Dylan Isaac Ravenfox

'Dylan Ravenfox' - a beautiful name, which just this evening I Googled out of sheer curiosity to see what a former student might be doing now. Only to find that he is gone.

I knew Dylan hardly at all, really. I was teaching at Haverford for just one year, my first real job, fresh out of grad school. A class on my specialization, Philosophy of Mind, wound up with only two students. Dylan was one of them.

I still have his work for the class here in my computer files. He...

We didn't know each other for very long, but in that short time you amazed me with your intellect, sensitivity, and maturity. I wish you knew how much you are missed, and by how many people.

I miss you. I read the poems and stories you wrote for me and I feel so sad without you here.

I can't say I was one of Dylan's good friends, but something pierced my soul when I heard of his passing. As the years have passed after graduation I look back on my experiences at Haverford and look for Dylan because I know he was there. I see us passing one another on the paths at Haverford. He was never one to lower his head and pretend not to see me. He always said hello. I see myself at a table with Dylan and others, one of the small side tables in the dining center and Dylan told me the...

On Dylan Ravenfox

Dylan arrived at Farm Sanctuary at the beginning of June 2009, heady from just graduating from Haverford. He was young and passionate and full of promise, and he was deeply committed to changing the world for farm animals.

He was also brilliant, kind and talented. Dylan had the most incredible inner voice, which was clear in his writing, which was sometimes beautiful and sometimes dark, reflecting the true nature of the world.

The everyday...

• My name is John Muse and I worked with Dylan at Haverford College in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009.
• First, I want to thank Caroline Ravenfox for her hospitality. For not only welcoming me to her home and into this lovely place and into this gathering of family and friends—I want to thank her also for allowing me to speak, not just for myself, but on behalf of Haverford College, of its communities, academic and other, communities that loved Dylan and continue to love him. ...

Dylan and I had several classes together throughout our time at Haverford and, as a result, I was fortunate to see him grow rapidly in his intellectual and personal development. Consistently pensive and thoughtful, when Dylan spoke, the entire room listened: every word conveyed passion, brilliance, and deep moral regard to the larger world at hand--a mindset which I think he applied to everything he did. I always admired Dylan for his innate ability to redirect esoteric jargon and ideas to...

Dear Friends,

It is one of Dylan’s defining gifts that I can presume to embrace you all as friends on this achingly sorrowful occasion, for his gentle, loving spirit enriched and linked everyone fortunate enough to have been touched by his all-too-brief life. Each of us, I know, has been uplifted by Dylan’s extraordinary creativity and sparkling intelligence, his moral courage and sympathetic imagination, his sly but always compassionate humor … and, certainly, by his wonderful,...

I got to know Dylan when I went to Haverford as a visiting professor in 2006. He was a student in the very first class I taught, and he was the last person I said goodbye to when I went elsewhere in the summer of 2008. In fact, we took a long cross-country drive together as he made his way home after his junior year and I moved on to other things.

When I first encountered Dylan as a student, what immediately struck me was his restless energy, his probing intelligence, and his...