Is Steve Levicoff ok?

Last time we spoke was through PM last year.
He was moving to another place and was therefor busy.
Ever since, it's almost like he disappeared completely.

Is he ok?
Does someone know why he left and what happened?

He could be snarky sometimes or overtly sarcastic but he was a good person.
I liked him.

I miss his remarks on this forum.

 

He could react a bit mean sometimes but that was just attention-seeking I think.
I have to say that when you would talk to him privately, it really showed that he was a decent person who went through a lot.
He was a bit misunderstood I think, sometimes.
But I honestly have to say that he had a good heart deep down.
Even though on the forums he could be a bit of a pitbull sometimes.
Wonder what happened to him :/

 

A good heart deep down isn't much of a consolation to the people who he hurt or drove away with his mean spirited and regular attacks. This forum is a lot less active than many like it, in part due to the hostile reception that contributors like him gave to new posters.

 

He was too sharp sometimes in his reactions, true.
However, I recall someone saying that there were two Steve Levicoffs and that one was reasonable and the other vile. Can't remember who said that though.
Steve was intelligent and he could be compassionate but he often snarked or lashed out out of overcompensation I think.
He reached out to me regularly on this forum and he never insulted me.
Yeah, once he asked : "are you going all suicidal on us, drama queen?"
which was not a topic that's appropriate to joke with, but Steve was Steve. He had his way of breaking the ice I guess.
Did people really leave this forum because of Steve?
That's something I was not aware of.
My impression was that the majority of readers just ignored his remarks.

 

He was old and alone. He's probably dead and buried in a pauper cemetery.

 

I doubt anyone on this board has interacted more with Steve than I have. But I have never communicated with him outside of it. I have no idea what has become of him. He did announce his departure many times, only to return to post, until he finally faded away.

John Bear met him once and said that in person, Steve was the antithesis of Steve. Quiet, modest, and (seemingly) normal.

 

I kind of think of him as a precursor to the Social Media phenomenon. A seemingly normal person gets on Social Media and takes on the worst aspects of humanity and vents itself with a feeling of semi anonymity. Commonly witnessed in relation to news article and Facebook groups. Includes laughing at people's tragedies, ridiculing people, sarcasm, sexism, etc.

Steve has a lot of knowledge but would often dismiss things by saying "Mickey Mouse", "degree mill", "diploma mill" without offering a substantive case. And then would also be abusive towards posters.

Again, lots of knowledge but gave up really keeping up with his field or making substantive contributions for the past 30 years?

 

Yes, they did. This and other forums. Some permanently, others not. I took a year off - 2020, IIRC because I took exception to something he wrote. It wasn't even that personal, but you know how I get...

He certainly frightened off newbies, some of whom might have been very interesting. I remember one case where he came out guns blazing and scared off a woman who made a comment about a notorious degree-mill owner. It would have been very interesting to have a thread conversation - or six - with her. She was the mill-meister's adult daughter. If anyone really knew this somewhat fascinating rogue, she was the one. I'm not sure if Steve realized who she was, or not. If he did, perhaps his rage was more about the father, than the daughter. I'll never know.

What's happening with him now? I hope he's having a pleasant retirement. A while before his posts ended, he mentioned he had retired from the trucking field and had moved - or was in the process of moving, I forget which - to another State. Steve had a long career in the trucking business and I'm pretty sure he did things very well and was much respected in his work. He knew an awful lot of history, about both the good and the shady sides of higher education (the side that ALWAYS interests me) and I used to enjoy his posts from around the country - musical theatre reviews and a lot of really witty stuff. Had he wished to do so, I think Steve could, if he so desired, have blown a lot of entertainers completely off the stage.

I think those days were over, by the time things came to a crashing halt, for me. It is what it is.

 

I've been here 10 years, and I can't recall him ever being informative unless one considers repeated, historical information to be informative.

 

I have enjoyed Mr. Black's performances immensely, for quite a few years. Right from the get-go, I regarded him as both a very funny man and a very sagacious one. People with their eyes and ears open realize his cleverness. Mr. Black has proven a very popular Commencement speaker at well-known Universities. Dr. Steve Levicoff? As I see it, Not so much on all those counts. Not even if you voice-dubbed Lewis Black. Or ANY other comedian.

Judging from other posts here, this is not a good day for Dr. Levicoff, with the reviewers. His agent must be worried. That's Show Biz.

 

He was contradictory. Sometimes he could be so nice and then he would go into attack-mode again.
So intelligent, so full of potential yet he used his energy for negative things like tearing down educational institutions with recognition, without diving into the "hows" or "whys".

What I never understood is why he became a truck driver after earning a Ph.D. from a brick-and-mortar RA institution.

Have you ever met him, Rich?

 

I'm not so sure anyone would call Union Institute and University a "brick and mortar school." After all, it (as a part of UECU) was the progenitor of the University Without Walls program and revolutionized the short-residency PhD and person-centered graduate education.

I mentioned this earlier in the thread. No, I've never met him. I've never talked to him. And I've never communicated with him outside of this board (and the DD board). The only insight I have to the man is what everyone else has from reading this board. And I doubt seriously anyone has been as much of a target of his as I've been. So, I've chosen to withhold my own assessments of him. You can draw your own without reading mine.

 

Looks like rumours of Lewis Black's Commencement speeches may have been greatly exaggerated, by me.

I know that Mr. Black has spoken to University audiences many times -- but the only commencement address I can find in a hurry was was at UC San Diego, Thurgood Marshall College, in 2013. That was said to be his first - so obviously the other University performances (some of which I have seen on TV) were not Commencement addresses. Sorry.

I was unable to find ANY Commencement addresses by Steve Levicoff, but Mr. Black's commencement address at UCSD is on YouTube - here:

 

Frame it and hang it.
I remeber how he wrote a letter to less then wonderful shool that defrauded a lady from hard earned $$$$.
He helped that lady by presuring and calling the bluff of that outfit. BTW, was Steve really driving tralertrack for living?

 

(1) That's "Name It and Frame It," I believe. A classic. I still have the 75 "NIFI Criteria" (that make a school questionable) on a floppy somewhere - and still have a 1988 laptop that can read it.

(2) Yes, he was. His accomplishments in the trucking industry were many, besides driving. He wrote manuals and is credited with much other work of instructional, safety-oriented and other benefit to the industry. He was well known in the trucking business for his contributions, I'm told. But yeah - he drove. Long-haul. Long-term. He used to log in from SO many places across the country and tell us about them. Used to be a lot of summer musical theatre in some of those places. If it was there, Steve was ON it. I liked him as a critic. Those were definitely some of his best moments, I think.

 

Thanks, yes "Name It and Frame It", NIFI was a classic.

 

I believe the name comes from "Name It and Claim It", which is a simplistic "theology" many tele-evangelists use to defraud people. The book was specifically on "Christian" degree mills. Clever.