In Memoriam: Paul Zolbrod

The Oldster contributor passed away last week at 92.

I was so sorry to learn this weekend that

Paul Zolbrod

, an active and vocal member of the Oldster community, passed away last Friday, Febraury 21st.

In a Facebook post, his daughter,

Zoe Zolbrod

, wrote:

With so much sorrow and love, I share that Paul passed away yesterday morning, February 21. He was at home with his wife Joanne, ready for his friends to come over for their weekly conversation about books and ideas. He fell and did not regain consciousness. Within a very short time, he was gone.

It is hard to put this loss into words. If anyone could, it would be Paul. As you see from the way he expressed himself on this platform as well as from his essays and books, he was such a beautiful writer. He carefully crafted each sentence to find the right words and cadence. He loved the sound of language, and he helped so many of us fall in love with it as well.

Another thing that made him a great writer was his keen power of observation. He looked so closely at what was around him, whether it was the sun rising over the mesa, the woods on a morning walk on Rogers Ferry, the arches of the churches in Tuscany, the weave of the Navajo rugs he studied. And he paid such careful attention to the people he interacted with, especially to working people, with whom he closely identified. And of course, he read so deeply, and listened so intently to oral recountings and to music. He was so engaged with history of places, including Crawford County, where my brother and I grew up, and with ideas, and the way they intersected. He wanted to capture all of it. The soundtrack of my childhood was the clackety clack of his manual typewriter coming from his basement office. The typing got quieter when he finally switched to a computer, but it never stopped.

He has a book in production, Paradise Revisited, being published by Morgan Sinclair at Pleiades Press, that is a culmination of his life’s work, a reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost in relation to the Navajo creation story. He was actively writing his autobiography up until the very end, which focuses on what led him to his work with Native American poetics and with the Diné. He sent me Chapter 18 on Wednesday, wanting me to keep a digital file for safekeeping.

But even more important to him than his writing and scholarship was his teaching, as he told me repeatedly in recent years. Whether it was teaching undergraduates at Allegheny College or Highland University, graduate students at Pacifica, students at Diné College in Crownpoint, coaching Little League or basketball in Meadville, or even teaching us here on Facebook how to age with curiosity and grace, he was utterly devoted to his students. As so many of you have felt for yourselves, he saw the best in everyone, and perceived both our highest potential and our intrinsic value just as we are. He wanted us to see the best in ourselves, and to expand our field of vision and see the beauty that he could see, in language, in stories, in nature, in culture, in human interactions, in rhymed verse, in labor, in each other.

What great good fortune to have him as a father, a stepfather, a husband, an uncle, a cousin, a teacher, a colleague, a friend. I am profoundly grateful to be his daughter. I am still in shock at the finality of this, and deeply grieving the loss, but I take solace in knowing he has left behind so much that is deeply good and helped so many of us hone our thoughts and open our hearts and minds. From a young age, I felt that I shared my father with the people who he impacted. You were all so important to him, and it is a comfort to me now to be part of this wide circle.

***

I consider myself fortunate to have had Paul contribute to Oldster a few times.

• First he took The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire:

• After that, he wrote an essay called Coming Up for Seconds in My Old Age, about continuing to write and publish in his 90s:

• Then he wrote another essay, called On Pivoting, about the ways in which serving in the Korean War changed his trajectory in life.

***

Paul will be missed here in Oldster Land. I enjoyed reading his writing, and working with him on editing his essays, and appreciated his many comments on other posts. I send my condolences to the Zolbrod family, and all the students and others whose lives he touched. May his memory be a blessing. Rest in peace, Paul.

***

I’ve also just learned of the passing by of

Misha Berson

, another frequent commenter in the Oldster community—a veteran theater critic whose essay I was in the process of editing for publication today—who died February 13th at 74. My condolences to her husband Paul Schiavo, who let me know, and to her family and friends.

- Sari Botton