Joseph Fichtelberg, chairman of the English department at Hofstra University, has notified us of the establishment of a scholarship fund that honors the memory of the great Mets fan, blogger, author and friend Dana Brand:
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It was less than three months ago that Dana Brand was taken from us. I worked with Dana for twenty years — a significant portion of his life — at Hofstra University, where Dana was a professor of English. I admired his wit, his humanity, his generosity, his optimism, his wisdom, his honesty, his passion for life. Anyone who read Dana’s books or his blog knows what I mean.
Last April, on his fiftieth Opening Day, Dana recalled listening to his first on a radio in his room. “In my mind, I often go back to that room and feel the skin of the radio, the smell of my mitt, and hear the voices…when I was seven, I had no concrete sense that there could even be such a thing as fifty years. I knew there had been cavemen and dinosaurs. I knew my parents were in their thirties, and my grandparents were in their sixties. That is all I knew about time.”
At Hofstra, we would like to keep Dana’s memory alive. We have established the Dana Brand Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honor, and we would be grateful for your contribution.
You can contribute in two ways — by check or online. Please send checks to
Meredith Celentano
Assistant Vice President for Development
102Q Hofstra Hall
Hempstead, NY 11549.
You may send online contributions to www.hofstra.edu/giving. Under “Gift Designation,” please specify the Dana Brand Memorial Scholarship Fund.
At the time of his death, Dana was organizing another Fiftieth Anniversary event — a Hofstra conference on the history of the Mets. That conference, to be held a little after Opening Day next April, will be dedicated to Dana and to the rich life he left us.
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If you have further questions, please contact us via e-mail: faithandfear@gmail.com.
Also, Mets Brand, a collection of blogger remembrances of Dana Brand, is available as an e-book and paperback. Any proceeds from the sale of this title will be contributed to Pitch In For A Good Cause, an organization Dana supported enthusiastically.
Sadly, I learned of Dana Brand only by reading of his death in FAFIF. I have since read “Mets Fan” and am currently reading “The Last Days of Shea”. I wish I had known him, since he lived not far from me in Connecticut. I think I would have enjoyed taking in a Mets game with him, and speaking with him of the Mets and many other things. Parenthetically, I identify more with Dana’s mother, perhaps, than with Dana himself, since I am actually of her generation, and I, too, fondly remember Ebbets Field. I actually saw more games at Ebbets Field than at Shea, and have yet to attend a game at Citifield, despite its supposed invocation of the ballpark in Flatbush. Having someone of Dana’s obvious intelligence and humanity to drive to Flushing and back with might have made a difference. Anyway, I am sending a check to his memorial fund as I write this. Thanks, Greg, for bringing this to my attention.
Thank you so much,Greg, for posting this. Dana would be so honored!
What a lovely and fitting tribute!