20 Questions: A sketch of Centre director of communications
Mike Norris

RELEASED: January 17, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—1. Position: Director of Communications

2. Hometown: McKee, Kentucky

3. Career Highlight: Being part of the team that made a successful application for and hosted the 2000 Vice Presidential Debate

4. Favorite College Course: "Hemmingway and Faulkner," taught by Bill Sutton

5. Recent Presentation or Other Professional Project: "Institutional Image Building" at a STAMATS marketing conference in Chicago

6. Family: Wife: Carmen; Children: Cari and John '00; Grandson: Samuel

7. Hobbies: Music, writing; exercise, woodworking (purchasing tools and thinking about it, not actually doing it)

8. Most memorable experience of your education: When I was a junior in high school, hearing Alpha Hays explain why it was not a good thing that the cook in "The Canterbury Tales" had an ulcer on his leg. (Her description was so vivid that I realized fiction could be as real—if not more real—than actual experience.)

9. Prized possession: Taylor 414-CE guitar (I have two, but only the one with the skinny neck is prized)

10. Favorite book: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

11. Memorable trip/vacation: A day trip to Boonesborough Beach with my parents when I was nine

12. Favorite movie: "Stagecoach" (1939), directed by John Ford

13. Favorite album: "The Wham of That Memphis Man" by Lonnie Mack. In 1962 Lonnie was doing things on his Flying V Gibson guitar that have never been equaled; and he has been described as "one of the most compelling and soulful singers on the planet." I first heard the album when I was 15. I still listen to it regularly and hear new things each time. (Followed by any album The Beatles ever recorded.)

14. Favorite artist (of any type): William Butler Yeats

15. Attitude toward technology: I love it when it has intuitive interface (e.g., Apple products) and am frustrated by it when it doesn't.

16. Person you most admire: My grandmother, Elizabeth Davis

17. Living figure you'd most like to meet: Dumpy Rice (Lonnie Mack's piano player)

18. Historical figure you'd most like to meet: Jesus of Nazareth

19. What would you be doing if you weren't working at Centre? Three possibilities: teaching English at a high school or junior college; working at an ad agency; playing in a bar.

20. Describe yourself in three words: Always editing

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.