Another great one gone

Rico says he was otherwise engaged at the time, but John Haag died back in 2008:

John Haag, 6 April 1926 to 24 November 2008. John Haag, of Bellefonte, died at the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home, in the arms of his wife, Corene Johnston. Haag was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, the son of Joseph Paul and Bertha Belleville Haag. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sisters, Janette Smith of Boulder City, Nevada and Virginia Cox of Vancouver, Washington, along with a whole passle of loving and beloved nieces and nephews, including a few great-nieces and nephews, and even a couple of great-greats. John traveled the world during four years in the Merchant Marine during World War Two, and three years in the Navy during the Korean War. He eventually attended both the University of Washington at Seattle, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and Reading University in Reading, England. He was both a Fulbright and a Woodrow Wilson fellow. After completion of his graduate work in 1961, he accepted a faculty position in English at Penn State's University Park Campus, where, for more than thirty years, he cultivated the development of young writers in the ways that he had been mentored by Theodore Roethke, James Wright, and Stanley Kunitz. Students from as long ago as the 1960s stayed in touch with 'The Perfesser' until the end of his life. Some have gone on to win acclaim with their own writing. Haag once decided to publish "from A to Z" and, over the course of the next few years, had poems accepted by a number of magazines and other periodicals, with names beginning with the letter "A," and progressing through the alphabet. The letter "S" was represented by Scientific American. He also published two chap books, small, paper-backed volumes of poetry. His hardcover Stones Don't Float: Poems Selected and New, won the 1996 Ohio State University's The Journal award in poetry. Haag was an orchid aficionado, and past president of the Central Pennsylvania Orchid Society. With his friend, the author Bill Russell, Haag learned and taught others about the pleasures of wild mushrooms during woods walks and haute cuisine pot lucks. After his retirement from Penn State, Haag spent most Tuesday mornings drinking coffee and hanging out with other retired guys and the regulars at Webster's Book Store & Cafe on Allen Street in State College. A celebration of the rowdy, sui generis poet's life was held at Webster's on 14 December 2008

Rico says he only knew Haag through a mutual friend, Kelley, and never met the man, but admired the hell out of his writing. He is missed.