Deceased April 17, 2019
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In Memory
Gordon Pradl and his wife of 52 years, Mary Ann Carme Pradl, succumbed to COVID-19 in March/April 2020. Gordon was principal caregiver to Mary Ann for the last 15 years at their renovated brownstone in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was emeritus professor of English Education at NYU, with a 39-year tenure. Gordie believed that the teaching of writing mattered. He believed, as did his mentor, the late Professor Robert J. Coles, that “it’s only through stories that one can fully enter another’s life.” During his tenure at NYU, he trained hundreds of future secondary and college writing instructors. In his 1996 book, Literature for Democracy: Reading as a Social Act, he wrote, “Democracy encourages us to find ways (through mediation, negotiation and celebration of difference) to maintain a relationship with those who are different from us or with whom we disagree.”
Gordon was my roommate in the social dorms, but he maintained friendships with those living in the frat houses. It was Gordon who introduced me to the original cast album of the musical The Fantasticks and the Saint-Saens organ symphony, which blasted out of Davis Hall windows for the benefit of wildlife in the neighboring bird sanctuary. Together we relished Sunday Foreign Film offerings on campus, and Gordon taught me cribbage at that lousy downtown pizza joint. Gordie was one of the few of us who weren’t mystified by Physics 1–2. He was my guide to the “happenings” at UMass Amherst, and I was his guide to the 17th-century gravestone art in the Pioneer Valley. Together we gained the trust of Professor Cole enough to babysit his kids. Gordy and I were part of the Valentine crew chosen to cater alumni dinner parties. We cleaned the tables by decanting all the leftover wine bottles and partied afterward with wife-to-be Mary Ann and her UMass sisters!
Richard Leyden ’65