Athens, Ga. – Terry T. Turner, a University of Georgia alumnus who writes under the pen name David Donovan, will return to campus to talk about his latest book.
He will discuss the recently released Murphy Station: A Memoir from the American South April 28 at 4 p.m. in the Reading Room on the first floor of the main library.
A former professor at the University of Virginia, Turner is an expert in the basic science of andrology or male reproductive biology and medicine. He has written more than 120 science articles on the subject.
For writings outside of science, Turner uses the pseudonym David Donovan, under which he wrote his first book, Once a Warrior King: Memoirs of an Officer in Vietnam.
Now a professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, Turner will devote more time to writing, which he will still do under his pen name.
Turner grew up in South Georgia and joined the U.S. Army after earning his bachelor’s degree in animal science from UGA in 1967. After serving in Vietnam, he returned to UGA in 1970 and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in animal science in 1972 and 1975, respectively. After post-doctoral training at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, he joined the University of Virginia faculty in 1976 and retired from there in 2008.
Murphy Station is a story of the American South during a difficult period in U.S. history.
“We had America facing the challenges of racial integration and the Cold War, both things that kept tensions high for 20 or 30 years,” Turner said. “As a young boy growing up in the South during those times, I was watching the adults around me. Their ways, actions and reactions were the influences that made me who I am for good or ill.
“There are tens of millions of Americans who were young in those same times, who experienced in one way or another those same tensions. Murphy Station is an attempt at not forgetting,” he added. “Parts of that world were warm and lovely. Parts were not. Remembrance helps us tell the difference.”
