Lew came into my mind today. I so enjoyed him as professor and friend. He was inspiring, truly learned, brilliant and special. Still missed though I graduated long ago.

Still remember him after all these years!

Dr. Susan Rochette
aka, "Princess Casamassima," obscure Henry James critically failed novel.

I will never forget that Lewis, a former student of mine and a beloved teacher himself, connected with me just before he got his diagnosis, and what seemed mere days before he died, he went so fast.  His touching, so-briefly-renewed friendship was a wonderful reminder of the influence we have on others in our lives--some we get flashes of, others we will never know.  I got lucky.  He got to tell me--that I had been one of the reasons he became a teacher too. Thank you, Lewis. You still live in that moment of unexpected joy in my late life. I hope his Lily's grief has abated, and send her my love as well.

I’ve begun researching a history of Menorah Journal and have found Fried’s articles most illuminating, if there’s anyone, either a family member or colleague, who could tell me about the source of his interest and whether he ever had plans or hopes to write a book, please contact me at jackross@sublationmedia.com

This is a photo from the summer of 1964 of Lew (far right) and me (third from right) somewhere between Naples and Reggio Calabria, where we were going to get the ferry to Sicily. We had hitched a ride with these three Italian fellows who were returning home from their jobs in the north. Lew had just graduated and was looking forward to starting UMass in the fall. We made it all the way across North Africa to Morocco and then across to Gibraltar, where we split up. Lew was headed for a conference in Ireland, if I remember right. He was a great traveling companion. I thought his family might appreciate the photo.

I just can't forget this red-haired guy teaching  F. Scott F. and ranting about how very soon, due to the proliferation of paperbacks soon all literature in every library everywhere will simply disintegrate!

He did not teach but he gave me a copy of Annie Dillard's _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_, paperback, of course.  Good way to get rid of women writers.  Publish in paperback!

I never did accept his challenge to raise my grade by reading and writing on Henry James' _Princess Casamassima_.  But it is hard to forget a man from the Levant, attending a lecture on how 'crazy' the Irish are thought of and then to ask me, "Why are you here?"

Lew was a good friend and colleague during my short tenure at Kent State some 25 years ago. I had lost touch with him since my return to California. I am so sorry to hear that he has passed. He was a kind, gregarious friend, generous with his time and assistance. Even at this distance in time and place, I feel his loss.

Jeffrey Segall

If Lewis's darling wife Lily is reading this, I want her to know with how much lovingkindness I still remember her as well as Lew.  His was such a sudden death, just the other side of our reconnection after the passage of so many years! He was a star and a delight, and reignited the joy of my memories as the lucky teacher of future teachers like him.  Lily, I hope your grief has abated some and you too remember what a gift his life was.   



last communication we had was about Italian -- Lew'd sent along some online ragazzi quizz with his perfect score,  which I proceeded to also take, & surprizingly [it got more & more difficult toward the end & I had to make some wild guesses] with the same result

https://www.quora.com/profile/Roman-Tymchyshyn/following    . . . . . . .              


memo: so OK not the most worldshaking of texts to put at the head here except [“authentic” — count the ways] … moreover, I did not find it so much as in a way it found me … so playful fate in play once again here … a find in the Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library discards bin, along with ex-CLEAVElander Herb Gold’s Haiti novel/memoir inscribed to a lady [named & sayeth GOOG apparently a library trustee] who “transcends Japness & attains lapness” … via some clinamen/declension this bin also the source of Vanished Pomps of Yesterday, the ammo box for ribbing—prompted by some banter at last Kent crowd party I attended at the Walkers, RIP, about absent friends, here
 
LEW  FRIED &
 
our DreamFactory fanboy Alex—about, how to put this, oh let’s say Greek Orthodox choir boys’ voices, or maybe just “Chatwin at Mount Athos,” heh, heh, or πάντα ῥεῖ The Vanished Pomps of Yesterday… & with Chatwin of course the Uki in Songlines, the Uki impostress in the chief stream of the PhilLit mailing list Philosophy and Literature, RIP, of which the decline & fall was the DEW of all the public/private perversions & “moral inversions” [vide Polanyi, M] now all too familiar Folder Contents… & the Haiti of those days also a thing for Maya “Eleanora Duse” DEREN, muse of our Dick MYERS of AKRAN &al, & of selden rodman - Google Search the author of 100 Modern Poems, an anthology like no other containing many “photopoems” as well as "marabout de mon coeur" edmund wilson ...
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPXL1d2WHewHf8PjHMNW_e4h7SUD9_CAWpgfPurnZSobjs66uoefrBe-vNOLr7PNg/photo/AF1QipMc6pMZn5pt7J_NHSyV8qjNVbFfaoQjic_JD7kd?key=a085akUwbjV3UHdYelM5

While grieving for my poor mother, I learnt of the sad passing of Dr. Lew Fried, mine and two other international students' "American Father" while at Kent State University. Such a great professor, mentor, and friend, whose passing is such a big loss. I am honored to be your friend, Lew! Hope Lily is doing well and hope to get in touch! Polly

Grew up with Lew in Kew Gardens.  Seeking to  make contact with any other friends or family.  Mark Rosenberg  email: jrart45@yahoo.com

I gre up with Lew in Kew Gardens.  We were in the boy scourts together and were best friends.   I would appreciate hearing from a member of his family.  Mark Rosenberg

I was hoping to get in touch again with Lew Fried's wife and find out how she is doing.

This is not the first time I've gone in search of the living professors I shan't forget from KSU only to discover they have died.  Dr. Fried is memorable to me for his teaching of American Fiction, especially F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his insistence that paperback books were going to ruin the libraries of the world for so widely spreading print culture, for being so poorly made (I will never forget his lecture on 'the glue' used to create a paperback that, in his words, 'is not properly sewn.')  He was a bit prejudiced against Ireland and often said that the climate and the people there lead to the validity of The Mad Irish concept, which he seemed to think genetics would validate.  But he did have a presence that will not as long as I remember him leave this world.  Oh, dear.  Maybe he won't like that.  Maybe he could never wait to leave this world.  To that I say, 'Dr. Fried, instead of going to the light, may you find your way through the mist and on to Ireland!'  I truly will miss this guy.

I was grieved to learn that we had lost Lew.  He was one of my very favorite professors at Kent, brilliant and knowledgeable, an exciting teacher, who became a dear friend.  He will be missed.  RIP, my friend.

Lew was, has been and will always be a very precious friend with a special place in my heart and my life, also in the lives of my sons. His empathy, wisdom, and wit, his knowledge and advice have accompanied us in over 40 years - across the ocean.  With love and gratitude, Marianne Jurgeleit, Christopher Sicurella and Simon Schuez

OBITUARY

Lewis Fried

January 29, 1943 – September 8, 2018

Berkowitz-Kumin-Bookatz Memorial Chapel

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