Editor’s note: Michael Whittemore, 29, is the assistant equipment manager in charge of the Marshall University football team. He was hired in 2016, and moved to Huntington with his wife Kirsten after living and attending school in Champaign, Illinois. Whittemore was a history major and played club baseball while attending college. He and his wife moved here originally for her job at the Marshall Rec Center, but Whittemore found a job listing online and was then hired as an equipment manager. He has always had a passion for sports, primarily the Chicago Cubs and he greatly enjoys working in athletics. Reporter Michael Morgan recently interviewed Whittemore using the Marcel Proust/Vanity Fair questionnaire found each month in Vanity Fair magazine. It is designed to reveal the personal side of interviewees.

Q: What is your idea of perfect happiness?

A: Spending time with my family, not working.

Q: What is your greatest fear?

A: Not being able to provide for my family.

Q: What historical figure do you most identify with?

A: I’m a history major so I look towards political figures such as Obama, JFK, FDR.

Q: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

A: Going above and beyond.

Q: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

A: Laziness.

Q: What is your greatest extravagance?

A:I enjoy drinking craft beer and wine from some of my favorite wineries from southern Illinois, and also any chance I get to read a book.

Q: What is your favorite journey?

A: Marriage. I have been with my wife for going on 11 years and we just celebrated our three year anniversary.

Q: What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

A: Wealth.

Q: What do you dislike the most about your appearance?

A: My height.

Q: Which living person do you most despise?

A: Donald Trump.

Q: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

A: Sometimes you say things that you don’t realize you say quite often until someone points it out.

Q: What is your greatest regret?

A: In high school I considered joining the military… but I had an opportunity after college to intern with the football team at Eastern Illinois.. so if I took that path, where could I have been?

Q: What or who is the greatest love of your life?

A: Obviously my wife. I’ve been with her since high school and I don’t know there’s something about her that I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time with her.

Q: When and where were you happiest?

A: At home, either on my front porch drinking coffee in the morning, or sitting on the couch watching any tv show with my wife.

Q: Which talent would you most like to have?

A: I wish I could draw better.

Q: What is your current state of mind?

A: I’m exhausted, having a newborn but otherwise I’m content.

Q: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

A: Can I say height again? But probably my work, just because of the commitment, especially having a new family.

Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement?

A: I hate to relive the glory days but I love the time playing baseball in high school… We won regionals which was the first time that’s been done in 20-30 years at my school.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

A: I’ve never been a huge material kind of guy, but I just bought a car over then summer.

Q: Where would you like to live?

A: In an ideal world, I’d probably say like San Diego because the weather is always perfect.

Q: What is your favorite occupation?

A: I enjoy working in athletics, it gives me a lot of perks that I never thought I would be able to do.

Q: What is your most marked characteristic?

A: I feel like I’m really good at relating with a variety of different people.

Q: What do you value most in your friends?

A: I enjoy having a good time with my friends… there’s not one specific value.

Q:  Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

A: Robert Langdon

Q: Who are your heroes in real life?

A: Everyone has their faults, and I feel like there’s values in a lot of different people that I look at but there’s not one specific person.

Q: What is it that you most dislike?

A: A lot of different people here don’t realize the struggle of the minority population… not being compassionate.

Q: If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

A: I’d like to come back as myself again, and just do life differently.

Q: If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?

A: A red-tail Hawk.

Q: How would you like to die?

A: I’m terrified of drowning, so not drowning, don’t want to be caught on fire, so in my sleep and peaceful.

Q: What is your motto?

A: Yolo, just kidding but never leave a place worse off than you’ve left it.

Michael Morgan can be contacted at [email protected].