LOVE LETTERS TO AND FROM A MONK

About the Book

The letters begin when my Aunt wrote to inform Rev. Bonnell Spencer of the death of her husband who had been his Williams college roommate. Thus began a 20 year relationship, highlighted by numerous letters written after her husband’s death in 1974 at the age of 70. They are most unusual for they not only are her letters to him, but his responses to her. As time passed they developed a deep feeling for each other. Remarkable people: He was third in his class at Williams, Phi Beta Kappa, a member of Actor’s Equity, a published author and a mentor to many Seminarians in Ghana and numerous other places. He celebrated over 50 years in the life-long profession of being an Episcopalian Monk, affiliated with the Holy Cross Monastery at West Park, New York. She began her 48 year long career teaching in a one room school and ending as a professor at Central Connecticut State University teaching others to teach. Thereafter she continued to be an activist for many humanitarian and politically liberal causes. Both were world travelers and met in England, Santa Barbara, New York City and numerous other exotic places. Theirs was a most unusual and sensitive relationship. The letters are exceptionally well written and one wants to read on to see how they managed to meet and to learn how two extraordinary people thought about life, religion, education, politics and the world of their day., as well as to learn what would become of their relationship.

About the Author

Her career has been spent working for professional labor unions: The Connecticut Education Association and the University of Rhode Island American Association of University Professors and focused primarily on issues of labor relations as well as Health Insurance and Pensions, Not only does she currently teach a graduate level course on this topic at the University of Rhode Island she has published two major books and several articles on the topic, while continuing to focus her research on how people retire. Thus this collection of letters she read after her Aunt’s death has also inspired her to a new focus on the specific area of retirement for people after 75. She received her PhD from the University of Connecticut and also studied at the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.. She is listed in Feminists Who Changed America, edited by Barbara J. Love, Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 2006