From Wordsworth to Wine

One of Roland Maradino’s ’72GSAS, ’81GSAS fondest memories of Columbia is afternoon tea in Philosophy Hall. “It provided a unique setting for banter with fellow graduate students,” he said, “Some of them became my close friends.”

Roland grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Attracted by its extensive library and renowned faculty, he chose Columbia to pursue a post-graduate degree in Renaissance English literature.

Columbia developed and sharpened his academic and critical thinking skills. “Seminars with Elisabeth Story Donno and William Nelson provided insight and provoked critical thinking,” he recalled. “Classes by Lionel Trilling on Jane Austen and Wordsworth, by Edward Tayler on John Milton, and by Maristella Lorch on Dante were among the most thought provoking.”

Teaching Freshman Seminar at Columbia College helped to hone his teaching skills. “I explored the concept of utopia in the works of Sir Thomas More, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Aldous Huxley,” he said. His experience paid off after graduation when he accepted a position at Harvard University.

After teaching expository writing for four years, Roland changed course.

“I realized that a university career would not allow me to indulge some of my more worldly interests, such as wine, food, travel, and opera, so I left university life for the business world,” he said. “I parlayed my talents for teaching and writing into a 25-year career as a technical writer for software computer firms, a skill that I eventually applied on my own behalf to share a passion for wine.”

Hoping to “de-mystify the world of wine through clear and simple expression” he said, Roland started Tablewine.com in 1994. His goal was to reach the internet’s young audience and appeal to their interest in affordable wines for everyday drinking.

“Over the decade or so that I published the website, I acquired quite a following on the web,” he said. “By the time I decided to turn the hobby into a full-time job, I had almost 3,000 subscribers and 12,000 hits a day.”

Roland’s career in the wine industry comprised working as a wine ambassador for a major US importer, traveling throughout the United States and representing two Italian winemaking families, one from Tuscany, the other from the Veneto. 

“After 10 years on the road, however, I thought it was time to retire,” he said. “I took part-time positions working with New York public school students at the grammar and high-school levels.”

Today, Roland and his husband, Andrew Lerer, live in Mahwah, New Jersey, with their miniature schnauzer Contessa (“Tessa” for short). An enthusiastic cook, he shares his adventures with other home cooks online on the Cooking from Books blog.

Together, Roland and Andrew have made gifts by will to establish an endowed fellowship for Ph.D. candidates in English and Comparative Literature at GSAS.

“Columbia was very generous to me as a graduate student,” Roland explained. “When my Woodrow Wilson Fellowship expired after my first year of graduate study, Columbia provided a fellowship for advanced study. While I was pursuing my PhD, Columbia offered me additional assistance with both teaching and research fellowships.

“Given this generosity,” he continued, “my husband and I thought it only right to ‘pay it forward’ by endowing a fellowship.”

Roland and Andrew hope that the fellowship will make it easier for graduate students to pursue their studies and earn advanced degrees. For both of them, supporting Columbia has been a “extremely satisfying experience,” Roland said, “especially in today’s political environment, where universities are struggling to remain independent.”