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Remembering Linda Ann Kunz

   It’s with great sadness that we must share the passing of

Linda Ann Kunz

on December 21, 2009.

Special Recognition: New York Times ESOL Teacher of the Year

For anyone who would like to contribute to Linda's favorite charities, these are the sites:

Teachers for East Africa Alumni 

The African Canadian Continuing Education Society 

In Loving Memory of Linda Ann Kunz

We met our dear friend and colleague Linda Ann Kunz in 1982 when we began to study Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel. We were in several classes together. She loved Aesthetic Realism for the endless encouragement she recieved to like and see meaning in the world through this principle: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."She told us that seeing the opposites in what was beautiful, including in the structure of a good sentence, was a guide to her to have the same opposites in a better relation in herself. Every person, she saw, wants to be like a beautiful sentence: to have the right relation of separation and junction, independence and need. She said this knowledge always helped her through difficult situations and enabled her to have a deep and honest like of the world.

Going to the Metropolitan Museum with Linda was always a rich and exciting experience. We would decide what work of art to write about for the Visual Arts and the Opposites class, which we were both taking. We always had a deep and satisfying day as we learned about the art and artists we were viewing, and also got to know ourselves better through the principle mentioned above.

My [Arlene's] mother and Linda's mother were friends, and they too studied Aesthetic Realism. Every year we would all spend the Christmas holiday together in Florida. The two of us and Arlene's mother loved attending midnight mass and hearing Linda and her mother sing in the choir. Then there would be a sumptuous dinner on Christmas Day. Linda was a great cook. She and her mother would open their home to friends and extended members of our family. We would all sit around the dining room table and have lively discussions that the two of us will always be grateful for and remember for the rest of our lives.

As the writers on this site know, Linda loved words and had a passion for others to understand sentence structure through X-Word Grammar. She would have so much pleasure testing out sentence structure on her friends, including us. It moves us to know that

X-Word Grammar will continue to be taught by her colleagues who see this method as a very valuable tool. Linda was very glad that X-Word Grammar is now in the hands of those she most trusted to make sure it would continue being taught.

Linda had a zest for life and the ability to affect others, and she could have a person lifted by her descriptions of what moved her. It was a joy to hear her describe a piece of music in the Opposites in Music class. 

As Bonny Hart says on this website, Linda's care for Aesthetic Realism was enormous. She thought this knowledge was not only true and kind, but needed by everyone. We agree. She was very proud of an important book review she wrote, published in Smithsonian Magazine: http://www.aestheticrealism.net/reviews/SAW-smithsonian-review.htm

This review shows her careful critical opinion of Eli Siegel's  Self and World: An Explanation of Aestheic Realism.

There is so much more to say, because Linda's life was varied and rich, including the years she spent teaching in Africa. But we will end by saying that we love you, Linda. You have affected the lives of so many. Your meaning will live on. We will miss you. Rest in peace, dear friend.

Arlene Sulkis & Sheldon Silverman

For those of us in the New York Area, Linda was lovingly known as the X-Word Grammar Queen. She was unfailingly generous with her knowledge, her time, and her many books and publications. Many of us learned about X-Word grammar from her workshops. She could answer any question and gleefully defend against any challenge.

Linda’s two loves were X-word Grammar and Aesthetic Realism. I can’t say that I really understand Aesthetic Realism, but I know that it says, “All beauty is a making one of opposites.” Linda did not want X-Word Grammar to be lost. She was afraid that she would die without it being passed on.  How beautiful was it then that her death was discovered by younger X-Word Grammar enthusiasts who were coming to her apartment for holiday cheer and talk of sentence structure? --Bonny Hart

Linda, please rest easily.  You have left behind a cohort of X-Word enthusiasts because of your unfailing willingness to teach us and support our curiosity.  Whether we were having tea with you at “Alice’s Tea Room” or sitting by your side in a CUNY seminar room, whether we were dissecting sentences with rods or analyzing slot sheets, you were our guide and mentor.  My office is filled with every book you ever wrote, and each time I open one of those books, another moment of grammar pleasure occurs for me.  We will always remember the beauty of your smile and your talk of the beauty of the wood floors in your apartment, and your splendid zest for life.  Please rest easily. -- Tamara Kirson 

I am without words. 

I ran into Linda several weeks ago while waiting for the E train in Queens. As usual, she was engaging and full of energy. I am very fortunate to have observed her brilliant teaching at workshops and in her classroom.--Jordan Cael

I'm so saddened by Linda's passing.  How I wish I had seen her one more time.  

   Her X-word legacy was so important to her, and she was very happy with Bonny's work to get X-word online for everyone.  It must have been a special joy for her to see that so many new people  were joining the X-word community -- Maggie Gilliam

I am typing this with such a heavy heart . . . how I will miss her, her sense of humor, her special way with words that  helped us all to understand grammar so much better.  How she loved her students  . . . her teaching . . . life.  What a spirit. . . . all the time she devoted to us so that her beloved X-Word Grammar could be shared and appreciated the way she knew it must be.  It will, Linda . . . I promise you that.  Sue Livingston  

Linda was such an invaluable resource, not only for x-word grammar but also for her marvelous good cheer. Her life introduced me and so many others to a more effective way to teach, and her death has prompted me to be more focused about how I use her work. I miss her already as I re-read her materials and think of all kinds of linguistic questions that she would have loved, but I am so grateful to her for constantly working to make x-word grammar accessible to everyone. She was so good at helping teachers figure out how to get students to discover grammar in their own writing and reading. Although it's sad to lose her, it will be a delight to honor her by using x-word grammar in every single class.  Cyndi Casey

As teachers of a class that Linda attended for many years--to which she contributed so many valuable comments, observations, and lessons--we are among those who benefited by her presence and her energy. We respect enormously her review in the Smithsonian magazine of Eli Siegel's work Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism--as we respect her steady and deep love of language, her contribution to its study, and her love for that which she saw as explaining the purpose of language and its structure of opposites, the Aesthetic Realism philosophy itself. We will miss her very much. 

Barbara Allen

Patricia Martone

Dr. Arnold Perey

Rosemary Plumstead  (Teachers of the Education Workshop at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation)

The April 25th Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times included a small blurb about Linda.  Here is what it said on page 4 in a small section devoted to the winner of ESOL Teacher of the Year:

"Special recognition to:

The late Dr. Linda Ann Kunz of the English Language Center, LaGuardia Community College, for her extraordinary work in the field."