Reference not responding..

[ladybug3]

A professor who previously agreed to be a reference for me for my Masters program is not responding to my e-mails. He is not teaching at my school anymore and works out of another organization, so he does not have a public phone number that I can reach him at. There are other professors that I could ask, but I have had this professor during every year of my undergraduate degree and I feel like he will give a much more accurate reference than anyone else.

My problem is that he still has not responded, but I need all my references to be confirmed before I can finish filling out my application, and my other references are waiting on me. Should I attempt to find a new reference in order to please my other professors and get my application ready, or should I wait slightly longer for my professor to get back to me?

[fuzzylogician]

Is it possible that the email address you are using is no longer active? If it's associated with his old position it may have been deactivated or he may not check it anymore. Is there a way to obtain an email address for his current position through some official at the organization? If not, depending on how long you've been waiting I might suggest for you to at least start looking around for a backup/replacement LOR. That way you can perhaps wait a little bit longer for the stronger letter and know you have a fallback in case it doesn't come through.

[ladybug3]

Thank you! I decided to e-mail him one last time and he replied promptly, stating that he thought he had replied already.