University professor stripped naked after having apparent nervous breakdown

Several Michigan State University students received an eyeful and then some while walking down the hallway in the Engineering building — a calculus professor was sitting naked, leaning against the wall while police questioned him.



Campus police report that at 1:07 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the professor, after appearing to have a nervous breakdown, removed all of his clothes except for his socks and started screaming obscenities at students. Students identified the professor as John McCarthy and said he was crying, screaming, "How can no one do anything right,” and “There’s no (expletive) God.”

A student who witnessed the incident said: “I was in Calc 1 at Michigan State University, and my teacher was always pretty eccentric, but today he went overboard. Half way through class he started screaming at us, swearing left and right. He then started slamming his hands on the window and pressing his face against it, still screaming. Eventually he walked out and down the hallway to the end, all while screaming. He then came back into the classroom and took off his clothes, except for his socks.”



MSU police took the man into protective custody and transported him to a local hospital. He is not being charged with a crime. McCarthy, who received his doctoral degree in mathematics from Columbia University in 1983, has taught at MSU for 28 years.