Paul F. Camenisch, living and working near Chicago, finally succumbs to a growing need to visit the place where he was born and raised. So he hits the road for Boyle County and Lincoln County, Kentucky, to spend time with his uncle Richard and to position himself deep inside his family's history.
In the late nineteenth century, the Christian and Anna Camenisch family emigrated from Switzerland to settle almost two hundred acres of American soil. Paul revisits this farm and surrounding areas-where he played, worked, learned, and grew. Dusty attics, musty courthouse archives, three cemeteries, old newspapers, interviews with other relatives, and late-night talks with Richard under his grandfather's tree weave the tapestry that depicts his family's immigration and proliferation over nearly a century.
This memoir chronicles one family's growth during a period when the nation was still coming into its own, culminating in Paul's own journey through life and his decision to write this book. With it, he pays homage to the hard-working, honest extended families who helped found the culture and society we still enjoy today. It's a revealing tribute to the beautiful, heart-breaking, and extraordinary moments in what is most typically known as ordinary life.
About the Author: Paul F. Camenisch is a retired teacher and administrator who spent his career at Chicago's DePaul University, where he taught a number of courses, including religious, business, and medical ethics. His published works include multiple professional articles, one authored book, and two edited books. He also enjoys writing poetry.
Since retirement, his interests have shifted from academic treatments and analyses of ethics and morality to a closer observation, study, and appreciation of the morally good life as it is actually lived. Paying Homage is his tribute to two families who, in many ways, instinctively lived this kind of life.
Camenisch and his wife have three grown children and divide their time between the Chicago area and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
