Arthur (Art) Efron
Born on November 2, 1931 in Chicago, died on May 16, 2024 in Buffalo.
A treasured, challenging and gentle teacher, Art was a dear friend to many, an avid reader, a prolific and courageous critic of literature and culture, an avid baseball fan, and a life-long advocate for peace and a just society.
Art grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota where his love of reading and music began at an early age.
Following non-combat military service in Korea in 1954, Art enrolled in the Department of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. It was there that he developed deep, life-long friendships with his mentor Professor Wayne Burns (author of ‘The Panzaic Principle’) and a community of fellow students. His PhD dissertation on Miguel de Cervantes’ novel ‘Don Quixote’ was published in 1971 as ‘Don Quixote and the Dulcineated World.’
During his graduate studies in Seattle, Art began producing mimeograph copies of ‘Paunch,’ a journal whose self-described interests included ‘the body in literature, problems in aesthetics, literature in relation to the authority – and criminality – of the modern state, reviews of new writing, and some new poems.’ Over time, ‘Paunch’ became a bound journal with handsome covers created by the artist Priscilla Bowen.
Art and his first wife, Esther, moved to Buffalo in 1963 where he began teaching in the Department of English at the University of Buffalo – a position he held until his retirement in the late 1990s.
Although his courses and publications cover a vast array of interests, the life of the human body and its fate in culture always remained close to the heart of his teaching and writing. His many essays and books speak of the importance to him of the work of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, the philosophers John Dewey and Stephen Pepper, the psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich, and the social anarchism of Alex Comfort and others.
The final, book-length issue of ‘Paunch,’ Number 69-70, was issued in 1999 as a homage to Art’s writing, teaching, and friendship. The issue’s title – ‘The Live Creature,’ after a chapter in one of Art’s favorite books, Dewey’s ‘Art As Experience’ – describes the man exactly. On the book’s cover is the voice of D.H. Lawrence, another cherished writer: ‘Give us things that are alive and flexible, which won’t last too long and become an obstruction and a weariness.’
Art wanted to help build a more peaceful, hospitable world. He was a former member of the Buffalo Peace Centre, a lifelong supporter of social justice organizations, and a founding member of the Independent School of Buffalo.
He was also a season ticket holder of the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, loved attending Shakespeare in the Park, and was an enthusiastic member of the Albright Knox Art Gallery. Participation with Art in any of these activities was to realize how fully alive he was to the creative dimension and to people around him.
In his day-to-day life, Art had a unique ability to really connect with people with varied life experiences – children, academic colleagues, store clerks, neighbors – and he did so spontaneously and genuinely.
‘The world will be a less vivid place if Art is not active in it,’ writes Art’s long-time friend and colleague Dr. Irving Massey. ‘He set a standard that compelled everyone around him, whether consciously or otherwise, to be more and do more.’
Art leaves his wife, Ruth Kirstein, his daughter and son-in-law, Sonia Efron and Jeff Dosch, three brothers and sisters-in-law, Bradley and Donna, Donald and Randa, and Ronald (late Pat), and many nephews, nieces, and cousins.
A Memorial Service will be held at a later date. Donations in Art’s memory may be made to a charity of one’s choice.