Up until his last few days, he was appearing on Broadway in his son's critically acclaimed drama, "August: Osage County," a production of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
A college professor of literature and writing for most of his career at at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Received his bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, his master's degree from the University of Tulsa and his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a Fulbright Scholar.