Gary R. Hafer was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1957. A son to Virginia Martha Hafer and Richard Peter Hafer. Virginia Hafer was a seamstress at Berkshire Knitting Mill, and Richard Hafer was a machinist for Berks Engineering. As a teenager, Gary was active in his school’s HAM radio program and later convinced his father to buy their own set. After convincing his father, they both became amateur HAM radio operators and connected with people across the country and the world. Gary was also an avid bowler with his father and would compete in bowling leagues together. After graduating from Reading high school in 1975, Gary was admitted to Kutztown University and worked as a McDonald’s line cook on weekends. In 1980, Gary graduated from Kutztown with a B.A in English. He then continued to work at McDonalds for another two years as an assistant store manager before attending Purdue University to pursue a PhD in English and Rhetoric from 1982 to 1987. After graduating, Gary became an adjunct professor at West Chester University and worked for the seminary as a groundsman. In 1990, he met his future wife, Marjorie Maddox, at an English Professor’s conference in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1992, Gary was offered an assistant professorship at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. Two years later, Gary married Marjorie Maddox, then assistant professor of English and Creative writing at neighboring Lock Haven University, and moved into their new home in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1995. In 1997, they had a daughter and a son in 1999. Gary became a full professor in 2002 at Lycoming College. In 2010, Gary suffered a life-threatening heart attack but rapidly recovered. This near-death experience shaped his outlook for the rest of his life and bolstered his passion for grilling and community outreach. Since 2010, Gary has been most known in his community as a grilling guru and advocate for healthier eating. He has hosted grilling demonstrations at hundreds of colleges, private businesses, and grilling events across Pennsylvania. Gary Hafer retired from Lycoming college in 2024 after 32 years. Gary’s appetite for learning has not diminished however and still remains an avid reader in many fields, especially history. Gary’s own life story intersected with many important global historical events, such as Kennedy’s Assassination, Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, and 9/11. Most memorable to him was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Gary still remembers talking to West Germans about the wall on his HAM radio in the late 1960s, when he was only a teenager.
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