Wendell Refior

Wendell Refior is an independent non-academic Emerson scholar and impersonator, currently employed as a statistical analyst for a biotech firm in Cambridge. He has been a serious student of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings since 1996. He taught two Fall 2006 Emerson classes, one in Concord-Carlyle Continuing Education and one in Cambridge Center for Adult Education. These will continue in Spring 2007. He taught his “Re-Reading Emerson” class at Emerson Umbrella, a center for the arts in Concord, in April/May, 2006. In the past four years, Wendell has appeared in Concord as Emerson in period costume for a poetry reading at First Parish, three Civil War-era Historical Re-enactments and a Re-enactment DVD recording session at the Old Manse, and for UU services focused on Emerson held in Waltham and Medfield. He was one of four panelists at the Emerson Society for its July 2001 session in Concord, Mass, based on his analysis of Emerson’s essay, “Experience.” Wendell taught a four-session Emerson class in 2001 with the Rev. Martha Niebanck at Waltham First Parish (UU). In Jan – Feb 2004, he taught a six-session class there using the curriculum written for the Emerson Bicentennial named, “The Living Legacy of RWE.” Wendell is a Life Member of the Emerson Society and is serving on its Board for 2007-2009. He has attended Emerson sessions at Thoreau Society Annual Gatherings since 1999 and at American Literature Association conferences in Boston since 2001. He studied alternative education methods from 1968 to 1969, and was a part-time secular and religious education teacher from 1969-1977 for both the Ecumenical Institute / Institute for Cultural Affairs, based in Chicago. He completed his M.S. in Statistics at University of Connecticut in 1980. In 1998, Wendell moved to Belmont, Mass., where he now lives with his wife, Marla Welsford.