John Gardner: A Michaelic Individual

CONVERSATION WITH NEILL REILLY

John F. Gardner was born July 3, 1912, in San Acacio, Colorado. He was admitted to Princeton College at the age of fifteen, and also attended Rollins College, where he met his future wife, Carol Hemingway. In 1933, he was introduced to the work of Rudolf Steiner, which he took up with great enthusiasm during a four-month stay at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. That same year, without the consent of Carol’s brother Ernest Hemingway, he and Carol were married. John rejected the lure of fame that Ernest represented, and Ernest, on his side, never spoke to his youngest sister again.

John was tall with a calm voice. You would not miss him in a crowd.

John was Chairperson of the Garden City Waldorf School on Long Island and also helped found the Waldorf Institute at Adelphi University.

He went to the other side on July 7, 1998, in the Buckley Nursing Home in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He was eighty-six.

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Neill Reilly was born and raised on Long Island, NY. He was graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Philosophy. He was also graduated from The Waldorf Institute at Adelphi University with an M.A. in Waldorf Pedagogy. Neill taught High School English for 7 years at two Waldorf Schools and a Catholic school. He coached Basketball, Track, and Lacrosse. He also directed plays. After teaching, he worked as a salesperson at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Jefferies and Company. Neill has also been a salesperson at numerous financial technology firms. Neill has written two books Songs and Dreams and Look at What We Can Become. The latter includes a portrait of Prof. Fritz Koelln and four other Michaelic individuals. His essays and poems have appeared in Being More Consciously Human, the Bowdoin Alumni Magazine, and other publications.

Tap to view Neill’s previous Café recording.

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Up-Coming Café Guests
Please watch for special Saturday Cafés
as we periodically will hear from Café Guests outside of North America!

Aug. 25: Stewart Lundy
Sep. 2: Richard Steel (Special Saturday Café @ 11 a.m. U.S. MT)
Sep. 8: Florian Sydow
Sep. 15: Andrew Linnell
Sep. 22: Patricia Kaminsky