https://issuu.com/manhattancollege/docs/manhattan_spring_2012/53
John Fandel
john Fandel, poet, artist and professor
emeritus of English and world literature,
died on Nov. 15. He was 86.
Fandel began teaching at Manhattan
College in 1958 and served 29 years in
various roles, including poet-in-residence.
Known at the College for his poems
marking special occasions, such as the
Sesquicentennial celebration and the
inauguration of the two most recent
presidents, Fandel was a renowned poet
in his own right. He served as poetry edi-
tor at Commonweal magazine from 1963
to 1979.
Early in his career, he was honored with the Poetry Society of America’s
Reynolds Lyric Award (1957). His poetry, including the notable collec-
tions Testament and Other Poems (1959) and 5 a.m. and Other Times
(1981), have been widely anthologized and published in The Christian
Science Monitor, The New York Times and The New Yorker, which pub-
lished seven poems during the 1970s. He also published numerous
pamphlets of verse from small presses; six collections of poetry, with
the first collection being published in 1959 and the last being pub-
lished in the 1990s; and pamphlets and three books on prayer.
MaryAnn O’Donnell, Ph.D., professor emeritus of English and for-
mer dean of the school of arts, recalled part of one of his most acces-
sible poems, Students:
I used to rewrite their compositions for them;
Now in my Twenty-Fifth Year of correcting recieve,
I accept their comic wrestling with the verb
And wait on the winner to be. Give them a year,
Give them some future. How they parse into senior
Sentences! “Remember the day you said in class…”
And I am a goner. What happened to Me-no-talk George?
Intelligence, beautiful as a semi-colon,
Transpires. Who is responsible?
The Holy Ghost. It must be, certainly, Spirit
Attendant on the Scene: Ghosts of the past
Come back through George: I’m rapt in his seance.
Charlie comes through, speaking princely English,
Whose syntax was once more original than sin:
“Charlie, you have invented a new language.” Charlie
Grinned to a B; now, he teaches grammar.
“It captures Manhattan, his love for the College, his love of teaching,
and, most particularly, his love for his students,” O’Donnell says. “Ev-
ery student he has ever taught will see himself or herself in that poem,
but everyone who reads it will see John crossing the Quad on his way
to class and stopping as he often did to chat with a student.”
June Dwyer, Ph.D., professor emeritus of English and world literature,
considered Fandel “a mentor, friend and inspiration.”
Recalling a time as a young professor when she forgot her notes
for a class while teaching in Leo Hall, Dwyer says Fandel told her,
“It’s good to have that happen; it tests you as a teacher.”
A native of Yonkers, N.Y., Fandel attended Trinity College in Con-
necticut and was an H.E. Russell Fellow at Yale University. He earned
a master’s from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English as
a Robert Frost Poetry Scholar. Fandel presented poetry readings at 40
colleges, universities and schools and received numerous awards.
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In Search Of John Fandel 