At the end of June in 2015, I retired after forty-one years of teaching middle and high school English. I loved teaching but felt that I was not really growing in the role anymore and longed to shed the burden of student papers. Also, even though they were relatively mild in my school, the increasing demands for test prep and the bureaucratization of virtually every teaching chore was both exhausting and infuriating. Even though I know I would still love to be in classrooms, I haven’t missed the work. Besides, now I read whatever I want to instead of rereading whatever I teach. (It’s worth noting, though, that rereading Shakespeare is never painful.)

I taught in New York State for thirty-seven years, primarily at Blind Brook High School in Rye Brook, and then, from 2004 to 2011, at Fox Lane Middle and High Schools in Bedford, where I was also the English Department Coordinator. Then, for four years, I taught half-time (which means about thirty hours a week) at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut. I was blessed to teach in remarkably good schools and to have so many remarkably capable students.

I live in Fairfield County, CT, with my wife, the mother of our three grown children. We met at Liverpool High School, north of Syracuse, New York. I was an incoming teaching intern, being introduced to the building and my new colleagues; she was a teacher on cafeteria duty. She smiled when we met and I have loved her ever since.

I also love jazz, especially Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus. I play a little piano and blues harmonica. I love poetry. I love to be outside, hiking or body surfing. I try to stay in shape and was a runner for forty years, until my left knee gave out; now I love long walks.

I shaved off my beard when it turned white. There is no fix for the rest of my hair.