Sam was never a teacher of mine. I met him in Russia when I’d a scholarship for a fiction workshop. But Sam was a standout: a nice guy and a true advocate for his students.
Plus, and this I can attest to, he’s a great fellow passenger on the hell-ride known as Aeroflot. I spent many, many hours with that guy in various threadbare airports.
His efforts are now up on the Guernica site.