Becky wanted me to get back out on the road.

I’ll explain. But first, please let me introduce myself. I’m Andris Vizulis. Friends in Newton call me Andy. And I’ve called Newton my home for almost 50 years. 

Born in England 77 years ago to Latvian parents, my family emigrated to the USA in 1958. My wife Becky and I settled in Newton in 1977 after graduate programs at University of Michigan, followed by two years in Japan.  

I’m a biomedical engineer, inventor, app designer, technology futurist, violinist and indefatigable traveler. You may know me from my eight years as a Newton School Committee member from Ward 1. Before that, Becky and I served as co-presidents of the Lincoln-Eliot PTO.  

Around 1995, you may have connected your dial-up modem to the Newton Educational Bulletin Board Service. A couple of years later, you might have visited the new Newton Public School website to check for snow days. Or, you might have participated in the Newton Childcare Commission’s Kidz in Jeopardy. These were all technology initiatives of mine. We may have crossed paths at Newton Symphony Orchestra concerts, where I shared a second violin stand with Becky for 35 years.

Besides technology and music, travel has shaped my life.  

In retrospect, it’s been a long chain of interlocking journeys. The first link was crossing the Atlantic on the RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1958, emigrating to America with my family. Though I was only nine, gliding past the Statue of Liberty was unforgettable. Later there was an incredible five-week tour of Europe with the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony in 1969, performing in famous halls, including  Monaco Palace, with Princess Grace in the front row.

There were visits to a quarter of the world’s countries, including a two-year stay in Japan and an epic journey home, mostly overland through countries we now call enemies. I’ll never forget the Trans-Mongolian Express from Moscow to Beijing in the winter of 2003, to visit Becky in Hangzhou! She had just launched an exchange program between the Dover-Sherborn and Hangzhou high schools, modeled after Newton’s longstanding China Exchange.

Andris and Becky in Hawaii in 2019.

Becky and I built most of this chain of adventures together. She was a natural-born teacher with an insatiable love for world cultures and history. Though I had dreamed about traveling to remote spots on the globe since an early age, she gave me deeper appreciation with her extensive knowledge and humanitarian compassion.

On March 4 last year, the magic that was Becky was suddenly gone. MDA-5 ILD, a rare lung disease, claimed her life. But even in those last days in Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, she regaled the staff with stories that conveyed her belief in travel as the necessary ingredient for global understanding.  

Among Becky’s last wishes was that I get back out on the road again as quickly as possible, taking her with me in spirit. I like to think of it as “marching forth” because of the date she passed.  

In these past 10 months, I’ve done just that, taking long road trips: the east coast all the way to Key West; out to Michigan via New York, DC, North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana; from Michigan back to Newton via Toronto, Montreal and New Brunswick.  And as I write this, I’m in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a 14-hour flight from San Francisco. 

This will be the start of a three-month journey to New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Manila, Bangkok and northern Thailand, and southeast Asia. I’ll spend February in Japan, and March 4 will find me at Saihōji Temple (Kokedera) in Kyoto, a place that had much meaning for us 50 years ago.   

Looking ahead, I’m grateful to the Newton Beacon for giving me the opportunity to share my travels in this new column.  

I’ll be taking you to some exciting destinations. I’ll also be reflecting on different kinds of journeys—ones that have no defined destination—like our new partnership with the undefined black hole of AI, the struggle to prevent climate change, and the metamorphosis of urban landscapes due to the EV and autonomous car revolutions.

At the same time, it will be hard to avoid interweaving my most challenging journey of all: reinventing myself in a world without Becky, my wife and traveling companion for 54 years. To her memory, I dedicate my new column.

Andris Vizulis, a Newton neighbor, indefatigable traveler, and technology futurist, writes “The Journey” column for the Beacon. The column shares stories of places, passages, and personal reinvention. He can be reached at avizulis@gmail.com.