StC News

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. '47 (1930 - 2018)

We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of esteemed alumnus Tom Wolfe, Class of 1947.
An icon of the literary world, Mr. Wolfe generously shared his time and talents with his alma mater over the many years since leaving St. Christopher's.  For more than two decades, he and his wife Sheila hosted an annual spring party in their Manhattan home for St. Christopher's alumni who lived in New York, which Tom dubbed the "Annual Gotham Dogwood and Pine Needle Party." He returned to campus often for reunions, including his 50th reunion in 1997.

 
He was the featured speaker at the School's Centennial Celebration, followed by presentations to students and adults throughout the weekend. In his Foreword to the School's Centennial History, published in 2011, Tom wrote, "St. Christopher's turned out to be one of the greatest strokes of luck--or pedagogy--in my life...To tell the truth, after St. Christopher's most courses I took in literature, even in graduate school, struck me as print versions of a garden tour."  

As the Honorary Chair of the School's first endowment campaign, Tom wrote, "When I went to graduate school at Yale, I began to realize that St. Christopher's standards were probably unsurpassed anywhere in the country.  But I also recall that those high standards depended on something else: a superb, dedicated faculty teaching small classes."

Tom was well known for his association with and influence in stimulating the New Journalism style of news writing and journalism, in which literary techniques are used extensively. He was the author of works including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970), The Painted Word (1975), The Right Stuff (1979), The Bonfire of the Vanities(1987), A Man in Full (1998), I Am Charlotte Simmons (2004) and Back to Blood (2012). 

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Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with the Wolfe family. 
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