2 10 162 https://www.thanksroy.org/files/original/ec612055de8e385e32166628259c04e7.jpg dc3b8d1ca4bfdee55b868f89fe0add48 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Height 2682 Width 1728 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 41 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with <em>Thanks, Roy</em> in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on <em>Thanks, Roy</em> (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using <em>Thanks, Roy</em>. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. 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Description An account of the resource Roy doing research on Central Park Conservatory Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Betsy Blackmar Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Betsy Blackmar Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. I was one of the lucky ones in the Master's program at GMU, because Roy was my advisor. My academic career was checkered, at best. I returned to college to finish my BA at age 35 and received my MA in 1992 at the age of 38. Between Roy and Josephine Pacheco, I made it. Roy was such a help as an advisor - with the one exception of the night before my comprehensive examination, when at a reception for graduate students he approached me and told me that if I had time for a party that meant that I had, in fact, memorized all of the Secretarys of State - in order! After almost fainting, he told me he was kidding and got me a much needed glass of wine! I have fond memories of being in his home discussing books that he assigned for my Directed Reading course. The list was endless, but 15 years later, I remember each one of them and make great use of them in my career as a community college instructor. We e-mailed back and forth over the years, and he was always interested in what was going on with me. When I learned of his death, I was saddened - my heart aches for his close friends, and especially for his family. My thoughts are with you, and please know that his impact on my life - as well as many others - has been enormous. Thanks, Roy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 127 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with Thanks, Roy in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on Thanks, Roy (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using Thanks, Roy. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. By submitting material to Thanks, Roy you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless Thanks, Roy and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the Thanks, Roy\'s use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation. Thanks, Roy has no obligation to use your material. You will be sent via email a copy of your contribution to Thanks, Roy. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. Thanks, Roy will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Beverly Hudson Wirtz Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Beverly Hudson Wirtz Type The nature or genre of the resource Document https://www.thanksroy.org/files/original/e14f72c3de2561d935ed32427657da44.jpg d635b8ad6e7e7638dcc798a28974b2c6 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Height 1600 Width 1200 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 101 Title A name given to the resource 82 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Roy lived at 82 Kirkland Street while in graduate school at Harvard. For those of us who knew him then, it was a special place and an important destination, full of good conversation, fun and friendship. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carol Lasser Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Carol Lasser Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. It would be exaggerating to say that Roy taught me to drive – I had learned the basics already. But it was Roy who saw to it that I got my first driver’s license. It was 1975, at the end of my first year of graduate school. I was to take a long summer trip across the country. I would travel mostly by Greyhound bus, but was to return with a friend by car from the West Coast and needed to be able to share the driving. I had obtained my learner’s permit. Thoughtful, generous, kind as ever, Roy offered his time and his car to help me pass the road test. He took me out once or twice for practice, observing me patiently and tactfully. No test appointment was available nearby in Cambridge, so we would have to spend a whole morning going for a test in Roslindale, the other side of Boston. Roy waved aside my apologies for this, though he surely had better things to do with half a day. At the start of the test he climbed into the rear seat, on hand to take over the wheel if I should flunk out. The car had bench seats. The examiner, a bulky man, was not too impressed with my driving but passed me anyway. As we drove back to Cambridge, Roy let on that he had been anxious during the exam and was relieved it was over. The front seat, he now told me, was broken, and not fixed to the floor on the passenger side. Sitting as straight as he could so as not to attract attention, Roy had spent the entire test firmly gripping the underside of the front seat, hoping that I would not brake too hard or that if I did he would be strong enough to stop the examiner from sliding toward the windshield. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 117 Title A name given to the resource A Roy story Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with Thanks, Roy in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on Thanks, Roy (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using Thanks, Roy. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. By submitting material to Thanks, Roy you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless Thanks, Roy and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the Thanks, Roy\'s use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation. Thanks, Roy has no obligation to use your material. You will be sent via email a copy of your contribution to Thanks, Roy. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. Thanks, Roy will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chris Clark Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Chris Clark Type The nature or genre of the resource Document Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Formal Notices Description An account of the resource Obituaries and paid death notices. Hyperlink Title, URL, Description or annotation. URL http://blog.historians.org/news/348/roy-rosenzweig-1950-2007 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 75 Title A name given to the resource Roy Rosenzweig, 1950—2007 Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Roy Rosenzweig, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of History & New Media at George Mason University, and a friend and councilor of the AHA, passed away yesterday, October 11, 2007, due to complications resulting from advanced cancer of the lungs. Roy Rosenzweig Rosenzweig was that rare academic: consummately knowledgeable, self-reliant, productive, intuitively creative, and above all, a humanist who helpfully bridged the often intimidating gap between the seeming elitism of academia and his students. At George Mason University, Rosenzweig also headed the Center for History and New Media (which he cofounded), and developed it with a pioneering enthusiasm, making it one of the leading centers for digital history. Indeed, embracing emerging technologies with ardor, but always with a cautious sense of the possible and the real, Rosenzweig fused history and technology with a seemingly effortless ease that inspired many other historians to take off on their own exploratory voyages into new media. Not surprisingly, Roy Rosenzweig and his colleagues at the Center for History and New Media and received many accolades, including the AHA’s James Harvey Robinson Prize for 2004 and 2006 (for History Matters and World History Matters, respectively, for creating web sites to help students navigate the complexities of U.S and global history). And just a few weeks ago, the Center for History and New Media received a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for creating a clearinghouse for information about history education. Rosenzweig, who received his PhD from Harvard University in 1978, wrote or edited numerous books and articles including Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870–1920 (Cambridge University Press, 1983); The Park and the People: A History of Central Park (Cornell University Press, 1992), co-authored with Elizabeth Blackmar, which won the 1993 Historic Preservation Book Award and the 1993 Urban History Association Prize for Best Book on North American Urban History; and, most recently, with Daniel Cohen, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). Roy Rosenzweig received numerous awards for his scholarship and professional contributions, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, which he held in 1989–90. In 2003, he received the Richard W. Lyman Award for his work with digital history. In March 2007 he was conferred the Distinguished Service Award by the Organization of American Historians, for his “outstanding contributions to labor and public history, and his dedication to reaching new and diverse audiences as expressed in his pioneering efforts in the uses of digital technology and new media.” Dedicated as he was to his teaching, Roy Rosenzweig perhaps treasured more than anything else the admiration and affection of his students, three of whom, remarkably, now work at the AHA building. Roy Rosenzweig was the MA thesis adviser for Lee White, the executive director of the National Coalition for History, and for Chris Hale, publications production manager at the AHA. Rosenzweig was the PhD dissertation adviser for Robert Townsend, the AHA’s assistant director for research and publications. “I have lost both a mentor and a friend with the passing of Roy,” said Lee White. “Few people truly affect the direction that your life takes. Of all of the teachers I have had throughout my education, he is the one whom I will always cherish the most,” he added. Chris Hale particularly appreciated the fact that Rosenzweig was readily accessible to his students, and declared, “that’s rare in academia and, for me, was the best aspect about my whole graduate school experience.” A long-standing and loyal member of the AHA, Rosenzweig served as the Association’s Vice President for Research from 2004 to 2006. Inventive as always, he used his tenure to bestir the AHA to break out of the inhibiting confines of the traditional annual meeting formats and introduced several new modes of presentation, and worked to open up access to scholarship not only at the meeting but from the pages of the American Historical Review. During his vice presidency, Rosenzweig also successfully led the search for a new editor for the AHR. Rosenzweig was also an enthusiastic founding member of the National History Center, an initiative of the AHA, and served on its planning committee. In recognition of his invaluable contributions to the Association, to the profession, and to the discipline, the AHA chose Rosenzweig to be the next recipient of the Troyer Steele Anderson Prize to be conferred at the AHA’s 122nd annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Sadly, the prize must now be conferred posthumously. Roy Rosenzweig, a true academic visionary and superlative historian with a social conscience, will be missed by friends, colleagues, and students alike. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived American Historical Association Blog Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chris Hale and Pillarisetti Sudhir Type The nature or genre of the resource Hyperlink AHA blog formal notices roy Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. One memory has returned to me several times over the past two weeks. Roy and I met to discuss the status of the project late last summer, when he was just back from one of his treatments. We met in his office; seeing him for the first time in six weeks, I was taken aback for a moment. His optimistic (and prompt) e-mails over the summer had not given much indication about his physical deterioration. As we sat down to discuss the project, however, the extent of his fatigue became clearer; he labored to draw regular breaths. Roy explained that lately he tired in the afternoon, and that breathing became more difficult as a result. Would it be awkward for me, he asked, if he lay down on the floor to ease the effort? It might have been awkward with anyone else, but Roy made it seem completely natural--and for the next 45 minutes we talked about the status of the project, the work we’d already done, and details that remained to be sorted out, all from the floor of his office. Within a minute, as Roy related a laugh-out-loud anecdote, I felt as if it were perfectly natural to have a meeting while lying on the floor. Why would anyone ever hold a meeting anyplace else? As our conversation wound down, I inquired tentatively about Roy’s condition, which was obviously becoming more serious. But of course Roy didn’t want to talk about his discomfort, or his frustration, or his exhaustion, and steered the conversation to me. How was my summer? How was my work coming? I confessed (somewhat sheepishly, given the magnitude of Roy's illness) that I was having some difficulties: I had just received feedback from a reader I suspected had not read the work carefully or completely. Roy pressed for some details, and as I described the comments, he urged me to appeal. The next thing I knew, Roy was offering, then insisting, to read my proposal himself and to help draft a response to my editor. It was a moment that, to me, typified Roy’s generosity and his sensitivity: with everything going on in his life, Roy was still lavishly generous with his time, his energy, his insight. And despite the difficulties facing him, he never stopped searching for ways to offer his experience and his time to others. I was so lifted by Roy’s interest and concern that I was halfway across campus before it occurred to me that I had just piled a substantial amount of work on an extremely busy man with a serious medical condition. Roy was always so graceful with his generosity that it was easy for me to take it for granted. Thanks, Roy. In the past two weeks, I’ve spun between deep sadness at not having years more with Roy as colleague, mentor, and friend, and deep gratitude for being invited into Roy’s community, and this department, for the two years that I had. Mostly I’m just mad at the universe for claiming him way, way too early. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 91 Title A name given to the resource Thanks Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with Thanks, Roy in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on Thanks, Roy (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using Thanks, Roy. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. By submitting material to Thanks, Roy you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless Thanks, Roy and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the Thanks, Roy\'s use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation. Thanks, Roy has no obligation to use your material. You will be sent via email a copy of your contribution to Thanks, Roy. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. Thanks, Roy will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Christopher Hamner Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christopher Hamner Type The nature or genre of the resource Document Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. Where to begin? It’s the only possible response when asked to remember Roy Rosenzweig. Academics are fortunate if they are able to become pioneers or innovators in a single field; Roy managed to found or advance at least three fields: social history, public history, and digital history. And we often suspect that pioneers and innovators have character flaws associated with the dogged pursuit of the cutting edge: narcissism, aggression, humorlessness. Yet everyone who knew Roy was amazed at his unparalleled combination of brilliance, insight, and incredible hard work with humility, generosity, and laugh-out-loud wit. Eight years ago I received a call from Roy, who had heard through a mutual acquaintance that I had moved to Washington. I only vaguely knew of Roy, and had no idea why he should want to talk to me, but nevertheless agreed to meet him for lunch. I’m so profoundly thankful I answered his call. Roy and I ate at a restaurant near his house and had some nice conversation. I thought little of our casual meeting until a year later, when Roy called me to say that he had just gotten a grant and had remembered a few points I had made over lunch and how relevant they were to the grant proposal. The only thing I could only remember from a year earlier was that Roy was bursting with energy and ideas and had consumed more coffee over lunch than I drink in a week. We met again for lunch and by the end of the meal he had convinced me to come work with him. That’s how it began for me, and for countless others. Sitting on a panel with Roy at a conference, meeting randomly over coffee, receiving a congratulatory email from him about an article you had written. No matter how trivial the reason behind the first contact, Roy would remember you, and he would often move these minor encounters—the kind most of us have every day and think nothing of—onto a path toward collaboration and friendship. I know of no one with as large an address book and as many friends as Roy. But he didn’t just collect these acquaintances superficially, for show or for his own career ends like so many people do on Facebook or LinkedIn. As his social histories of the United States also emphasize, he viewed every human being as a special resource who brings unique talents and ideas into the world, and he liked nothing more than to connect people with each other. Almost every topic of conversation prompted a welcome referral from Roy: “You should talk to my friend so-and-so, who has done some really interesting work on that subject.” The history of family photos? “She wrote a great article on that.” Standards for library catalogs? “Met this guy at the Library of Congress.” Byzantine art? Documentary filmmaking? Preservation of eight-track tapes? Him, her, and you’re not going to believe this but here’s an email address for you. Now go contact them. But Roy didn’t just bring his many acquaintances together. He reveled himself in collaborating with others. Roy found it deeply unfortunate that unlike in the sciences, the humanities suffered from a serious lack of collaboration. He scoffed at the mythical ideal of the intellectual toiling alone on the great book. Roy co-authored over a dozen major works, not to mention the scores of highly collaborative digital projects at the Center for History and New Media, which he founded at George Mason University in 1994. A typical but still remarkable moment occurred when Roy received the Richard W. Lyman Award (presented by the National Humanities Center and the Rockefeller Foundation) in 2003 for “outstanding achievement in the use of information technology to advance scholarship and teaching in the humanities.” He got up on stage, used his computer to project a giant list of names onto a screen, and said, “These are all of the people I collaborated with on the projects that this award honors. These are the people that did the work, and I want to thank them.” Of course, that was just Roy being his usual humble self. Roy’s collaborators will readily admit not only how wonderful but also how daunting it was to work with him. To paraphrase Paul Erdös, Roy was a machine for turning coffee into publications and websites. With his incredible mind and a large coffee nearly always by his side, he was able to produce such a wide and deep array of creative works. When we were writing a book together I would slowly plod along while insightful, beautiful prose seemed to pop off of his laptop at a disturbingly rapid pace. Working with him on a project forced you to elevate yourself, to do the best you could do. Long before Roy became ill, the staff at the Center for History and New Media would ponder (when Roy was out of the room) what we would do decades hence, when we expected Roy would finally leave this world. In the spirit of Roy’s humor, some of us decided that we would simply have to preserve his brain in a giant vat of fresh-brewed coffee. Others took their cue from science fiction and thought we could transfer his mind onto silicon for the continued benefit of future generations. If only we could have done so. But perhaps in a partial sense that is what has happened over the last decade. Roy’s thoughts and vision sit on the Center for History and New Media’s server, silently connecting with thousands of people every day, and his books and articles connect with thousands more. If only those people could have met Roy Rosenzweig in person. He would have liked to have had coffee with them. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 15 Title A name given to the resource Remembering Roy Rosenzweig Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with <em>Thanks, Roy</em> in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on <em>Thanks, Roy</em> (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using <em>Thanks, Roy</em>. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. By submitting material to <em>Thanks, Roy</em> you release, discharge, and agree to hold harmless <em>Thanks, Roy</em> and persons acting under its permission or authority, including a public library or archive to which the collection might be donated for purposes of long-term preservation, from any claims or liability arising out the <em>Thanks, Roy</em>\'s use of the material, including, without limitation, claims for violation of privacy, defamation, or misrepresentation. <em>Thanks, Roy</em> has no obligation to use your material. You will be sent via email a copy of your contribution to <em>Thanks, Roy</em>. We cannot return any material you submit to us so be sure to keep a copy. <em>Thanks, Roy</em> will not share your email address or any other information with commercial vendors. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dan Cohen Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Dan Cohen Type The nature or genre of the resource Document chnm coffee collaboration Digital History personal recollection https://www.thanksroy.org/files/original/55a05032b9b146331058f28e010ff660.jpg fa9b79f1f87d3fd1088f6c9c4c9e143e Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Height 925 Width 1254 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 17 Title A name given to the resource Roy, Dan, and Simon with the Zoteromobile Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us. Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with <em>Thanks, Roy</em> in all media in perpetuity. If you have so indicated on the form, your material will be published on <em>Thanks, Roy</em> (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using <em>Thanks, Roy</em>. The material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. Description An account of the resource Roy, Dan Cohen, and Simon Kornblith gather around Roy's Prius with the Zotero license plate in the summer of 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dan Cohen Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Dan Cohen Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Zotero Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. <p><strong>For a Historian, Dying Young</strong></p> <p>in memory of Roy Rosenzweig, 1950-2007</p> <pre> By a pond, by a hospital, a bird, feathers as starched and white as nurses' uniforms used to be, stalks a muddy bank in red high heels. Down into the muck of Florida go eight scarlet inches of decurved beak as if, tired of the clay that passes for food in the afterlife, an ibis has stepped from a frieze in some young pharaoh's tomb to feed. Past a pool of ketchup where a French fry fell, beak and claw leave their marks in mud. Herodotus, father of history, father of lies, if you're the thin shade under a palm tree across the water, tell me a story that doesn't end with my reading in the Times today that emptiness sits at a desk in Virginia where Roy should be. No longer does his computer glow and thrum: let the tree frogs of Arlington take note. Let a crow call us to preen our black feathers. Down leaf-littered sidewalks, down streets that sag under the names of long-dead presidents-- is that Death the worker making his way in sober suit? A crumpled page, a fallen leaf--gone too soon, the labor historian, late of Lincoln Street. </pre> <p>--Debora Greger</p> <p>I shared an office with Deborah in her first and my only year at Mason. By the spring of that year, there was mention on her part of someone she was seeing, someone who sometimes came to town. We all know who that turned out to be! And how we all miss him.</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 143 Title A name given to the resource Elegy for Roy Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Debora Greger Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Debora Greger Type The nature or genre of the resource Document elegy greger poem roy Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Celebration Description An account of the resource Speeches from the Celebration of Roy's Life, December 9, 2007, George Mason University, Arlington campus, Arlington, VA. Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. For many years Roy and I used to entertain each other with ideas for get-rich-quick books. We were sure that the popularity of <em>When Bad things Happen to Good People </em> would be easily topped by our sequel, “When Good Things Happen to Bad People,” and we were equally confident that our lavishly illustrated coffee table book on the history of dentistry would be a bestseller. But our favorite idea—one to which we would refer over and over in the years that followed-- occurred to Roy in the early 1980s, when we were post-doctoral fellows at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Humanities. Neither of us had taught before at an institution at which scholars and artists were objects of fascination not only for students but also for other faculty members. Almost everyone we met at Wesleyan had odd or funny stories to tell about famous academics, especially those who had spent time at the Center for the Humanities in what were obviously its more illustrious days. We didn’t know if they were accurate in every or even any detail. But we became interested in the widespread habit of telling them, and as the stories accumulated, Roy proposed that we assemble a “Humanist Joke Book.” It was to be organized in two parts, corresponding to the two categories into one or the other of which, we believed, all jokes about humanists fit. Jokes in the first category made the implicit point that “famous humanists are just like you and me.” A story about political theorist Hannah Arendt and avant-garde composer John Cage playing tag after hours in the Center for the Humanities was one example. The other category conveyed the opposite point, of course—that “famous humanists are not like you and me”. The anecdote we heard about Norbert Weiner, mathematician and developer of cybernetics, is an example of this second type. This is how it goes, or at least how one version of it goes: Norbert Weiner was coming home from work, but couldn’t remember where his home was. He and his family had recently moved though within the same neighborhood, and he had forgotten not only his new address but what the house looked like. He saw a bunch of children outside, playing, and went up to one of them. “Little girl,” he asked, “do you know the house where the Weiners’ live?” Pointing to one across the street, she replied, “Yes, Daddy, it’s right over there.” Of the two kinds of stories, Roy enjoyed retelling those that suggested that famous humanists are not like you and me, because the joke usually turned on humanists’ blindness to basic knowledge that we have of one another and to the bonds that define and enrich our lives. Roy found that obliviousness funny, I think, because it was so unlike the way he was and what he valued. In early 1999, Roy read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg” in the New Yorker, an article that describes people who are what Gladwell came to call connectors in his book The Tipping Point, published the following year. Like Lois Weisberg, they know everyone. “In a very down-to-earth, day-to-day way,” according to Gladwell, “they make the world work. They spread ideas and information.” They connect people up with friends, spouses, jobs and other opportunities. And they do this not as a deliberate, self-serving strategy but because they have what Gladwell calls “an innate and spontaneous and entirely involuntary affinity for people. They know everyone because—in some deep and less than conscious way—they can’t help it.” Half-way through reading the New Yorker piece, Roy looked up and said, “this is my sister.” He had always admired Robin’s ability to stay in close touch with all their relatives, the number of her friends and acquaintances, and the ways she managed to intertwine them. But by the time he finished reading the article, he had realized that he was a connector too. It may have dawned on him at the moment when he read that Roger Horchow, another of Gladwell’s examples, “sends people cards on their birthdays” and that “he has a computerized Rolodex with sixteen hundred names on it.” (Roy’s electronic address book only has 1,542 cards—I checked.) He saw that he and Robin had similar propensities; they just operated in different communities. He served as social glue for those whom he met in the schools that he went to, starting with first grade but, much more so over the years, in his profession. Many of you have alluded to this quality on the website thanksroy.org. He was, Dina Copelman wrote, “a one man employment service. . . . always thinking about who would be good for a job, who needed a job, who might want to talk to someone who might know of a job.” Another friend and colleague Ellen Noonan remembers that he was always “passing along information about a project or person I should know about.” His “special gift for bringing the world together,” as Gladwell puts it, was wonderfully compatible with his politics and his desire to be part of a solidarity for causes in which he believed. A walk through downtown Washington, camera in hand, surrounded by friends demonstrating in support of a woman’s right to choose, in commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington, or in protest against the Iraq War-- was a day well spent. His preference for collaborative rather than solitary work is well-known—he saw early in his career ways to blend friendship and scholarship. The telephone was an apt metonym for Roy until the computer took its place. The appeals of email and then the internet for Roy were obvious. As his friend Tom Thurston said on thanksroy, “From the start he saw that this new medium must be a collaborative enterprise, that the inter-networks were about social networks. Roy understood the web long before there was a web.” So now “famous humanist” stories are beginning to circulate about Roy--like the time he tried to keep the front seat of his car from sliding forward, unbeknownst to the examiner, while Chris Clark took his driving test or the time early this fall when he advised a younger colleague about his book manuscript while lying on the floor of his office, the only way to minimize his physical pain. And like the stories that amused him most, many of those about Roy also make the point that he was “unlike you and me.” But he was different not, as is typical of this type of story, because he ignored or forgot his social world but rather because he was able to do more than most of us to create and sustain it. In the last week of Roy’s life he mustered what energy he had to tell friends and family members that he was grateful to them. He thanked his doctors, he thanked the nurses who cared for him at the Virginia Hospital Center. He dictated emails of affection and appreciation that I sent for him to colleagues. A few people he was able to thank in person, and he asked me to call others and put him on the phone briefly. Had he been in perfect health that effort, given all his friends and colleagues, would have been herculean. But without much stamina he had to stop the phone calls and email long before he had intended. So I want to say on his behalf: thank you all for your friendship at whatever point in Roy’s life you knew him and for the support you gave him in his last 17 months. He was determined to carry on as he always had, doing the work he enjoyed with the people that he loved. You accepted his determination and carried on with him. I also want to thank our families, friends, and colleagues at George Mason who have been helping me through this impossible loss. Finally, I am very grateful to those of you—too many to name—who have arranged this Celebration of Roy. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 132 Title A name given to the resource About Roy Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Speech written by Deborah Kaplan, Roy's wife, for the Celebration of Roy's Life, December 9, 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Deborah Kaplan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-12-09 Type The nature or genre of the resource Document