Photo by Craig Fritz

Henry Beechhold taps out notes while talking on the phone in the busy office of his Corrales home. "Whatever else I've done, writing was always there," he says.

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Henry Beechhold is a storyteller, but it's his home that tells the real story.

First you notice the books. Thousands of them, of every genre, tucked everywhere. On the walls hang lovely paintings and drawings. Peek at the artist's signature: Beechhold. Remarkable black-and-white photographs share the space, also Beechhold's work.

One room is the cluttered sanctuary of a ham-radio operator, another is a state-of-the-art recording studio. A monster drum set dominates yet another room.

Indian artifacts rest casually next to Army medals, antique gadgets and computer gear.

The place is fascinating, like Beechhold: war hero, professor, student, musician, composer, poet, artist, biker, technology nerd.

The constant in his life has been writing.

"Whatever else I've done, writing was always there," he says. "I can't remember a time when I wasn't writing."

The English professor emeritus, who moved from New Jersey to Corrales in 1998, has written countless articles and reviews on topics as diverse as linguistics and Irish culture. He has written plays, volumes of poetry, short stories and an opera libretto. His nonfiction books include "The Plain English Repair & Maintenance Guide for Home Computers."

Beechhold wrote technical manuals for one of the country's early guided missile systems, was pronunciation editor of the huge McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, and was education consultant for the Emmy-winning TV series "Grammar Rock."

He was influenced by his aunt, Leslie Stone, who Isaac Asimov said inspired him to write science fiction. "She gave me this sense that being a writer was a fantastic thing to be," Beechhold says.

He has written novels but didn't have one published until recently. "Some We Loved" draws on his experiences in the Army at the dawn of the Cold War.

"He's an idea person," says his wife, Christine. "When I come home from work brain-dead, he says, `Don't talk to me about work; give me an idea.' "

Beechhold was born in 1928 on the upper East Side of Manhattan to parents who worked in retail, accounting and advertising. They ran with New York City's young sophisticates.

Like many of his peers, Beechhold was sent to boarding school, a small one in New Jersey. He was in his early teens when World War II began. The school closed as its staff went off to war, and Beechhold finished at a public high in Forest Hills, Long Island.

He was 16 and wanted to join the Army.

"I lied about my age," he says. "I trotted off and got myself drafted. Patriotism in those days was deeply felt. It didn't have to be pumped up and manufactured. Being declared 4F was shameful."

He got into the New York State Guard and, at 17, the Army, where his high score on an intelligence test caught the eye of the brass.

"I knew German and was good with guns, from boarding school," he says.

Beechhold was pulled from his company and recruited into a special operations team.

"I was young and feisty," he says. "I was an on-the-edge kind of person, a kid who would take any dare. That's why they picked me. I had a willingness to do what they asked me to do."

He was trained and shipped to Belgium and Germany. Beechhold was involved in special operations as the war ended and the Office of Strategic Services was decommissioned, before the Central Intelligence Agency was created.

"The Cold War began before the hot war ended," Beechhold says. "The clandestine activities didn't just stop. There was a lot of spy stuff going on. I was involved in Cold War-related activities."

A year later the 18-year-old was offered a six-year commission as a second lieutenant, but he decided to leave the active service to get an education. He earned a bachelor's degree in animal science and a master's in English, both from Oklahoma State University. He worked summers as a technical writer in New York.

Beechhold became an educator by fluke. The commandant of the Oklahoma Military Academy had heard of him and called New York to offer a teaching job.

" `Do what?' I said. `What do I know about teaching?' " Beechhold recalls. "He said, `Don't worry about it. You'll learn.' I thought, `What the hell.' "

Just 21, Beechhold taught science and English, and he coached the fencing team.

It was the beginning of a long teaching career, seven years at the University of Maine and 35 at the prestigious College of New Jersey in Ewing. Along the way he earned a doctorate in English and comparative literature, with a dissertation on James Joyce, from Penn State, and met his first wife Renie, mother of his children, Adrienne and Matthew.

He taught courses that had "anything to do with words and language," Beechhold says.

Renie died in 1990, and Beechhold met Christine on campus. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the College of New Jersey and took six of Beechhold's courses.

"You either loved him or you hated him," she says. "He was a real spark plug in the classroom. He put it out there."

They began dating in 1995 and married in 2003, five years after Beechhold retired and moved with his son to New Mexico.

Beechhold says he wrote "Some We Loved" in part to resolve his feelings about his wartime service. "The stress had increased over time," he says.

The book took on a life of its own and became a story, not an autobiography. He's writing a sequel, and in the meantime he published a second novel, "Through the Clouds of Saturn," and is writing a sequel to it, "Amazing Discovery on Mars."

The words just keep coming.

"Words, for me, are an aphrodisiac," Beechhold says.