William Alfred To Leave Stillman Infirmary Today

William Alfred, Kenan Professor of English, will leave Stillman Infirmary today, but will rest at home for about eight weeks before resuming his teaching duties.

"It's such a bore" Alfred said yesterday of his recovery from a heart attack. While at home, he will work on a short play he is writing called "Easter Sunday."

"Then I'm going to learn karate," Alfred said.

Alfred, who teaches English 200a and a section of English 10, said, "I hope all my fingernails fall off if I ever lift a cigarette again. It really is poison."

Alfred said his heart attack was not frightening. "I was never afraid of dying. I have always been more afraid of being a bore."

He suffered an attack of angina, which he said "feels as though a Volkswagen has run you over on the chest," on September 30. "But the doctors said there was no damage, so I signed myself out," Alfred said.

Four days later he suffered a heart attack. "Ask people to say a prayer for me, but not to send anything to me," he said.

Joanne T. Dempsey, a graduate student in English who is teaching Alfred's section in his absence, said yesterday, "He is such a teacher that his creativity extends even in his absence. The students are going to the poetry not only for the poetry but to talk to him through it."

When she visited Alfred in Stillman, Dempsey said his first words to her were, "Oh hello Joanne, do they love the poetry?"