Judy Rose, associate editor of the Nanty Glo Home Page, contributes the Thursday Pages and Saturday Roundup pages weekly. Thursday's Pages rotate among "Then and Now," "Where Are They Now," "Special Features" and "Out and About." Born and raised in Home Page Country, she is a Registered Nurse by profession. Index of Judy Rose's Where Are They Now articles

Judy Rose

When I picked up the latest issue of the Nanty Glo Journal, you can imagine my surprise when I found that our webmaster had been featured in the Golden Glances. I think it would be fitting to share the column with the members of our email list. Here is the entire column written by Jim Lauffer of Mainline Publications.

Golden Glances

Vintondale native Jon Kennedy: A wordsmith extraordinaire

By Jim Lauffer

To say thatt Vintondale native Jon Kennedy has a way with words is an understatement. Kennedy, who resides in San Jose, Calif., has written for newspapers, has authored books, and has created content for thousands of web pages.

His most recent book: "The Everything Jesus Book: His Life, His Teachings," was recently published as part of Adams Media's "Everything" series. The 306-page book provides an overview of Jesus' life and teachings and the hisotry of the church from the new Testament's Book of Acts to the present day.

According to the Adams Media Web site, readers of Kennedy's book will "learn all about the charismatic Jewish carpenter who captured the hearts, minds, and souls of a small group of disciples some two thousand years ago...and inspired the growth of today's largest, and arguably most influential, religion. 'The Everything Jesus Book' explores the scriptual and Gnostic accounts of his life and deeds, along with his influence on civilization over the last 2,000 years.

Kennedy began his writing career as a teenage correspondent and a columnist with the Mountaineer-Herald and Nanty Glo Journal. He wrote for the papers from 1957 to 1962. In 1962 at the age of 20, he became the Journal's third editor while a student at the Johnstown College of the University of Pittsburgh, now the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Kennedy has since edited other newspapers and magazines and webzines. His articles have appeared in the Los Angesle Times, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, and Chrisitanity Today. He earned his Master of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of California at Los Angeles. Kennedy's graduate thesis, published as The Reformation of Journalism: A Christian Approach to Mass Communication. has been used in classrooms around the world. He served as a campus minister at the University of California for four years and Stanford University for 11 years. While at Stanford, he introduced a seminar, "Movements and Minorities in the Mass Media," that has been imitated in other journalism programs. He is the founder of several Christian-related magazines, including Renaissance Review and New Reformation. An ordained Reformed-Presbyterian minister, Kennedy is now a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Locally, Kennedy is best known as the webmaster of the Nanty Glo Home Page (www.nantyglo.com). The site contains a multitude of pages dedicated to Blacklick Valley history and pictures and recent events. He began the web site in 1997 and has created 4,000 pages for the online offering. The not-for-profit site offers links to pages devoted not only to Nanty Glo but also to Blacklick Township, Jackson Township, and Vintondale.

Kennedy is the author of a series of 1,000 online "Jonal" articles. According to the Nanty Glo Home Page (www.nantyglo.com/jonals_index.htm),"These articles are columns, opinion pieces, travelogues, and observations about general or universal human issues. Some refer to local institutions and the landscape of the writer's boyhood home around Nanty Glo, Pa." Kennedy is Currently at work on a book about C.S. Lewis and Narnia.The book will also be published as part of Adams Media's "Everything" series.