Deceased May 23, 2019
View alumni profile (log in required)
Read obituary
In Memory
Alan Sandy came to Amherst from Minneapolis, where he attended The Blake School. He joined Phi Alpha Psi and, as a pre-med, majored in psychology and biology. He played on the hockey team, was president of the Christian Association and was a member of the Choir, Glee Club and Chamber Singers.
Following graduation, Alan served in the USAF as a jet pilot and air traffic controller in Morocco and took the long way home, studying French at the Sorbonne and traveling 15 months through Europe, the Middle East, India, East Asia and Japan, no longer dedicated to medicine. He developed a lifetime interest in language and cultures, speaking French and having knowledge of Latin, German, Spanish, Hindi-Urdu and Mandarin.
Alan obtained both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English at UC Berkeley and joined the faculties of Princeton and UCLA, where he served on the university’s committee on war-related activities in the Vietnam era, and for most of his career as a professor of English, American and world literature at Sonoma State University in California. He was chair of the first committee on the rights of human subjects in research and became faculty adviser for five students from China, among the first students permitted to study in the United States after the Cultural Revolution.
Alan was a bird watcher, antiquarian book collector, gardener and girls’ soccer coach for many years.
Alan had a lengthy decline from Alzheimer’s disease and died on May 23, 2019. He is survived by his wife, Beverly Voloshin, Ph.D.; son Joseph (Vivian); daughter Rachel (John Rush); sister Susan Sandy Curtis; grandchildren Olivia and Dylan; and several devoted nieces, nephews and good friends. He was predeceased by his brother, the poet Stephen Sandy.
Hank Tulgan ’54