Ferrum, VA, July 17, 2026 — Ferrum College Professor Emeritus of English Peter Crow spent decades creating stories featuring Old Joe Grady, a character he invented to keep young campers moving forward on long hikes and to entertain his own daughter and son. After retiring, Dr. Crow preserved the stories that were primarily told orally in a book that will be published July 30 as “Staying Alive in Bear Country.” All are invited to attend one of the book launches that his family will host August 8-9.
Dr. Crow’s storytelling often focused on his folksy and wise alter ego Old Joe Grady. He appeared in two public radio series, one on these original stories in 1996-2000 and one on Appalachia in 2000, then published a group of the tales on a college website. The book grew out of these Old Joe Grady tales and, as his family describes it, “a lifetime of stories, hiking trips, and family adventures.”
At the time of his death in July 2025, Dr. Crow had completed a draft and signed a contract with Black Rose Writing, an independent publisher in Texas. After Dr. Crow was hospitalized in July and Black Rose owner Reagan Rothe gave the go-ahead for the project to continue, son Rob Crow said he turned to Ferrum College Professor of English Lana Whited “because I knew she had written a book and was an experienced editor as well. When the publisher informed me that he believed I was ‘more than capable of finishing the book,’ my first thought was that I still needed Lana and her expertise to produce a book to Dad’s standards and give it the quality it rightly deserves.”
Dr. Whited has worked extensively through the past year editing, proofreading, checking copy, consulting with the family and publisher, and helping to publicize the book. Professor of English Katherine Grimes helped with proofreading and Professor Emerita of English Marcia Horn contributed a blurb to help promote the book as well.
Dr. Whited wrote, “‘Staying Alive in Bear Country’ is the magnum opus of Pete Crow’s heart, his lifelong project, and a synthesis of many of his life’s passions and experiences.”
The book, which Dr. Crow considered a novel, follows the adventures of the central character over about sixty years as he navigates varied jobs, travels, and locations, including not only his native North Carolina but also New York City, Wyoming, the New River Valley region, Honduras, South Africa, and even William Faulkner’s imagined Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. The publisher describes how he maintains “wonder, curiosity, and authentic engagement with every day he’s given.” Sometimes autobiographical and often fictional, the adventures are episodes in the protagonist’s ongoing quest “to stay alive until you die . . . to feel excited about each new day. Like a kid, you know. But over a lifetime” (p. 2). The publisher says that with “humor, heart, and unflinching honesty” he “examines friendship, love, mortality, and the courage required to stay truly alive in an often challenging world.”
The effort to see the book in print became a family project for the Crows. Beth Crow, the author’s spouse of more than forty-five years and 1979 Ferrum graduate, created the watercolor illustration for the cover, featuring a young bear perching at the top of a tree. Rob Crow has worked closely with Dr. Whited and Black Rose on editorial and publishing work, and daughter Amy Crow has helped with publicity and collecting photos for an author website.
Beth Crow recalls that her husband’s writing preferences reflected many of his favorites: he often wrote outdoors, in the company of his dog Maggie, and within view of neighbors out for a walk or collecting their mail. “He liked chatting with the neighbors,” Beth Crow says, “especially about his work.” Crow says her husband saved a section of an old family picnic table from their Ferrum home to use as a lap desk during his work sessions. He especially enjoyed his “outdoor office” during the pandemic, when it was easy to feel isolated from others. After his hospitalization and death, Beth Crow says, neighbors sometimes inquired about Pete because they hadn’t seen him writing outside for a while. Like his fictional protagonist, she notes, he “never met a stranger.”
Dr. Crow served on the Ferrum College English faculty for thirty-five years, from 1973 to 2008. As a young faculty member in the 1970s, he helped develop the curriculum for the college’s two-year to four-year transformation. He later worked with faculty in history, sociology, and environmental science to create the college’s Appalachian Cluster, a multidisciplinary program focusing on modernization in Appalachian, including the region’s challenges. Along the way, Dr. Crow directed three National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes focused on regional learning, won a national teaching award from the United Methodist Church, and served a term at Ferrum as Forrest S. and Jean B. Williams Distinguished Professor in the Humanities.
Retired professor Pete Crow listening to Appalachian Cluster students at Grace House in St. Paul, Virginia when he met the group there in 2017.
Dr. Crow earned degrees at Davidson College (B.A.), Florida State University (M.A.), and Duke University (Ph.D.). He is the author of a nonfiction book, Do, Die, or Get Along: A Tale of Two Appalachian Towns, a collection of oral histories from St. Paul and Dante, Virginia, all focused on challenges facing small Appalachian coal towns in the modern era. That book began when Dr. Crow guided students taking English composition in the Appalachian Cluster in conducting interviews at the towns they visited on field trips.
The first book launch will be held at the Phoebe Needles Center (732 Turners Creek Rd., Callaway, VA 24067) on August 8, 4-6 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for sale and guests are asked to bring an appetizer to share. Those near the Crows’ North Carolina home can attend a book launch at Church of the Nativity on August 9, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. (8849 Ray Rd., Raleigh, NC 27613).
A publisher discount for preordering the book is available from Black Rose here.
Read more about Dr. Peter Crow’s career at Ferrum College here.
