Lynch is a well known teacher at Marymount High School, which is hardly surprising: he has worked at Marymount high school for 25 years. It is safe to assume he likes Marymount a lot. He explained his love for Marymount by describing his favorite element of Marymount, “The kindness the girls show one another and the family feel among all faculty, staff, and students,” he said. Dr. Lynch also appreciates not having boys in the classroom as a benefit the students because “Girls get to see girls as leaders. They also get to see one another succeed in traditionally male roles and then they can expect great things from themselves,” he said. “The approach to the classroom has a competitiveness that ends up being more collaborative and aware of others.”

As previously stated, Dr. Lynch has worked at Marymount for 25 years, and has worked in four different departments? “When I started [working at Marymount, I] worked in Theology, English, and Campus Ministry.” That sounds like a busy year! After that, he “was English full time,” and “for a while, before [Marymount] hired the great Mr. Lynch, I was the Director of Technology and helped bring the computer network to the campus. Once Mr. Lynch was hired, I was able to return to English full time and have been there ever since I left the Tech Department.”

Because I had the privilege of talking to a long time staff member, I realized he must have known the Kardashians! Dr. Lynch had Kimberly Kardashian in his English class, and he describes her as “demure and smart. She worked very hard and had a fun way of seeing things,” he said.

Dr. Lynch loves English and his advice for hopeful writers is to “Stay in your seat and keep writing. Then rewrite. Then rewrite again,” he said. He has a great point because he is explaining that part of being a successful writer is to keep practicing and writing as often as possible. He also shares his knowledge for being successful in general, “embrace your bliss and turn it into a job. My bliss is teaching and opening up literature, especially the novel.” He has found his passion in life, and what is better than loving one’s job? Also, Dr. Lynch is so lucky his wife loves his job as well! “She has been impressed by all the girls she meets,” he said. He tells her such great stories about how the girls care, daily, on retreats. He also told me that his wife knows the other members of the English department.

Looking for funny stories from behind the scenes in the English department proved difficult. Dr. Lynch said, “No nothing funny goes on there. We are way too serious. Any department with Ms. Miller, Mrs. Bayle and Ms. Dickey has to be serious, right?” he said.

FUN FACTS ABOUT DR. LYNCH

1. Favorite Poet: Bruce Springsteen is the Boss and the great American poet (after Wallace Stevens and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Adrienne Rich and dear, dear Emily).

2. Favorite Color: Blue or the color my wife wears that day

3. Favorite Books:

   1. John Fowles’ The Magus,

   2. Walker Percy’s The Second Coming

   3. Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow

   4. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

4. Favorite Author: Emily Dickinson–She gives me the chills; she sees the world so freshly.

5. Favorite Poem: Wallace Stevens’ “The Anecdote of the Jar”

6. Favorite Play/Movie: “The Singing Nun”—no, “The Godfather” or “Apocalypse Now” or my old friend Quentin’s “Pulp Fiction”

7. Favorite Grandchild: Rory! 8 months and thriving