Deceased August 14, 2020
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In Memory
After a long and very brave struggle with pancreatic cancer, John Buscaglia passed away on Aug. 14 in Wyoming, R.I.
John and I became friends within days of my arriving at Amherst as a sophomore year transfer student. I saw right away how whip smart, charismatic and independent minded he was—qualities that never faded throughout his life. We shared a social dorm on campus for two years and then lived together in a house on East Street, part of a fabled communal-living situation with several other Amherst College students and their significant others.
From those long-gone days, I remember our long talks about philosophy, politics and life in general. John’s views, while sometimes acerbic, were never downbeat or negative. He was inquisitive, questioning of all dogmas and one of the great friends of my life.
John’s love of learning led him beyond Amherst to further degrees in Chinese studies from the University of Massachusetts and Asian religions and philosophy at Yale University. His later pursuits spanned a wide array of interests. These included translating writings from Japanese into English, owning and operating his own wood-turning studio for nearly 30 years and working for many years at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where he played an integral role in the popular tourist destination’s formal galleries, ships and trades.
John and his beloved wife, Susan Shaw, a noted artist in her own right, were organizers of HopArts Studio Trail, a network of artisans and artisans in southern Rhode Island.
Amherst College has long prided itself on helping unique individuals forge a bright, productive path in their lives. No one exemplified this quality better than John Buscaglia, whose active and engaged life ended far too soon.
Lee Polevoi ’74