John Pierce Volk – 50th Reunion Essay

John Pierce Volk

Date of Death: 10-Aug-2001

College: Timothy Dwight

His widow, Mary Volk writes: John Became an apprentice carpenter in Colorado following his graduation from Yale in 1969 with a degree in Economics. Ten or so years later he attended and graduated from Boston College Law School. While in law school he organized the first international Hunger and Law Conference which explored ways to feed the world’s hungry populations through law.

He practiced government regulatory law in both Massachusetts and Connecticut for the Labor Departments in both states, including the Office of Handicapped Affairs in Massachusetts and OSHA in Connecticut.

John married Mary Buell Sullivan in 1991. He enjoyed spending time with his two stepsons, Michael and Daniel Sullivan, and his own two nieces, Nelly and Anna. He was active in the Alumni Admissions Committee for Yale while living in Farmington Connecticut in the ’90s.

John was a writer in his free time and was working on a young persons’ book, Dear Boys and Girls, while he was undergoing treatment for lymphoma in 2000–2001. He wrote of his daily life with cancer in an honest, straightforward way, full of anecdotes and adventures while walking his two yellow Labradors on the beach in Hull, Massachusetts. (Max Derbes, in the 2001 Class Notes reported that “John had received Boston’s Manuscript Club’s award for nonfiction, for his series of letters to children dealing with issues of mortality.”)

John was full of life, laughter, and idealism and was beloved by many. He died of leukemia in August of 2001 at the age of 55.