Lawrence S. Rudner (1947 - 1995)

The option in World Literature is named in honor of our cherished colleague, Lawrence Sheldon Rudner.

Born in Detroit in 1947, Larry held a doctorate in American Studies from Michigan State University. From 1978 to 1995 he taught journalism, world literature, and Holocaust literature at North Carolina State University. He traveled and taught extensively in eastern Europe, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Krakow in 1986 and 1987. In the early 1980s he began writing stories set in eastern Europe pursuing what he later called his "obsession . . . to reinvent some lost lives." His first novel, The Magic We Do Here--the story of a blond, blue-eyed Jew who survives the Holocaust by posing as a half-witted Polish farm laborer--has been called "as heartbreaking as it is hauntingly beautiful." His second book, Memory's Tailor, was finished in 1994, shortly before Larry was diagnosed with cancer, from which he died in May of 1995. Edited by John Kessel and Susan Ketchin, this novel was published in 1998.

Larry's knowledge, humor, and profound commitment to literature as a mode of ethical action inspired his students, colleagues, and friends during his life. He continues to live in our memory and, through his works, he continues to speak with and to us. "Or maybe he just kept a promise, because what else is there to believe in on this earth but promised words?" (Memory's Tailor 45).