![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Farewell, Dr. Radley...
Nov. 17th, 2015 04:44 pmFor the second time in, what?—two weeks—Facebook has informed me of the passing of friends and acquaintances.
Our family and that of Joseph S. were pretty close back when we lived in Jacksonville, in a cozy little neighborhood and a house that I still look back upon with fondness. The news of Joe's death shook me up pretty well. While we did not stay in touch very well over the years, I am sure the lack of news from our family was more than adequately drowned by the steady torrent of news from his accomplished offspring and ever-growing mob of offspring-in-laws and grandchildren.
Just a few minutes ago, I learned that my favorite professor in college has died.
Dr. Radley taught courses on Nabokov and Gogol, and unlike the staff members who taught other Russian literature courses, you could tell that Dr. R. had a passion for his subject. As an aside, I recall once being in his office to discuss a question about a paper I'd written on Nabokov, whereupon he drew out a Mont Blanc Meisterstück fountain pen, posted it, and began to scrawl notes on the back of my paper in support of what he was saying.
I'm pretty sure that's why my first "serious" fountain pen (given to me on the occasion of having finished my first book on programming) was whatever passed for that same model of Mont Blanc fountain pen. It's funny how things like that work, sometimes, isn't it?
I don't know how frequently former students get in touch with their professors, but I've only done it once, and it was to visit Dr. Radley at his office, where he practiced law in Manhattan. (It turned out that, after a while, he quit being a professor and went to law school... how crazy cool is that?)
I am grateful that Dr. Radley was my professor back in the day, and that I had the good sense to track him down and tell him so when I did.
I think its' time I reread some Gogol, too, methinks.
Our family and that of Joseph S. were pretty close back when we lived in Jacksonville, in a cozy little neighborhood and a house that I still look back upon with fondness. The news of Joe's death shook me up pretty well. While we did not stay in touch very well over the years, I am sure the lack of news from our family was more than adequately drowned by the steady torrent of news from his accomplished offspring and ever-growing mob of offspring-in-laws and grandchildren.
Just a few minutes ago, I learned that my favorite professor in college has died.
Dr. Radley taught courses on Nabokov and Gogol, and unlike the staff members who taught other Russian literature courses, you could tell that Dr. R. had a passion for his subject. As an aside, I recall once being in his office to discuss a question about a paper I'd written on Nabokov, whereupon he drew out a Mont Blanc Meisterstück fountain pen, posted it, and began to scrawl notes on the back of my paper in support of what he was saying.
I'm pretty sure that's why my first "serious" fountain pen (given to me on the occasion of having finished my first book on programming) was whatever passed for that same model of Mont Blanc fountain pen. It's funny how things like that work, sometimes, isn't it?
I don't know how frequently former students get in touch with their professors, but I've only done it once, and it was to visit Dr. Radley at his office, where he practiced law in Manhattan. (It turned out that, after a while, he quit being a professor and went to law school... how crazy cool is that?)
I am grateful that Dr. Radley was my professor back in the day, and that I had the good sense to track him down and tell him so when I did.
I think its' time I reread some Gogol, too, methinks.
