Tom Emma’s Passing

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1. Tom Emma represents an era of great importance to my wife Angela and me. He was among the great teachers in the 60s at Ventura College when we were students there. They had an immense influence on our intellectual, artistic and emotional formations. When I say “great” teachers, it is not a thoughtless exaggeration. I found few teachers at the universities I attended later who matched the brilliance, broad knowledge and intelligence of these amazing teachers at Ventura College, Tom being among them. Angela knew Tom first hand as one of his students. In his recent emails to me, Tom remembers her as a student, and was a fan of hers as a performer on stage at Ventura College. I got to know Tom as a colleague when I joined the faculty in the 70s. To say he was a colorful character does not do him justice for that was one of his most prominent characteristics. He was smart, funny and sharp as a tack.

   We were lucky to have made contact a few years ago with Tom thanks to friend and colleague John Woolley. Tom was now living in Hawaii, and John wanted to deliver a copy of Tom’s just completed novel that he had sent us, “Paris After the War.” Tom and I had quite an email exchange for a while talking about his novel. I was so pleased that he had included friends and former colleagues in it as characters, Don Meyer and Frank Sardisco. It’s great that he got to finish his novel, and that we now have it as a memorial to an important part of his life and his brilliant skills as a writer.

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