Former Chair of the Board of Trustees and a Pacific University Alumna Mindy Cameron has decided to come out of retirement and start writing again by enrolling in Pacific’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing program.
Cameron majored in journalism during her undergrad at Pacific and later became the editorial page editor of the Seattle Times, where she spent nearly 20 years working before retiring in 2001.
Cameron has a passion for education, and after retiring became part of the local school board in Sandpoint, Idaho, along with other nonprofit organizations.
“I wanted to make a difference in a small town that I cared a lot about,” Cameron said.
She found her passion for writing again a few years later, and decided to attend the MFA workshop last January.
“I haven’t been this excited about something for a long time,” Cameron said.
Cameron said everyone seems to have the same excited response when she says she is back in school this late in her life.
She is currently writing a memoir and said she has had to become more open about her life to do so.
After having children early in her life and having a job in a newsroom, Cameron found that she was better at her job than being at home raising her kids.
She discovered that her marriage was not what she wanted it to be and later, a divorce from her husband led her to meet the love of her life.
Cameron followed him across the country to New York and left her children, 11 and eight, with her ex husband. Her book is about that love story and making the decision to leave her kids.
The first chapter of her book depicts this decision and all the thought behind it. As it progresses, Cameron will focus on the life she has lived up to this point with the man she followed to New York, while also talking about her loving children and grandchildren.
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