Picture this: Case Western Reserve University soccer player John "Jack" Edmonson weaving in and out of artifacts on the marble floor of a museum as if they were orange cones on a soccer field full of green grass.

"That would make for a great Nike commercial," he joked.

Far fetched? Not really, considering the senior business major has grown up in places where historical objects are stored.
Edmonson's father, James, is the chief curator at Case's Dittrick Museum
of Medical History. His mother, Christine, works across the street at the Cleveland Museum of Art as an art historian and librarian.

"At age 5 or 6, he was pushing his kid sister along the museum's storage aisles on an office chair," James Edmonson said. "He never smashed into anything-thankfully!"
Being raised in museums runs in the family.

Jack Edmonson's grandfather—his mother's father—Joe Ennis, was head of restoration at the Hagley Museum in Delaware, the site of Du Pont's original powder works.

"Like his mother, Jack grew up on museum grounds," James Edmonson said. "With both of us being involved in the museum field, he had a lot of unique opportunities many other people probably didn't."

Christine Edmonson put the children in art classes on Saturday mornings. That kind of dwindled as soccer picked up more and more and her son would go away for tournaments. But for as long as Jack Edmonson can remember, Saturday mornings were reserved for the arts.

"We would pick a theme class and go on a quarterly basis," he said. "We would make masks and stuff like that and bring them home. Since my mom worked there, we also got sneak peaks at all the shows with the art bigwigs."

A business major/aspiring bigwig himself, Jack Edmonson made the migration down the hill from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to University Circle after graduating from Heights High in 2000.

When he graduates from Case this spring, he will look for work in an industry he is interested in, like golf or skiing resorts. He said he will not just take a job because it's there. That's a trait that he has learned from his father.

"My dad loves going to work, he loves going in every single day," he said. "Working in a museum, he doesn't get paid that well, but his heart's in it. And I am looking for the same type of situation."

As far as Jack Edmonson's situation on the soccer field at Case. The Spartans are 13-36-2 during his tenure. His junior year was by far the
best. He finished with 11 points on four goals and three assists. The team finished 7-10-1.

Return to the online edition of the 10-30-03 Campus News.