Eric Nightingale
Died December 2, 2008
Eric prepared for Yale at The Taft School, majored in English and was senior editor of the Yale Literary Magazine. He later earned an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Program in Creative Writing and taught composition, literature and creative writing at Skidmore College and Monterey Peninsula College in California along with volunteer teaching at Soledad Prison there.
Eric’s daughter, Heather, remembers: “After 1979, Eric lived and worked in San Francisco as a stockbroker. Golden Gate Park was his big backyard for raising his two kids. He walked daily on the San Francisco beaches before typing his poetry and creative stories nightly. In the mid- 90s, Eric moved to his country home in rural northern California to be close to his philosophical group, the Fellowship of Friends, and worked there, from home, until retirement.”
In the class book and directory for our 25th reunion in 1990, Eric reported “I am father to two children, one by each divorce, Heather age 12 and Kent age 6, and although they live most of their time with their mothers, I am an active father. I loved teaching in my youth and hope that before I die I shall be a teacher again.”
Eric passed away in December, 2008, suffering from emphysema, survived by his two children, Heather and Kent, and two granddaughters.