Poets

Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. is a poet, editor, journalist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, California.

Early Life
The son of Negro League baseball catcher Quincy Trouppe (who added a second "P" to the family name while playing in Mexico to accommodate the Spanish pronunciation "Trou-pay"), Troupe Jr. attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship. He failed to finish either of his first two semesters and subsequently joined the United States Army, where he was stationed in France and played on the Army basketball team. In France he encountered Jean-Paul Sartre, who recommended he try his hand at poetry.

Upon his return to civilian life, Troupe moved to Los Angeles, where he encountered the Watts Writers Workshop and began working in a more jazz-based style. It was on a tour with the Watts group that he first began his academic life.

Career

In 1969, Troupe visited Ohio University with the poetry tour. He would soon be offered a position as writer-in-residence. In 1971, he moved to Richmond College on Staten Island in New York City, where he was a lecturer.
In 1976, Richmond College underwent a merger and became the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. It was during this transition, Troupe later revealed, that he adjusted his curriculum vitae to include a (fictitious) bachelor's degree he claimed to have earned in 1963 from Grambling State University. He made the addition in ord..