John Rafalak, Scotia, NY

THE HISTORY OF JOHN V. RAFALAK . . .

From

To

After graduation from BK, I started college at Brockport as a 

Psychology major/Philosophy minor (which just goes to show 
how messed up I must have been). While at Brockport, I becamea member of the Baha'i Faith, switched majors to Music 
Education and ultimately transferred into the Music department 
at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia. There, I met my wife, Sue, and got my 
degree in Music Education. 

Photo: My Wife Sue

In 1975 we traveled to the 
Baha'i world center in Israel. 
When we got back, I worked 
at various jobs, including 
supervising a group home 
and working for Steve 
Cushman when he ran a Ski Shop. 


We moved to Rochester in 1977 and 
had our first child, Jason. I stayed home during the days and played "house 

husband" while I worked in the 

Rochester area as a musician and part 

time music teacher for the next 8 years (even taught Kearney's Drumline for a 

while) and we added two more to the 

family, my daughter Lua and my second son, Ian.

In 1982 we moved to the Capital District of New York State and I 

started creating music on my computer (back then, a 
Commodore 64). This led to my getting a call from "Quantum 
Link," who were starting an "online service" (something no one 
had heard of in those pre-web days) and needed someone to 
run the music areas online. This fit in well with my continuing to 
work at home so I could care for the kids. I worked for Quantum 
for a little over eight years until they merged their computer-
specific services into one big service (known as AOL) and started getting a little too corporate for my tastes. 

In 1990 I started working for Wildwood School (a private school 
for Autistic / Neurologically Impaired / Learning Disabled 
students) as a Music Teacher working with their Music Therapist. Even then, I was bringing in my own computers so the students could use them to create music and art. When the school started to develop the use of educational technology, I became the "tech guy."

In 1993 Sue and I added our "surprise". . . my son Joe, to bring 
us up to four wonderful kids. I'm still working at Wildwood. I now 
keep 160 computers up 99.5% of the time, attempt to keep the 
teachers a little ahead of the students, produce videos with our 
students and staff and generally have a great time playing with
all the new tech toys that come out. I also perform on my 
electronic drum set and acoustic set and world percussion every week at the local Baha'i Reading Room where I host a weekly 
Jazz and World Music Jam session. I love these since I get to 
play with a lot of great performers, including my three sons 
Jason, Ian and Joe, when they are in town.  

My wife, Sue, is a Speech Pathologist at the Center for Disability Services here in the Capital District of New York and also a birth Doula. My kids have been growing in all kinds of ways so I also have to dedicate some of this history update to them . . .


Jason, my oldest, is a Music Therapist in Pittsburgh and performs on Bass and Mandolin with several different performers in that area, including singer/songwriter Brad Yoder. A Musical Devotion that Jason started in Pittsburgh was recently featured in a video on the U.S. Baha'i  Newsreel.  


My daughter, Lua, is a high school Physics teacher and got married last January to Doug/Jere Lawrence. She decided to hyphenate so she's now Lua Rafalak-Lawrence. She also teaches children's classes with a friend of hers in the Albany Baha'i Community.

My next oldest, Ian, is a professional Musician in Philadelphia. He currently performs on bass and drums with 5 or 6 different bands. He originally got his bachelors in Music performance and Education on Classical Guitar and Trumpet and then studied percussion in Ghana, after which he got his masters in Jazz studies at the University of the Arts in Philly. Recently he collaborated with a composer friend and they sold two songs to the BBC for a new children's series. Most recently he has started to teach part time at a local community college.

Joe, my youngest, is a killer Sax player and has done a few small tours with me backing up a friend of ours. (Last summer we did Albany to Kansas City and back in 15 days.) Joe is a senior in high school, traveled to Spain last February with a group from his school, and is now in the middle of his college applications (10 so far), where he's currently looking at going into Computer Engineering.

Photo Below: Post Tour Fun with Singer/Songwriter Chris Ruhe, guitarist Ayra Chowdhury, my wife Sue, my Daughter Lua, Pete Seeger who we were backing up that day, my son Joe, me and friend and sax great Adam Siegel. Friends Sandra and her daughter up front.

Photo Above: Beatles Rock Band at Thanksgiving . . .
Jason on bass, Joe on Guitar, Lua on vocals and Brittany, Ian's friend, on drums.

Getting back to me to wrap things up . . . I've been working this past year at becoming 1/2 the man I used to be.  About a year ago I had to admit to myself that my weight had been roller coastering for 35 years and, while I had lost 1000 or so pounds in that time, I had gained about 1100 so I was up to almost 350 pounds and had to do something about it.  Last March I had a gastric bypass done and between that and lots of changes in what and how I eat I've lost more than 125 pounds since then.  I'm almost back to my high school weight, I've been taken off all the medications I used to need and I've gone from walking with a cane to walking for fun.  

From this . . .

to this . . . .