From his obituary:
Stringfellow, William Marshall Age 95, of Dallas, TX, died June 5, 2013. Born February 7, 1918, to Bess Long and Lon Stringfellow, he was a professor of English for forty years. He also served six years in the U.S. Army during World War II and Korea attaining the rank of Major.

William Stringfellow died while I was away on vacation.  I just found out – and I am saddened, and will miss him.

He lived at one of the Retirement Communities where I speak regularly — Presbyterian Village North.  I “knew him” in snippets of conversations.  He lived a long and good life, and died at age 95.

One day, I quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer in one of my presentations, and he told me that he was in the group of soldiers that liberated Bonhoeffer’s camp in World War II – just hours after Bonhoeffer’s execution.  (If only they had gotten there a little sooner).

But it is his love of reading books that prompts this blog post.  When I first met him (somewhere around the mid-1990s – I’ve been speaking at Presbyterian Village North close to 20 years), he lived in the independent living section.  He came to my presentations, and engaged in the back-and-forth energetically.  I learned that he led a reading group that he started for his fellow residents.  He chose the books.  The participants would also read the books, and he would prepare diligently to lead the discussions.

As the years went by, he had to give up the book discussion group.  His eyesight began to fail, and he ultimately moved into the assisted living section of the campus.  I would ask him how he was doing, and one day, he told me that he could no longer see well enough to read anything at all.  It broke his heart.  He loved reading books.  I mean, he deeply, deeply loved reading books.  And he read many, and had quoted from many to me through the years.  And the books he read were books of substance…

Yes,  I will miss him.

Recently, I’ve developed a new “first line” when people ask me what I do.  I tell them that I am a professional book reader.  I know many others.  William Stringfellow was one of the best.

I have a message for the authors out there.  Yes, what you write is important.  I love what you write – and need what you write.  But you would be nothing without your audience – the lovers of books; the book readers of the world.  You will miss William Stringfellow more than you know.