My spouse, Kathryn Grossman, was a professor of French at Penn State for forty-four years until her retirement in July, 2017. Her research interest is 19th-century French literature, especially the fiction of Victor Hugo. Oxford University Press published her study of the later novels of Victor Hugo in 2012. She is working hard on a new book about how Les Miserables became part of American culture. She rejoiced to see Google commemorate the printing of the last volume of the novel (1862) on June 30, 2017. In 2025 she published an op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the parallells between George Orwell’s 1984 and current American politics.

We have been known to cook a decent meal or two and keep track of the best restaurants where we have dined. Very few are as famous as Per Se or Gordon Ramsay; the real joy is finding great food in surprising places. Despite our advanced age, we continue to work on ballroom dancing skills. We are unlikely to appear on Dancing with the Stars.

We spent two sabbatical years at William Goodenough House in London in (1987-88 and 1994-95), but we were also able to spend a fair amount of time in France.

Holidays in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Brazil, France, the American Southwest, Alaska, and Greece confirm that there are so many wonderful places and so little time. I will always remember driving from Marseilles to Rome — it was hard to keep my attention on the road. To see a cougar at Mesa Verde is an unforgettable experience (for me, not the cougar). Whales off the coast of Nantucket and the fjords of Alaska are also a thrill.

Our visit to Morocco in 2019 was fabulous; South Africa in 2015 was astonishing. The dramatic arrival of COVID19 changed our travel plans for several years, but in 2023-2025 we made several trips to France with our grandchildren.

I am a very big fan of Nikon cameras and lenses, and it is a great pleasure to spend a day with my Nikon D90 and Photoshop. Flickr groups are a godsend when I’m curious about or frustrated with my results. I am especially delighted to take photos of our grandchildren, but I’m always game for pets, flowers, wildlife, and landscapes.

We are active members of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. I am also active in the work of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and on October 19, 2011, I was ordained to the priesthood at Trinity Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. From 2010-2017 I served two churches in Renovo, Pennsylvania: Trinity Episcopal Church and Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. In May, 2017, I was called to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Lewistown, PA. It is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. We have services on Sundays and Wednesdays at 10AM — come and see what we’re about in the Episcopal Church.

Our diocese is part of the Episcopal Church in the US, which is part of the worldwide Anglican communion. If you want to understand the quirks and customs of Anglicanism, read Anthony Trollope’s The Warden or Barchester Towers. If you want to know a lot about Anglicanism, ask me! Another way would be to hear what the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said about the mission of the church when she visited central Pennsylvania on September 7, 2013. Better yet, hear the words of Presiding Bishop William Curry. His sermon at a royal wedding went viral.

We adore our children and grandchildren, but we will brag only about our pets in this public space. We believe that our dog Ike was the Einstein of the canine world, and we mourned his death on June 29, 1999. He could learn to do almost anything.

While we will never forget Ike, we are so pleased that on March 17, 2011, Blaze was born. A pure-bred GSD, he moved in with us in May, 2011, and he brought great joy to our lives until his untimely death — far too soon. . If you want to see Blaze in all of his glory, ask to join the BlazeHarwood album on Shutterfly. At six months, he weighed about 85 pounds. Want to see how he grew in those months? Click for a Blaze Movie of his first year with us. When he died suddenly from an aggresssive, undetected cancer on February 5, 2021, our hearts were broken.

No pet can replace another, but in March 2022, we were introduced to a new companion, Bambi, a German Shepherd mix. After a rough start in life, she has blessed us by joining us.

Our sister cats, Minou and Chouchou, were real delights. After ten years, they had taught us to do one trick. Chouchou walked on a leash with me daily until her death on October 5, 2010 — rain, snow, darkness mattered not a bit. We always walked together. May all three rest in peace.

In January, 2011, we adopted Didi from PAWS. She died in 2020, but we never knew her date of birth. She had been returned to PAWS three times before she came to us as her forever home. She was an inspiration to us as we helped Blaze learn about indoor living. She was a wonderful, kind cat except to our cat-sitters — let’s call this a mystery (the vet calls it “territorial aggression” and it was a wonder to observe. She truly enjoyed taunting Blaze (and vice-versa), but she never scratched him — not even once. She is buried behind our house in the pet cemetery. May all of these pets, like all of family and friends who are with us no longer, rest in peace and rise in glory as members of the larger family of God.DSC_0006.JPG