Lecture Date: January 28, 2025
The Russell Mait and Barbara Stone Mait ’79 Lecture
In this deeply intimate and soulful memoir about her father, Anne Serling reveals the fun-loving dad and family man behind the serious figure the public saw hosting The Twilight Zone each week. In 1975, Rod Serling’s untimely death at 50 years old left 20-year-old Anne stunned and reeling. But through talking to his friends, poring over old letters, and recounting her childhood memories, Anne not only navigated her profound grief, but gained a deeper understanding of this remarkable man both as her father and as a dynamic writer. Now she shares her journey, along with personal photos, letters, scenes of her dad’s youth, his service in World War II, and her family’s time together. As I Knew Him is at once a portrait of a father and daughter, and a tribute to Rod Serling’s legacy as a visionary, storyteller, and humanist.
Speaker: Anne Serling
Anne Serling was born in Greenwich, Connecticut and grew up in southern California. Before becoming a full-time writer, she was an early childhood teacher. Anne serves on the board of directors of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.
Anne has been published in The Twilight Zone, The Original Stories and The Twilight Zone Magazine in which she adapted two of her father’s teleplays into short stories. She has had poetry published in The Cornell Daily Sun and Visions. Her works have also appeared in Salon.com and Huffington Post and she is currently writing a novel: AFTERSHOCKS.
