Harding University

Department of Foreign Languages

and International Studies

Dr. Noble Goss: A Brief Biography

 

Noble T. Goss, Ph.D.

(Home address:)                                                 (Work address:)

132 Keith Road                                                 Box 12263                     

Searcy, Arkansas 72143-9219                          Harding University

                                                                           Searcy AR 72149-0001

Office: Ganus Building 115

 

Phones:

DEGREES:

  • B.A. English, minor Foreign Languages (French, German, Spanish), Pepperdine College, 1966

  • M.A. English, Portland State University, 1973

  • M.A. Comparative Literature, University of Oregon, 1979

  • Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of Oregon, 1987

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    Current Position:

  • Associate Professor of Spanish & German, Dept. of Foreign Languages & International Studies, Harding University

    • Summary of Courses Taught at Harding University:

  • ITAL 102 (Elementary Italian II)

  • GER 101, 102 (Elementary German) 

  • GER 201, 202 (Intermediate German) 

  • SPAN 101, 102 (Elementary Spanish)

  • SPAN 103, 104 (Accelerated Elementary Spanish)

  • SPAN 201, 202 (Intermediate Spanish)

  • SPAN 251 (Conversational Spanish)

  • SPAN 283 (formerly a 271) (Readings in Medical Spanish)

  • SPAN 323 (Advanced Conversation & Composition)

  • SPAN 401/501 (Peninsular Spanish Lit I)

  • SPAN 411/511 (Latin American Literature)

  • SPAN 435/535 (Lit. of the 20th Century, Peninsular, prose)

  • Two levels of High School Spanish in Harding's Upward Bound program, Summers 2002-2008 (tentatively scheduled for summer 2008)

  • Taught "Utopian Literature," a course in Harding's Honors Symposium in 2002

    • PREVIOUS ACADEMIC POSITIONS (most recent listed first):

  • Summer 2007: Mentor in the McNair Scholars' Program for Kubari Eady, who researched Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and his censorship and shut down of the press.

  • Summers 2002 through 2008: Instructor in Spanish, Upward Bound, Harding University

  • Summer 2005: Mentor in the McNair Scholars' Program for Sylvie Evdoxiadis, who researched the French-Canadian dialect.

  • Summers, 1999-2001: Taught two levels of High School Spanish for Apple Project - Upward Bound, at Lyon College in Batesville, AR.

  • 1984-1996: Instructor in Spanish, Lane Community College, Eugene OR. Part-time 1984-1994 and full-time 1995-1996.

  • 1984-1990 and 1991-1996: Assistant Director, Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Oregon, Eugene OR (half-time). In charge of production of foreign language texts which accompanied BBC language videos in German, Spanish, French, and Italian.

  • 1990-1991: Assistant Director, Yamada Language Center, University of Oregon. (This is the language laboratory of the U. of O.)

  • 1983-1984: Part-time Instructor in Spanish, University of Oregon.

  • Summer 1983, Part-time instructor in English as a Second Language, American English Institute at Univ. of Oregon, Eugene OR.

  • 1980-1981: Part-time instructor in High School Spanish, Garden Way Christian Academy, Eugene OR.

  • 1977-1982: Graduate Teaching Fellow Instructor in Spanish, University of Oregon, 1 or 2 classes per term.

  • 1973-1975: Instructor in German I, American Literature and World Literature at Columbia Christian College, Portland, OR (later Cascade College).

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    LANGUAGES (in order of fluency):

  • Spanish (1 yr. H.S.; 2 1/2 years undergraduate; many courses in doctoral course work. Wife Teresita is a native speaker. Near-native fluency.)

  • German (3 years at college level; lived 3 years in Germany first as a student in Pepperdine's Year in Europe program in Heidelberg, 1965-66; then 2 years in the Army near Nuremberg, 1968-1970; in both locations led singing for German Churches of Christ). Took two courses in post-war German literature at Portland State and passed German proficiency exam for M.A. there.

  • Italian (2 1/2 years at college level; several courses in Italian or as part of Comp. Lit. courses in doctoral program at Univ. of OR)

  • French (2 years at college level; some areas of French literature covered in Comp. Lit. coursework)

  • Medieval Provençal (or Occitain) (1 year course taken in doctoral program: the language and literature of the troubadours)

  • Old and Middle English (Old English, Intro. to Middle English, and Middle English dialects course in first M.A)

  • Latin (2 yrs. H.S., two 300-level courses including Medieval Latin)

  • Classical Greek (1 yr.)

  • Related course work in History of the English Language, and Linguistics.

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    AREAS OF ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATION (besides languages):

  • Old English prose and poetry

  • 19th Century American literature

  • 18th Century English literature

  • Middle English dialects and literature

  • The Romantic Period (England, France, Germany)

  • Genre: Lyric Poetry (Provençal, Italian, French, Spanish, English) (First Doctoral field)

  • Renaissance Literature, focusing on Renaissance Epic (French, Italian, English) and the Spanish "Siglo de Oro" (Second Doctoral field)

  • Dissertation at Univ. of Oregon (Defended fall 1986): "The Theme of Chastity in Ariosto and Spenser" (dealing with the genre of the Renaissance Epic and Spenser’s heavy indebtedness to Ariosto in themes and characterization)

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    OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY:

  • Member, AATSP (American Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese)

  • Member, AFLTA (Arkansas Foreign Language Teachers Association

  • Have taught Medical Spanish for Harding Continuing Education (Spring 1998) and another course at Central Arkansas Hospital (Spring 1999)

  • Have taught Conversational German in Harding's Continuing Ed. program.

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    COMMUNITY AND CHURCH SERVICE:

  • Member of College Church of Christ, Searcy AR since March 2004. Member of Downtown Church of Christ 1996-2004, at times attending the Hispanic congregation.

  • Part-time "read-back" translator for Dr. Eddie Cloer's Truth for Today ministry in Searcy, AR which publishes topical and thematic Bible studies in Spanish distributed among Spanish-speaking preachers and Christian leaders world-wide.

  • Occasional editorial assistance in Spanish (for one article per issue) for "La Voz de la Verdad Internacional," the Spanish edition of "The Voice of Truth International," a Church of Christ publication for Spanish Christians.

  • Occasional Spanish and German translation in the community for hospitals, the police department, businesses, and individuals (such as Hispanics needing translations of birth certificates and other documents).

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    MILITARY EXPERIENCE:

  • Enlisted in the U.S. Army, May 1966.

  • Basic Training, Ford Ord, CA 1966. Joined the Army Security Agency.

  • 5 months training in the Signal Corps School in Radio Repair at Ft. Gordon, GA.

  • 1 year military duty (1967) in Nha Trang, Viet Nam repairing radios used in small aircraft which gathered military intelligence about Viet Cong radio transmissions.

  • 6 months duty at Ft. Meade, Md. (1968)

  • 2 years duty in Herzogenaurach, Germany, near Nuremberg (1968-70) repairing radios used in mobile units near the Czech and East German borders.

  • Honorable discharge, rank SP-5, April 1970.

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    FAMILY HISTORY and BIOGRAPHY:

  • Noble Goss was born in Heppner OR in 1944 in the home of grandfather Clifford Noble, an Assembly of God minister, while father Del Goss was fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Islands with the Marines in WW II. Grandfather Benjamin Ephraim Goss, who came to Oregon from Oklahoma around 1911, helped found the Parkdale, OR Church of Christ. B.E. Goss's mother Eliza Jane Weathers and his father Warden Weathers were 19th Century Restoration movement Christians who attended the Blue River Church of Christ in southern Indiana near Depauw in Harrison Co., also attended by Thomas Lincoln, a relative of Abraham Lincoln, and other Lincoln relatives. A great aunt of Eliza's, Sarah Weathers, had married Josiah Lincoln, brother of another Thomas Lincoln who was Abraham Lincoln's father. Nephews of B.E. Goss, the Rogers family, helped found Graton Academy in northern California, affiliated with the Churches of Christ. Noble's aunt Almeda Norton Ogden's first husband Alden Norton ran the Mt. Dora Children's Home in Mt. Dora, FL in the early 50's, a work begun by Alden's father W.O. Norton, a cousin of the former Director of Harding's Institute for Church of Family, Dr. Howard Norton.

  • Noble attended high school in The Dalles, OR where his father was chief criminal deputy sheriff of Wasco Co. and also was a cherry farmer. Noble graduated as Salutatorian of a class of 200 students at The Dalles High in 1962. He attended Pepperdine College's former Los Angeles campus from 1962-1966, spending the 1966-67 year in the Heidelberg, Germany year in Europe program, and served four years in the U.S. Army Security Agency from 1966-1970 with tours in Vietnam and Germany. Noble on leaving the army worked six years as radio repairman for an import firm in Portland OR, where he met his wife Teresita Gonzalez. They married in Oct. of 1973 and have four children: twin daughters Teresita and Rubi, son Josue (Josh) currently a Harding student and an Iraq war Marine Corps veteran (2003) and on his way back to Iraq for second tour in Sept. 2007, and daughter Estrellita (Estee), a sophomore at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Noble and Teresita’s twin daughters and six grandchildren live in Eugene, Oregon.

  • Teresita Gonzalez de Goss, Noble's wife, is a native of Veracruz, Mexico who emigrated to the U.S. in 1967 and became a U.S. citizen on May 1, 2002. For a few months in 1994, she ran a catering business specializing in Mexican foods in Eugene, Oregon until suffering injuries in a car accident. She has taught Mexican Cuisine, Conversational Spanish and Medical Spanish in adult education courses. Teresita has done translating for Alcohol and Drug counseling programs, in hospitals for mothers giving birth, and for police departments. She has also worked as a substitute teacher for Harding Academy and the Searcy school district. She currently works at J.C. Penney in Searcy.

  • We have four children:

  • Twin daughters Teresita Goss Ingram and Rubi Goss Harney (born 7-16-1975) live in Eugene, OR.  Teresita and husband Brandon Ingram have three sons: Devon, Avery, and Tyler.  Rubi and David Harney have three children: David, Derek, and Maya. The Ingram's are currently working toward a B.A. in Bookkeeping to become CPA's. The Harney's run a body paint shop and also do antique car restoration and gold-plating.

  • Son Josh Goss (born 1-27-1984) is currently a Harding student majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the pre-med program, but his academic career was interrupted by two tours in Iraq with the 3/23 Marines.  As of April 2008 he is back in the U.S.  He married Juli Burrow in September 2006.  After Josh's graduation from Harding on July 26, 2008, they moved to Boston, where Josh is Lab Manager and Research Assistant at the Disease Biophysics Group (DBG) Laboratory in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he will also begin work on his Master's degree in Biochemistry.

  • Daughter Estee Goss (born 9-6-1988) is currently a student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she is majoring in English and minoring in Music. She works part-time as a Reference Librarian at the U. of A. library.  She is interested in obtaining ESL certification and wants to work with Hispanic children.  She wants to obtain her M.A. in library science at a university in eastern Illinois.

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