(Dr. Jeff Taylor — Community First Broadcasting Staff Photo)
Sioux Center, Iowa (RI) — A 65-year-old Dordt University professor who has published three academic books on politics is turning to a far more personal subject in his fourth: his own survival from a severe brain infection at age four.
On May 28th, 1965, Jeff Taylor was being transferred from Spencer to Sioux City for treatment. His mother and a nurse rode with him in the ambulance. Taylor grew up hearing the story of his illness — and what his family described as a miracle.
Taylor says the second half of the book focuses on his three-year search, as an adult, to uncover the facts behind the story he had been told.
He obtained hospital records from 1965, tracked down witnesses, and interviewed medical experts. His mother still lives in the same Spencer home where he grew up — and where the book begins.
Taylor’s book is titled A Beautiful Day to Die: Memory, Evidence and the Question of a Miracle. He has served in the Iowa Senate since 2021 and has not announced whether he will seek reelection in 2028.
