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Here it is!

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all are doing well!

I have a bit of good news: Culicidae Press, of Madison, WI, published my first novel earlier this year. I am very grateful; in many ways, I can't believe my good fortune.

The title is Will My Touch Make You Feel Any Less Lonely?

If you want to have a look, here is a link: https://culicidaepress.com/wodarz-will-my-touch-make-you.../

And if you want, you can peruse the Table of Contents and the first 5-10 pages on Amazon as some kind of preview option.

Best Wishes to you all!!

Peter
Okinawa, Japan

It’s difficult to know where to start in writing about George, especially after the wonderful tributes already posted here. He meant so much to so many of us for so long. I met him in 1976, when I was one of a host of clerical people working at Im Bosseldorn 30 and he was Area Director for the Med. He had a magnetic presence and was a deeply respected, imaginative administrator. George was a good friend to many of us—a careful listener and wise adviser with a great, caring heart. 

As a novelist, George had a keen eye for people and situations. He’d often watch the action at a dinner table or meeting without saying much but keeping a close eye—with that much-noted twinkle—on the quirks of character and interactions that seemed to amuse him. His input in the aftermath would always be incisive and enlightening.

George was a great character himself too. I remember him barreling around the country outside his home in El Centenillo, Spain in an old blue Mercedes he’d bought 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) hand that was always breaking down; but he always seemed to have the tools and know-how to get it going again. I’m not sure it was registered anywhere or had insurance coverage, but one way or another that car worked and got him where he needed to go. 

El Centenillo once hosted a British mining operation and, unlike most Spanish villages, featured white picket fences and roses planted along the streets. It was a sweet and welcoming place in the middle of nowhere, which meant it was off the tourist circuit and just the right place for George. His old house was a wonderful and mysterious place with various levels, including a work area off the back garden and a small, dark room where he would write. I was fortunate to be a guest there a few times with Christie, and it was always a memorable experience, with people coming and going from all points of the compass, including his friends who were native to the village. 

George was a quiet man, but he had boundless energy, as evidenced by his motorcycle trips with Dave Glaser, the constant maintenance of both his houses in El Centenillo, his ideas for courses and genius for matching professors with places where they were needed. It seemed like he’d be with us, forever, like an element of nature. It's hard to take in the fact that he is gone. But memories of him in Heidelberg, Okinawa, Madrid, El Centenillo and my house in Gaucín, which George visited with Hye-jin, will keep him with us for all the days to come.

The comments about George that have already been posted by his close friends, David Glaser, Ken Shapiro, and Belden Johnson combine to mean there is little to be added reference who George Sidney was and what he was about.  Thus, I will content myself by noting that I was the first Marylander to meet George and interact with him and by offering some historical remembrances of him.

George and I met in the fall of 1971 in Madrid. A couple of months earlier, I had become Area Director for the Mediterranean.  My first big TDY was to Spain—-Zaragoza, Rota, Seville, and Madrid. George's Fulbright's in Spain having finally been exhausted, George was teaching his first class with Maryland---as an Adjunct at Torrejon Air Base.  During the next more than 30 years, I knew George and worked closely with him in Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Okinawa and Korea.  

As has already been noted, George was a superb classroom teacher.  So, no more in that regard.  During his administrative life with Maryland, I was almost always his direct "Boss" (definitely not his "superior")---in both Europe and Asia.  George served most capably as an Area Director and superbly as a Coordinator, Faculty Development, but his greatest value to me was as an advisor.  Because of his always sound reasoning process and his constant sense of what was "...the right thing to do..."

It was always very helpful to bounce ideas off George.  To talk through issues/problems with him. Quickly, we developed a deep trust and confidence in one another.  This expressed itself in George not being reluctant to disagree with me, indeed criticize me.  He felt comfortable to so do because he knew that whatever he said to me no matter how critical, I would listen and accept or not accept and that things would end there.   

George was a remarkable person—-in so many ways.  My life was greatly enriched by knowing him and by our warm friendship.
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I also want to note that Hye-jin Juhn, George's wife for the last 30 years of his life, took marvelous care of him during his long and debilitating decline. This care was all the more needed and lovingly given during the last three-four years of George's life.  

George and Hye-jin met in Korea when he was there in the 1990s with his Fulbright's and Maryland.  Upon moving to the States, they were together in Arizona, Washington, California and Indiana, where at South Bend, Hye-jin was a librarian at Notre Dame University.  Then, lastly together in Montreal, where she is a librarian at McGill University.  

Without Hye-jin's devotion to George and her caring for him as she did, G's last few years/months/weeks/days would have been much more difficult—-in all ways.  

I last saw George in Montreal and Plattsburgh, New York in early August 2025. I continued to speak regularly with him via telephone from then until a day or so before his passing in late May 2026. George was very much aware of how much Hye-jin was doing for him, and he greatly appreciated. That knowledge made his last few days much more meaningful to him.
 

I met George in 1971 in Madrid. As fellow English profs and novelists, we hit it right off. He invited Mei-yu (the lovely woman I'd married in Taiwan) and me to his apartment for a hash party. At that time Mei-yu and I were reading Art Janov's Primal Scream, a remarkable book that tends to bring one's feelings to the surface. Neither of us had smoked hashish before and Mei-yu responded by having a full-on primal episode. While I knew what was happening, having read the book, everyone else just assumed she was psychotic. Except George. Calmness itself, he wisely flushed the remaining Afghan black down the john. Only later did he gently inform me about the fascistic country we were then living in and that he was suprised the garda didn't come in. I said, "Is Franco still alive?"

With no hard feelings, George referred me to his literary agent, Elaine Markson, who was sure she'd get The Unconquered published. Sadly, through no fault of Elaine's, it was stolen, perverted, and made into the Hollywood extravaganza Red Dawn. But that's another story. The point for this one is that George stayed good friends with Mei-yu and me even though we'd spoiled his party and nearly gotten us all thrown into prison.

We remained good friends for many years through many incarnations, all of them delightful. I last saw George a couple years ago in South Bend, where he and Hye-Jin warmly hosted me and showed me the town where Pete Buttigieg got started in politics. Though a bit hard of hearing, George was still as sharp as a samurai's sword and would cheerfully discuss any topic under the sun. He could also run up the stairs in his house like a rabbit. I couldn't keep up with him.

I am very sad to lose him, but I know that, wherever he is, he still has that twinkle in his eye.

The "In Memory" section of the OMA website accurately details Vida Bandis' remarkable career with the University of Maryland.  No more need be added.  I would like, though, to pass on a few personal memories of Vida — from over the decades. 

I met Vida in August 1970 at the Frankfurt airport.  She was there to greet that year's new faculty — which included me.  I was transferring to Europe after three years with the then Far East Division.  Beginning with the New Faculty Orientation, Vida and I got along quite well.  But, during AY 1970-71, our contact was limited because most of the year, I was in Turkey and Italy and never taught in the immediate Heidelberg area. 

In AY 1971-72, I became an Area Director with the European Division.  During the next more than 25 years, I worked closely with Vida Bandis.  We were together in Heidelberg (1971-1975 and again in early 1981).  Then throughout the 1980s and 1990s  — when she was in College Park and I in Heidelberg or Tokyo —- our close working/friendship relationship continued.  

Some observations and memories: 

---  As explained in Vida's "in Memory" posting, European Division faculty of the 1960s knew Vida very well.  Certainly so did ED staff of the 1970s.  The same with UMUC staff in College Park in the 1980s and 1990s.  But in something of a dichotomy, overseas faculty of the 1980s and 1990s probably had little contact with Vida and indeed, may never have met her.  

---  Vida loved cars.  The faster the better.  Most of all, she loved Porsche sports cars and during the years I knew her in Heidelberg, she always owned one.  Always drove it Very Fast.  Heidelberg to Munich in two and a half hours was child's play for Vida.  Actually —- she claimed once (leaving Heidelberg after midnight) to have made the trip in two hours.  I always declined her offers of lifts. 

---  As a fair number of Marylanders can attest, working with Vida was not always a walk in the park.  She was often quite direct.  Nor did she suffer fools gladly.  Furthermore, she began to speak English only in her mid-teens when she came to Chicago.  Thus, at times, she could come across as being more critical/harsh than perhaps was necessarily intended. 

--- True story:  In the early 2000s, when living in Lithuania, Vida was invited to a Rostropovich concert in Moscow.  Three months or so before the concert, she applied for a visa at the Russian Embassy.  About a month before she was to depart, Vida realized she had not received back her passport with the visa.  She calls the Russian Embassy and is told she must also submit a photo.  She was quite sure she had already done so but went ahead and forwarded another photo. 

--- About a week before —- still no passport/visa.  Vida called again.  A somewhat embarrassed voice explained "Mrs. Bandis, we need a recent photo.”   Rather than argue, Vida hand-carried a photo of herself holding a newspaper of that date.  The Russian Embassy had simply not thought —- given the age indicated in her passport —- that anyone could possibly look so young. 

--- I last saw Vida in late November 2024.  Timed my visit to Vilnius to be there for her 90th birthday.  Stayed across the street from her exquisite apartment on the oldest and most traditional street in Vilnius . We dined together on each of the three nights I was there.  I last spoke with her a few days before her passing.  We discussed the upcoming OMA Gathering in Heidelberg. 

--- Vida had planned to come.