John "Danny/ Jack" Deaver

John “Danny” Virgil Deaver attended BMC from the fall of 1940 until he was drafted in April of 1943. He also participated in the work camp for summer 1941.

Many photos can be found of Danny in the work program, operating a tractor or working in the farm. His father owned a citrus ranch, which he worked at since he was a child. While at the college, he was involved in many plays, including Ethan Frome, Highbrow Ladies, Le Medecin, Affected Ladies, Mendez Marks’ Wind and the Trees, Outward Bound, The Tramp in the Cherry Orchard, and likely many more.

Danny received many positive remarks from his creative courseworks. Josef Albers commented on his work for Worklehre “very gifted, has a fine feeling for material and is very inventive in constructive studies.” He was especially active in weaving classes and many photographs of Danny working at the loom can be found in the archive’s BMC photo collections.

Much of his life after BMC has been shared in his obituary, which was shared on the Detroit Free Press website in 2020:

“Mr. Deaver served in Scotland and Italy during World War II as an Air Force navigator and flew 32 Special Office of Strategic Services missions over Norway, Italy, and Germany. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroic actions over the Italian Alps in the spring of 1945.

Before the War he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina. After the War he lived in Mexico City where he attended Mexico City College, received a Master's Degree and taught Economics. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Chicago where he studied under Milton Friedman.

Following his studies, Mr. Deaver was employed as an economist with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, then with General Electric Company, then with Ford Motor Company. He retired from Ford Motor Company in 1987 where he had held the position of Chief Economist. While at Ford he had three times been awarded the Seer of the Year trophy from Harvard Business School as the economist who most accurately predicted the economic outlook for that year.

After his retirement Mr. Deaver became Chairman of the St. Clair County Republican Party in 1988 and served for several years. He was associated with Kirsch Technologies of St. Clair and RMD Technologies of Ypsilanti, and assisted in establishing Unity Mold of Croswell. Mr. Deaver held several offices in the St. Clair Rotary Club, including President in 1999, and was a member of the American Legion Post 449 in Marysville, Michigan. He attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church in St. Clair and St. John's Episcopal Church in Detroit and was the cofounder of the Curmudgeons, a discussion group in St. Clair.”

Courses Taken

Fall 1940-41: Intro Psychology (French), General Biology (Carpenter), IntroWriting (Wunsch), Play Production (Wunsch).

Spring 1940-41: General Biology (Carpenter), Color I (Reed), Drawing I (Reed),Werklehre (Reed), Intro Weaving (A Albers), Play Production II (Wunsch), PlayProduction III (Wunsch).

Fall 41-42: General Anthropology (Radin), Social Psychology (French),Advanced Spanish (DeGraaf), Dramatics (Wunsch), Music (Evarts), Werklehre(Albers), Advanced Weaving (A Albers), Weaving Tutorial (A Albers), Chorus(A Albers).

Spring 1941-42: Social Psychology (French), GeneralAnthropology (Radin),Advanced Spanish (De Graaff), Werklehre (Albers), Dramatics (Wunsch),Advanced Weaving (A Albers).

Fall 1942-43: Readings in Spanish Literature (De Graaff), Readings inPhilosophical Classics (Straus), Advanced Weaving (A Albers), Algebra +Trigonometry (at beginning), (Dreier), Color (Albers).

Winter 1942-43: Europe 1600-1800 (Bentley), Physics (Hansgirg), Readings inSpanish Literature (De Graaff), Current Affairs (Bentley)