John Stephens has a rather unusual morning routine. Stephens, clinical assistant professor of speech language pathology and audiology at Ithaca College, travels across his 193-acre farm feeding everything from sheep, goats, chickens, cats and horses to a Gordon setter named Charlie — all with a cup of coffee in hand.

Stephens’ routine is done before he begins his full day of work at the college, where he teaches four undergraduate classes and is the advisor of the Sir Alexander Ewing-Ithaca

College Speech and Hearing Clinic. Stephens said his farm is where he goes to relax and listen to the “peepers” — the sound of tiny frogs.

“I am kind of philosophical about [the farm],” he said. “It’s almost a spiritual trip. It’s a good way for me to de-socialize at the end of the day, but it’s also so completely different than what I do [at the college]. It is like the perfect complement.”

Stephens bought his farm in Spencer, N.Y., after he accepted his position at the college 26 years ago. Back then, he had about 10 acres of land.

“I purchased the farm pretty much as an animal sanctuary and to protect the natural flora and fauna,” he said. “It took me 25 years to pay it off.”

Stephens said the farm work has never taken away from his work at the college.

“In the summer I don’t work [at the college],” he said. “That’s a labor-intensive time because I put up all my hay, work on the ponds, do all mowing, work on the pastures and fences, dam up the streams and put in gardens.”

Once a year, Stephens invites his students to come to his farm for a sheep-sheering demonstration.

“Students need to know that the world is big and people have diverse interests,” Stephens said.

Rebecca Baum, a speech and language pathology graduate student, observes and assists Stephens in the clinic for audiology hours. She also attended his sheep-sheering demonstration this year. She said students should experience something different than what they are used to.

“Inviting the Ithaca College community to come to the farm and see what rural life is like is really important,” she said. “In speech and audiology, you are going to be dealing with clients from different kinds of communities, and a lot of our field work is [done] in rural areas.”

Baum said she was glad to have had a professor like Stephens.

“Everyone that has had the fortune to be his student is lucky [because] he is a great representation of an Ithaca professor,” she said. “He is just a well-rounded person to learn from.”

Stephens has lived his entire life in Ithaca and graduated from the college in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in speech language pathology and audiology and a master’s degree in 1983 in audiology.

“I love my job and the contact I have with community,” he said. “This has always been a special position for me because I work hand in hand supervising students. I teach the students in the class [and] work with the people from the community.”

Currently, Stephens is the only audiologist at the college.

“I have to run the clinic because I am the only person that knows where to get the supplies, how to keep the equipment calibrated, how to do the daily calibrations, how to take the ear mold impressions and fix the hearing aids,” he said. “That’s not farming by any means.”

Baum said she considers Stephens to be a true “Renaissance man.”

“He’s got a lot going on being an audiologist … he has the farm, a woodworking space and a sound studio,” she said. “It’s allowing him to have his hands in a lot of different spots around town.”

Stephens will be retiring at the end of this year to spend more time tending to his farm, traveling to Mexico and British Columbia, playing music and building furniture.

Richard Schissel, associate professor of speech pathology and audiology, has worked with Stephens since 1985 and played music with him at his music studio. He said Stephens is going to be difficult to replace.

“You see that same kind of dedication to his animals that he gives to his clients and his students,” he said. “[Stephens] is committed to their well-being and to their growth. Whatever he is committed to at the time ­— whether it is his clients, his students, his animals, his farm, his crops [or] his garden — he is committed to doing a good job.”

Even though Stephens is excited to begin the next part of his life, he said he will miss his colleagues and students.

“It is bittersweet leaving the college, but I firmly believe that moving on to the next phase in one’s life is a mater of weighing all of the options,” he said. “I don’t call it retirement — I call it transitioning from one thing I do to another.”