SAYRE, Shay 1942-

PERSONAL:

Born September 21, 1942, in Cleveland, OH; children: Aubyn Stahmer, Ryan Seelbach. Education: Ohio State University, B.S. and B.A., both 1964; University of San Diego, M.Ed., 1982, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Home—1357 Cerritos Dr., Laguna Beach, CA 92651. Office—Department of Communications, California State University—Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92835. E-mail—ssayre@fullerton.edu.

CAREER:

Stoorza Communications, San Diego, CA, account manager, 1975-77; Young & Rubicam Advertising, San Diego, account executive, 1977-80; San Diego Symphony, San Diego, marketing director, 1980-82; Menlo College, Atherton, CA, associate dean of admissions, 1985; San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, 1986; San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, visiting professor of business, 1988-89; California State University—Fullerton, professor of communications, 1992—, coordinator of graduate program, 2001—. Emerson College, Brussels Campus, visiting professor, 1997, 1998; workshop presenter. City of Laguna Beach, member of Design Review and Board of Adjustment, 1994-95; Laguna Art Museum, member of marketing committee, 1995—.

MEMBER:

Association for Consumer Research, Los Angeles Advertising Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellow in Hungary, 1990.

WRITINGS:

(With David A. Horne) Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water: Perspectives on Natural Disaster, Open Door Publishers (Pasadena, CA), 1996.

Qualitative Methods for Marketplace Research, Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2001,

Campaign Planner, 2nd edition, South-Western College Publishing (Cincinnati, OH), 2002.

(With Cynthia King) That's Entertainment: Social and Economic Impact, Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA), in press.

Contributor to books, including Art, Science, and Visual Literacy: Selected Readings, edited by Robert Braden, Judy Clark Baca, and Darrell Beauchamp, Visual Literacy Association (Blacksburg, VA), 1993; and Research in Consumer Behavior, edited by R. Belk, Elsevier (London, England), 2000. Contributor to periodicals, including World Communication, Journal of Advertising, Admissions Marketing Journal, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, and Journalism Educator. Member of editorial board, Consumption, Markets, and Culture, 1999—.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Picture Perfect, a "fictional biography."

SIDELIGHTS:

Shay Sayre told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is enjoyment. Words have always been my favorite tools. However, with a career and family, writing has been relegated to last place until recently, when I began dedicating two days each week to writing.

"Ayn Rand's fiction was a favorite during my teen years, mostly for content rather than style. My college writing was influenced by the works of Dorothy Parker, whose economy of words and humor were inspiring. The poetry of Charles Bukowski, although crude in subject matter, is splendid for its directness and readability. Once I began writing academically, I tried to integrate the brevity, clarity, and humor of fiction into technical applications.

"Writing is possible most any time, but I am most productive on my Imac laptop with at least two hours of time blocked out. Interruptions don't disturb me, but once I stop for longer than ten minutes, I postpone until another block of time presents itself. Perrier or other sparkling water keeps me lubricated, and I often snack on peanuts. My mind seems more productive when fuel is constantly infused into the body/machine.

"Textbook topics are inspired by the lack of appropriate treatment of a subject or to suit a particular class. In my case, teaching qualitative methods for use in communications and consumer research, the available texts were either from another field or too complicated for students to digest for practical application. So I made an outline of my approach to the subject and began writing. My second text was pretested for two semesters with several classes and different instructors. Their feedback was incorporated into the final manuscript. My workbook is updated regularly with contemporary cases.

"Recently I've embraced auto-ethnography and am writing a fictional biography. Making the change back to prose and poetry was difficult, but it is very liberating and much more enjoyable personally than academic writing. However, as long as the economics of living require subsidizing from royalties, I'll continue writing textbooks professionally and write fiction as a leisurely pursuit."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, September, 2001, W. G. Ellis, review of Qualitative Methods for Marketplace Research.