Stephen H. Tudor was born on October 12, 1933, in Carroll, Iowa, to Eugenie Ellis Tudor (d. 1997) and Hugh J. Tudor (d. 1986). He had two siblings—his sister, Jeannie Campbell Tudor (1934-2006), and his brother, William E. Tudor (b. 1931), a now-retired Anglican minister, who had the sad honor of officiating at Steve’s memorial service.

Steve Tudor, poet and professor, taught creative writing at Wayne State University in Detroit from 1968 until his death in 1994. He earned his B.A. at Trinity University, Hartford, CT, MFA from the University of Oregon, and MA from the University of Iowa, where he met Eleanor Petzoldt, whom he married on October 15, 1960. Their son, Michael, was born August 2, 1962. At WSU, Steve became one of the primary mentors for creative-writing students and served as director of the Creative Writing Area until he became Associate Chair of the department, two years before his death.

His poetry was published widely in journals and magazines (including North American Review, Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, and Open Places). His chapbook, Tudor’s Anatomy, a celebration of self from head to toe, was published by Corridors Press in 1981.

Steve loved sailing and wrote extensively about the activity. Sailing is the chief subject of his book Hangdog Reef (1989), which won a Faculty Award from Wayne State University’s Board of Governors. He also was a recipient of an NEA fellowship.

He disappeared while competing in a Great Lakes race, the Singlehanded Challenge Regatta, which begins in Port Huron and finishes at Mackinac Island. His sailboat was found, but his body never was recovered.

His final collection of poetry, also about boats and his love of the water, Haul-Out (1996), was published posthumously.

He is survived by his wife and son.

The Stephen H. Tudor Endowed Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing, established in his name at Wayne State University by the English Department faculty, continues to support students in creative writing.

I lived in Detroit for over eight years, from 1974 to 1982. That’s where I started writing poetry: taking night classes from Faye Kicknosway and Ken Mikolowski at Wayne State, attending the Cranbrook Writers’ Conference, and joining various poetry workshops. In 1977, while still living in Detroit, I enrolled in the country’s first low-residency MFA program at Goddard College in Vermont. In my last semester, I worked with Stephen Dobyns (the stunning and prolific poet and novelist), who had graduated from Wayne State and still considered Detroit his old stomping grounds. I had a lot of research to do, and WSU’s library was the best place to do it, but I wasn’t a registered student. Dobyns, who knew Steve Tudor, told me to contact him in order to get full library privileges.

Dobyns told me that Tudor was one of the very best professors and, besides, “a great and considerate guy” who would be sympathetic to my situation. He was totally right on both counts. I remember my first meeting with Steve; he put me right at ease—telling me not to worry about my access to the library because he would take care of any problems. And he did. Then we spent about an hour talking about Goddard’s MFA Program, his memories of Stephen Dobyns, and my own writing. He was a remarkably generous man to someone who, at the time, was a total stranger. I have never forgotten his kindness to me, and I was deeply saddened by his death in 1994. At that time, I was living in Grand Rapids but came back to Wayne for his memorial service.

Probably the best tribute to Steve and his work that I’ve read can be found in Daniel Hughes’ foreword to Steve’s book Haul-Out:

“When Steve Tudor lost his life sailing on the Great Lakes in 1994, his friends and readers knew it would not be ‘o.k.’ and that the ‘reassurances’ would probably never come. But the poems he left behind...give us solace and a memory and remind us, in the words of Wallace Stevens, how poetry helps us to live our lives...”

Steve Tudor was a class act.
– Linda Nemec Foster