Tabishland

My dad attended Jeff's memorial service on Saturday. Here's part of an e-mail message he sent about it yesterday: "Yesterday morning I attended a memorial service for Jeff Davis. Over fifty people were there, many were friends of Jeff’s father, Jack, a retired IUP English professor, but others were teachers from the Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, where Jeff taught for eight years. Several persons spoke about their memories of Jeff, including two of his former teaching colleagues. They described him as a demanding yet very popular teacher of creative writing who brought a dramatic flair to the classroom and had a lasting impact on his students. Jeff’s father spoke to the group of Jeff’s brilliant but troubled life, that spiraled downward after the tragic death of his mother nine years ago in an automobile accident. Jack said that Jeff had been seriously ill for the last several years, and, that recently Jeff had talked to him at length about his past successes in teaching, in creative writing, and in the theater, particularly in acting in Indiana High and Theater-in- the Grove productions. A highlight for Jeff was Equus, in which he had the lead. Jack recalled the Equus performance when the bleachers collapsed as the audience rose to give the cast a standing ovation."