It all began with a church play featuring shepherds in choir robes and beards made from plastic bags. A young boy sat enthralled in the audience during this first encounter with theatre and let the characters performing on stage fascinate him. That boy, Clyde Ruffin, would eventually grow up to become Professor and Chair of Theatre at MU and Founding Director of the World Theatre Workshop. Years later, Ruffin admits that theatre is still where his heart is.

Ruffin received the Kellogg Fellowship in 1984 and completed the program in 1988. He chose to work on issues of aging, and how cultures are transferred from one generation to the next. The fellowship provided him with funding to travel around the world, and these adventures taught Ruffin life-changing lessons.