Lee and Linda McGaan's
Personal Home Page

418 North Sunny Lane
Monmouth, Illinois  61462-1009

Home phone: (309) 734-5431
Email:  mcgaan@maplecity.com

 Lee's Professional Life

 Some of Lee's Favorite Sites

 Some of Linda's Favorite Sites

 Current Home Projects

 Very Brief Biographies

 Our Personal Interests

Lee's Professional Life

Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts (CATA)
Monmouth College
Monmouth, IL  61462

Phone: 309.457.2155;   Email:  lee@monm.edu

The Lee McGaan Monmouth College Web site
The CATA Department Web page
The Monmouth College Home page

My Professional Interests

Organizational Communication: Information and decision-making by groups and individuals, Organizational culture, Training and development.

Public Communication: Argumentation, Persuasive cases and campaigns, Message development.

Media: Social effects of mass media, Computer mediated communication

Program Assessment in Colleges

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Some of Lee's Favorite Sites

 Reason Magazine -  My favorite source of public affairs information with a distinct bias toward individual freedom.

 Atlantic Monthly - a great source of in-depth writing on a very wide range of topics from arts to sciences to public policy to travel.  I'm particularly fond of James Fallows work.

 The Motley Fool - an excellent source of information and advice for the individual investor (much of it free) from beginner to "semi-pro."

 www.overlawyered.com - one of the more amusing of the "blogs" (web logs).  It details a huge number of outrages perpetrated on us by the more self-serving of the legal community.  The marginal links are excellent reference and reading sources.  They alone are worth a visit.   [ For the "blog of blogs," click here to reach "InstaPundit". ]

 www.copernic.com  - by far my favorite internet search utility and you can download it for free.  I find sites with Copernic that I can't find using any other system (including specialized search utilities).  Try it!!

 The Libertarian Party  - America's largest and fastest growing third party.  If you have begun to think that there's no important difference between the Democrats and the Republicans or if you think that government programs don't seem to be solving our problems as promised, this may be the place for you.  There's a reason why it's called "The Party of Principle."  If the idea of a freer society seems appealing, click here to visit a related site, The Advocates for Self-Government - lots of great resources.  If you think the traditional liberal vs conservative dichotomy doesn't represent who you are -- TAKE THE WORLD'S SMALLEST POLITICAL QUIZ and find out why!

 Mike Males' Homepage - Ever get the feeling that all those terrible things you hear about young people (gun toting, drug crazed, disengaged, sexually irresponsible -- you know the list) from politicians and the media may not be entirely accurate?  Check out this site, especially the articles linked at the bottom of the page.  Click here to link to a favorite of mine on the drinking age or here for a link to the teenage "myths" index.

Hoaxes and Junk Science are two other sites you should know about.  Both help combat the wealth of false information that circulates on the web and in the popular media.  

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Some of Linda's Favorite Sites

 E-bay  - you can find just about anything here.  I'm interested in antiques and collectables of several types and this is a prime source.

 Yahoo shopping  - A good place to try for items you can't find locally.  If you sort search results by price you can  sometimes really save money.

 [ more to come ]

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Current Home Projects

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Very Brief Biographies

Lee:  I was born in Galesburg, Illinois at the beginning of the baby boom and grew a farm boy on a farm northeast of Altona, Illinois just south of Bishop Hill.  I grew up there with my Dad, Roy, my Mom, Lois, my older brother, Dean and my older sister, Lynn.  We raised corn, soybeans and oats along with cattle (Shorthorns) and pigs.  At various times we also kept ducks, geese, chickens (including Banties), rabbits and horses along with a dog, Scout (a border collie/cocker mix) and a bunch of cats.  I graduated as a National Merit Scholar from R.O.V.A. (no "w" then) High School in 1965 where I was active in band, vocal music groups, drama, and student government.  I entered Monmouth College graduating in 1969 with an interdisciplinary major in Speech, economics and psychology.  While at Monmouth I participated in choir and Crimson Masque and held various positions at WMCR radio, including manager, and in Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity I served as President.  

After graduation I entered the School of Interpersonal Communication at Ohio University in Athens on a National Science Foundation fellowship but shortly after that I "won" the draft lottery and so I left graduate work after completing an M.A. in Communication Theory.  I did  basic training for the Army at Ft. Lewis, Washington and then was assigned to the 984th M.P.s at Ft. Carson, Colorado where I worked for a year as a psychology specialist counseling prisoners in the 6th Army Military Correctional Facility there.  After that year I ended up working on a 4th Infantry Division outreach program for economic development in Center, CO and following two months there, I became Chair of the post Enlisted Men's Council and worked on enlisted men's affairs under Major General John Bennett (the most impressive leader I have ever worked under).  After discharge from the Army I returned to Ohio University in 1972 to complete my Ph.D. in Organizational Communication.  After completing doctoral course work I taught at Olivet College in Michigan, finished my dissertation, took a position at all-male Wabash College in Indiana, and eventually came full circle in 1986, returning to Illinois and Monmouth College to teach communication.  [ The details of my teaching career are found on my VITA located on my college web site.]   In 1991 I met Linda, a non-traditional student in my Argumentation class.  After the class ended we met socially, began dating, and the rest is history.  We bought our house and moved to North Sunny Lane (shown in the picture above) in 1996 and we still are working on getting the place done the way we want it.

Linda:  [ coming soon ]

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Our Personal Interests

Lee -  Film (across the board);  Reading: Biography, Public Affairs, Science Fiction;   Music: Blues, Reggae;  Gardening;  Sports: Football (da Bears),  Basketball (NCAA), [I've quit following for the Cubs; it's too painful.];  Libertarianism.

Linda -  [coming soon ]

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Last Revised:  5/30/2002