Victor Ehly, ‘67 B.D., ‘71 S.T.M

Hey Elaine,

Thanks so much for your letter and for your brief “COVID bio.” Yes, an interesting fifteen months indeed. The strange thing for me is that it really did not change anything, at least, very little. I retired from full-time academia during my seventieth year (2011). After about six months of enjoying retirement, the Community College of Vermont called and asked me to teach a course. This began what I now think of as a second career, teaching Intercultural Communication both online and in the classroom. My doctorate is in religion and culture, and to tell the truth, I didn’t even know this academic field existed. Eventually, the classroom course came to an end, and the online course became even more popular, so last March when COVID closed down campuses across the nation and here in Vermont, I never missed a beat. I just kept doing what I was doing, sitting in my garret office with two big computer screens with a view out toward our barn. We live at the end of a dead-end dirt road, beautiful and quiet in all seasons. As my friends and colleagues struggled to move from the classroom to online, I was already there.

My tendency is to use traditional religious language to say, “I feel blessed.” However, better to say simply, “I feel lucky,” since my own spiritual journey has let me to the firm conviction that every living entity on this beautiful blue planet is equally “blessed” by spirit.

Of course, I missed seeing our grandchildren in Tennessee and those even closer in Connecticut. Our daughter works for Yale, so when her mother and I begam friends and then wed twenty years ago, I had no idea I would be going back to my beloved New Haven to visit family!

Best,
Victor Ehly