{Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted from the Bates College Alumni Magazine, Fall 2022.]
This photo illustration underscores the 50 year-friendship between Bates classmates Bill Jeter ’76 and Michael Edwards ’76.
The vintage photo is from the 1975 Bates Mirror, explains Jeter, showing the friends after a Bates football game. “We were among a group of African American students at Bates in the 1970s, all from New Jersey, including our friend, the late John Jenkins ’74.”
The current photo was taken when Edwards, who was traveling across America in his RV, stopped to see Jeter in Minneapolis, where he maintains a studio art practice. “We told stories and tales, went to a reggae festival, camped, danced, and saw sights, all with family and friends.”
Edwards is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps, and Jeter taught art in a Minnesota public school to gifted students for 23 years. He’s now a resident artist at Homewood Studios, a gallery, studio for artists, and meeting space in North Minneapolis.