9 10 162 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. Roy Memorial Speech, December 9, 2007 I’m Steve Brier, founding director of the American Social History Project at The City University of New York, and a friend and comrade of Roy’s for almost 30 years. The second hardest thing I did in preparing for today was finding a red shirt to buy. Let me note that Roy’s favorite color for his shirts is not a widely shared preference of either America’s shirt makers or apparently the rest of the shirt-buying public. That aside, the hardest thing about speaking today, besides the utter injustice of having to face the fact that Roy is gone, was the challenge to encapsulate in five minutes my feelings and thoughts about my dear friend. I met Roy, as did many of us here today, while serving on the editorial board of the Radical History Review in the 1970s. Roy was the quintessential radical historian throughout his long and illustrious career: profoundly committed to broadening the subject of historical inquiry, to realizing the democratic possibilities of doing history, to minimizing the theoretical obfuscations that marred so much scholarly writing, and to finding new ways and presentational forms to convey historical ideas to a broad public audience. Most of all, Roy’s radicalism was expressed in his passionate commitment to collaboration, an approach to doing history that defied the profession’s blind faith in the requirement that scholars work alone. Roy loved to collaborate with a variety of colleagues whose skills and experiences complemented his own remarkable conceptual and creative abilities, whether he was writing books and scholarly articles, helping conceive and produce documentary films, CD-ROMS, and websites, or developing cutting edge software to help his fellow scholars be as productive and accurate in their scholarship as he always was. There are at least twenty people here today who are proud to have their name associated with Roy’s as co-authors, co-creators, and/or co-producers. Every one of us can attest to Roy’s tenacity, his tireless capacity for work, and, most importantly, his extraordinary generosity and kindness as a colleague and friend. I guess my fondest memories of working with Roy center on the Who Built America? CD-ROMs, much of the writing for which happened at Roy and Deborah’s Jackson St. house beginning in the early 1990s. I’d move in for a week or two at a time to work closely with Roy: you got three square meals at Chez Rosenzweig-Kaplan, a chance to read the paper in the morning and discuss the news of the world, and go to a movie and eat dinner out on the weekends. Otherwise, we were chained to our computers all day and well into every evening, working with the kind of intensity and focus that defined everything that Roy did. Collaborating with Roy in those years on the WBA CDs, especially in the years before the Internet changed the way we did research, was a bit like being cloistered in a historical monastery, where you had access to a fabulous collection of history books, journals and reference sources and where the head history monk (Roy) pushed himself and his fellow monks relentlessly. Despite this pace, my only gripe from all those years of working with Roy in his Jackson St. study was that I ended up having to sit in an incredibly uncomfortable red straight chair while we pored through enormous mounds of historical materials. I finally had to convince Roy to buy himself a new desk chair just so that I could sit in his old one. I never kept up with Roy’s output or his brilliant historical insights, though I tried damned hard to do so. I learned pretty quickly that the best thing you could do was work hard and admire (and ultimately benefit from) Roy’s incredible capacity for hard work and intellectual productivity. Working with Roy in those years reconnected me with the sheer joy of being a historian, seeking to master ideas and material far a field from my formal training, while actively engaged in a bigger collaborative project that helped transform the way we all thought about and presented history. Much like my other dear friend and close collaborator, Herb Gutman (who, like Roy, was also 57 when he died), Roy’s influence will be felt for years to come in the profession and beyond. There will be (and there already have been) numerous books, journals, conference sessions, fellowships and prizes named in Roy’s memory. But I am confident that as much as Roy is remembered for his brilliant insights and output as a historian he will also be remembered for the endearing friendship and support that he offered to so many people, inside the profession and far beyond it. Roy was simply a lovely human being, a mensch, who had a deeply open curiosity about everything and everyone he met all over the world. In what turned out to be the last few months of his life, Roy was very encouraging and inquisitive when I had the chance to describe to him a new family memoir project that I had just started to think about. He managed in the midst of his various medical treatments, as only Roy could, to find the time and the energy to send me a book from Amazon about doing family history that he thought I should read. And during one of our last times together in Arlington he invited me to come down to spend a week or two with him and Deb in their Lincoln St. home when I started my sabbatical, so that I could once again use the incomparable Rosenzweig history library and, far more importantly, from my perspective (and I think maybe his as well) to have the chance to talk with him about the project. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to take Roy up on his wonderfully generous offer; he died a few weeks before my sabbatical began. Thanks, Roy, for your generosity of spirit and for your kind heart. You are and will be profoundly missed. 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 130 Title A name given to the resource Roy Memorial Speech Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Speech given by Dr. Stephen Brier at the Celebration of Roy's life, Sunday, December 9, 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stephen Brier 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 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 met Roy perhaps ten times. At conferences in the booth. In the trailer at CHNM. At lunches where we’d discuss potential collaborations and the future of electronic media. We’d cluster round screens showing each other what we’re up to. I’d chat with him at the DC Area Tech & Humanities Forum. Ordinarily I’m not sure such occasional contact would lead me to post alongside Roy’s close friends and colleagues. But for Roy and for those who love Roy I really want to. He deserves it. I’m not an academic. I’m only partly versed in how the academy works. I'm not sure which parts of Roy’s work have most scholarly merit. Nor do I know which parts of CHNM that Roy was heavily involved in. But as a publisher and a fellow enthusiast of digital history there are some things I do know. Roy’s understanding of digital history and its potential was spectacular. I’m not sure I know of anyone else who had quite such a handle on what might be achieved. Every time I talked to him I learned and was enthused. Reading a paper written by Roy or looking at a project that Roy worked on one cannot but be impressed. What better example than his essay on the differences between Wikipedia and standard reference works (http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42) – it’s infinitely clearer, more balanced and more constructive than the polemic that dominates the subject. For me Roy was exceptional because he was more a facilitator rather than an owner of ideas and projects. He was an enabler of people. His ideas and implementation of those ideas always seemed grounded in generosity, in sharing and in moving things forward. This is not common in my world. The field of digital history is well populated with ideas. Very few of these have been carried out well. I look over the glittering array of projects at CHNM, and beyond that to the enthusiastic and well informed staff. They seem both to be infused with a bit of Roy. I know that every time I use those sites I’ll be thinking of and missing 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 47 Title A name given to the resource In appreciation 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 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. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stephen Rhind-Tutt Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Stephen Rhind-Tutt 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. My friendship with Roy goes back more than a quarter century. We met at the Radical History Review in the late 1970s, where we were both editors, hit it off pretty quickly because we were both interested in non-traditional ways to do history, and decided we’d work together on what would become the Public History issue of the RHR. That volume was our first collaboration and became Presenting the Past, the first book published (in 1986) in the Critical Perspectives on the Past series at Temple University Press that I had the good fortune to co-edit with Roy and the late Susan Porter Benson for twenty years. When Herb Gutman and I launched the American Social History Project in 1981, Roy was on the first (and every subsequent) directors/advisory/editorial board we set up to help us run ASHP. Roy helped me get the first edition of the Who Built America? textbook finished in 1989 and 1991, in the years after Herb Gutman died. He advised ASHP on every one of our multimedia projects, including films and videos as well as teacher guides and teacher training projects. We entered the wonderful world of computers together, buying matching Kaypro II computers (which ran the now defunct CPM operating system) in 1982, Roy to do his own academic work and my ASHP colleagues and me to write the WBA? textbook. Our early shared use of computers led us to start poking around the emerging field of computer controlled media in the late 1980s. I was down in Arlington visiting one time in 1989 and Roy and I took the Metro into DC near Union Station to visit a new exhibit of computer controlled training tools and programs that some company or museum was displaying (I remember that one of them focused on training fire fighters). Out of that exposure came the idea that we really wanted to explore the uses of multimedia to do history. We’d been doing films and videos but the computer opened up immense vistas for teaching and learning. Very soon after that (in 1990) I got a call from Bob Stein, who headed a company called Voyager, who said he wanted to turn WBA? into the first electronic textbook and we (meaning ASHP and Roy) were off on the wild Toad’s ride of creating what became the first history CD-ROM, which Voyager published in 1993. That’s the origins of Roy’s (and our) descent (or ascent, depending on your perspective) into the wonderful world of multimedia. I spent a great deal of time down in Arlington with Roy at the Jackson house in those years writing and thinking about what the WBA? CD-ROM would look like. Sometime in that period (I can’t remember exactly when, but maybe 1992), Deborah, despairing that Roy was never going to do anything other than work all the time on his computer, announced one night at the dinner table that she thought they both needed hobbies, things that would get them to focus on something other than their academic work. She suggested that they both think about what those new hobbies might be and we’d discuss it at dinner in a few nights. I was then witness to the following exchange (this is not a verbatim transcript, but it’s pretty damned close!): Deborah (brightly): “Well, I’ve thought a lot about what my hobby should be and I’ve decided I’m going to take up gourmet cooking.” Roy (sitting in uneasy silence): Deborah (imploringly): “Roy, have you given this some thought? Have you come up with a hobby?” Roy (hopefully): “Can the computer be my hobby?” I laugh every time I think about this story. It speaks to Roy’s singlemindedness of purpose and his ridiculous intensity and capacity for work, which everyone who knew him admired and was daunted by. I learned after many years of collaborating with Roy that the best thing to do was sit back and admire that dedication and tenacity (and greatly benefit from it) and never, ever (unless you were a masochist) try to match it or him. He was and will always be one of a kind, a brilliant, loving, intense, supportive and totally unique human being. He will be missed by all of us for a very long time, in large measure, because there is no one quite like him and never will be. We miss you and we love you, Roy. And, as Mike O’Malley said to me a few days after Roy died, “How are we supposed to get through things without Roy drawing up our To Do lists?” Steve Brier 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 21 Title A name given to the resource Roy's Hobby"" 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 Steve Brier Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Steve Brier Type The nature or genre of the resource Document computers friendship roy work 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. “Roy as New Media Historian” OAH, March 29, 2008 Yesterday was my birthday and something didn’t happen that I had come to rely on for the past quarter century: I didn’t receive a wonderfully witty and politically astute card from Roy wishing me a happy birthday. That kindness and attention to personal detail were the essence of our dear friend and colleague and one of the things I will sorely miss in the years to come. I don’t think you can separate Roy and his various identities as historian, as we are trying to do here today, from the quintessential fact that he was an unusually kind and generous human being. That generosity extended to all of Roy’s connections and relationships, whether he was reading and editing, multiple times, thick manuscripts; writing untold numbers of job references and letters of recommendation for students, colleagues, and friends; or engaging in serious gossip about the historical profession and the personal quirks and idiosyncrasies of its self-involved and self-regarding practitioners. My job today is to talk about Roy as a new media historian. But to do that I need first to establish what I see as five essential truths and political commitments that defined Roy’s entire career: • broadening the subject of historical inquiry; • fighting for the democratic possibilities of doing and communicating history; • overcoming the theoretical obfuscations that marred so much scholarly writing; • finding new ways and presentational forms to convey historical ideas to a broad public audience; and, most of all, • working collaboratively. Roy loved to collaborate, which was especially evident in his early and vigorous embrace of new media as a form that could reshape the way we thought and learned about the past. Roy and I entered the wonderful world of computers together, buying matching Kaypro II computers in 1982, Roy to do academic work and my ASHP colleagues and me to write the WBA? textbook. Our early shared use of computers led us to start poking around the emerging field of computer controlled media in the late 1980s. I was down in Arlington visiting some time around 1989 and Roy and I took the Metro into DC near Union Station to visit an exhibit of computer controlled training programs that some company or museum had on display. Out of that experience emerged the idea to use new media to do a new kind of history. We’d been doing films and videos at ASHP (Roy was a valued consultant on these productions) but the computer opened new and seemingly limitless vistas for teaching and learning and for working collaboratively. Roy immediately grasped that new media, because of its complexity and technical demands, necessitated collaboration. He was thrilled at that prospect. I guess my fondest memories of working with Roy as a new media historian go back to the origins of our first new media venture, which centered on researching and writing the considerable amount of text that introduced and framed the rich multimedia content of the Who Built America? CD-ROMs that we (meaning the American Social History Project and Roy) conceived and developed together. Much of that writing took place in Roy’s book-lined and paper-strewn office in Roy and Deborah’s Jackson St. house in Arlington. I’d move in for a week or two at a time to work closely with Roy, which consisted of being chained (metaphorically speaking) to a computer all day and well into every evening, working with the kind of intensity, focus and sheer sense of discovery that defined everything that Roy did. I could never manage to keep up with Roy’s output or his brilliant historical insights (I don’t think any of his collaborators did), though I tried damned hard to do so. I learned pretty quickly that the best thing you could do was push yourself, work hard and then sit back and appreciate Roy’s incredible ability to work harder and produce more. Even our hard working team of a dozen or more comrades at ASHP was not enough to keep up with Roy, leading him to create and head up his own new media history operation at GMU, the Center for History and New Media. And, as I think about it, even Roy’s CHNM colleagues, who numbered more than three dozen before he died, can no doubt attest that they couldn’t keep up with Roy, either. I know I speak for all ASHPers and CHNMers when I say that to have been able to collaborate with Roy on imagining and realizing history in new media was a privilege, allowing us all to engage in a common project that helped redefine the way history was thought about and presented. Roy’s influence will be felt for years to come in the profession and beyond. I am certain that he will be remembered not only for his staggering intellectual output, but also for the endearing friendship and support that he offered to so many people, inside the profession and far beyond it. Thanks, Roy, not only for your brilliant intellect and tireless work ethic, but much more for your extraordinary generosity of spirit and for your kind heart. 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 256 Title A name given to the resource Coffee with Roy, Roy as New Media Historian"" 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 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. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Steve Brier Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Steve Brier Type The nature or genre of the resource Document chnm generosity new media productivity. ashp roy who built america 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 have only had a handful of conversations with Roy, but each one was delightful. What made him refreshing in the world of academia was his unassuming and helpful manner while being such a recognized figure. It is a privilege to have known him albeit briefly and thankfully his work will live on through CHNM and all his colleagues there. 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 48 Title A name given to the resource Wonderful person and innovator 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 Susannah McGowan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Susannah McGowan 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. Of all the amazing qualities Roy possessed -- intelligence, generosity, creativity, industry, wit, and so many more -- the one that always stood out for me was trust. Roy trusted in history. He trusted in hard work. He trusted in fairness. Most of all, he trusted in people. Roy was a collaborator. He was brilliant on his own, but I think he was happiest and at his best when he was working with other people. And people flocked to him. I think Roy was able to gather so many friends and colleagues around him because he trusted them, often without prior cause and always without prejudice, and so people trusted him back. Roy showed us that the way to gain trust is to give trust, which is the same thing as saying that the way to be loved is to love. It's the best work lesson and the best life lesson I have ever learned, and Roy was the best teacher. I trust and love and miss him very much. 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 44 Title A name given to the resource A Matter of Trust 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 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. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tom Scheinfeldt Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tom Scheinfeldt Type The nature or genre of the resource Document collaboration roy teacher trust 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. Welcome friends, family, colleagues. Thanks to all of you for being here today, and a very special thanks to the many people who worked so hard to put this event together, especially Amy Noecker of the College of Humanities and Social Science Dean's office, who really did most of the heavy lifting. I'd also like to thank George Mason University President Alan Merten, who has done so much to support Roy's work at the Center for History and New Media over the years and to Provost Peter Stearns and Dean Jack Censer, who provided the financial means for today's events. My name is Tom Scheinfeldt, and I worked with Roy at the Center for History and New Media for just over five years. We are gathered here today to honor, remember, but especially to celebrate Roy's life. I can't begin to put into words what the loss of Roy means to his friends and family, to the historical profession, to digital scholarship, to George Mason University, and to me personally, so I'm not even going to try. I don't think Roy would have wanted me to try. I think he would have wanted us to concentrate on moving forward, on what still is to be gained rather than on what has been lost. Mostly I think Roy would have wanted us to enjoy ourselves today, to take this opportunity of being together to forge new collaborations and renew old friendships. Roy was a deeply emotional and extraordinarily caring person, but he wasn't overly sentimental. In that spirit, those of us on stage today are going to do our best to keep things honest but upbeat, heartfelt but light. For such a distinguished scholar, one of Roy's abiding charms was his gleeful love of TV sitcoms. He was particularly fond of Seinfeld and its writers' maxim that the show contain no hugging, no crying, no lessons learned. We should do our best today to take Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David's advice ourselves. That means you should feel free to enjoy yourself. You should feel free to laugh. You should feel to speak unselfconsciously during the open mic portion of the program. You should feel free to get up and go to the bathroom. For my part I'm going to do what Roy always did when we bade farewell to a staff member at CHNM who was leaving for graduate school or some other opportunity. Roy always started with history, by reading the first email he received from the person. The date of Roy's first email to me is May 10, 2002, during my first week at CHNM. Roy was finishing his sabbatical at Harvard, and aside from a brief meeting during my interview at OAH a few weeks earlier, I hadn't spent any time at all with Roy. Nevertheless, Roy was about to become my most frequent and voluminous correspondent. It's a lengthy email, stuffed with attachments. It begins: Tom -- This is probably more than you want to read. Over the next five years, I received nearly 10,000 emails from Roy, an average of more than five per day. Sometimes there were more than I wanted to read. That first email ends: Many thanks for coming into things with so much energy; it sounds like you have already made a terrific start. Take care, Roy. I was a brand new hire, still ABD, and Roy hardly knew me. But no matter how many emails he sent, no matter how long, and no matter to whom they were addressed, Roy always ended with a word of encouragement or praise. I had a mostly working relationship with Roy, but all work with Roy was close work. That made me a very lucky guy. You will hear a lot more today about the work Roy did while he was still alive. In many ways, however, the work Roy left undone is as important as the work he did himself. Roy left not only a legacy, but also a to-do list (Roy was very fond of to-do's). Just this week we were provided with two examples of how we will continue to benefit from Roy's hard work and generosity long into the future, and of just how much of that work remains to be done. Today, I am very pleased to announce that CHNM has been awarded two major grants from NEH, both of them written largely by Roy just this summer. The first is for a major study of current digital research practices in the profession and to further push the bounds of digital historical research. The second grant targets CHNM as a center of excellence and will endow it with an Infrastructure and Innovation Sustaining Fund through a challenge grant of $750,000. What this incredible opportunity means is that donations made to CHNM in Roy's name will help us meet the full NEH challenge of $2.25 million, part of which will endow a prize in Roy's name. Styled The Roy Rosenzweig Prize in History and New Media this award will be presented annually by CHNM and the American Historical Association for an innovative and freely available new media project that reflects thoughtful, critical, and rigorous engagement with technology and the practice of history. We have already raised $30,000 towards this prize and we hope to raise enough funds this year to begin awarding it in 2009. Some of you have already made donations to CHNM in Roy's name. Thank you. Those donations may be applied to the challenge, and we will be back in touch shortly with information on how to do that. Those of you who have not already made a donation—or those who have but would like to make another gift towards the prize fund—will find a card in your program with additional details. You should also feel free to contact me or Dean Censer directly if you would like to discuss your donation. I know Roy was very grateful for your support of his work and his Center through the years, and on behalf of everyone at CHNM, I would like to thank you very much for your continued friendship. Roy was a business-first kind of guy, so now that we have the business out of the way, we can turn to something more personal. For the next 50 minutes or so, we will hear from a wide assortment of Roy's family, friends, and colleagues. After that, around four, we will turn it over to all of you for your stories and reflections. About five we will adjourn to the Law School atrium across the parking lot for drinks and Chinese appetizers. After that, we will venture out to enjoy ourselves in smaller groups at some of Roy's favorite neighborhood restaurants, which you will find at the back of your program. Thank you all again. Let’s get started. 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 131 Title A name given to the resource Welcome to Celebration of Roy's Life Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Tom Scheinfeldt's speech welcoming everyone to the Celebration of Roy's Life, December 9, 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tom Scheinfeldt 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 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. I’m Tony Rosenzweig, Roy’s first cousin and I’m here representing family and on behalf of family I’d like to thank all the colleagues and friends who came to share their thoughts and memories. It’s wonderful – though not surprising – to see how many were touched by Roy. Although I grew up near Roy, I got to know him well first when I moved to Cambridge as an undergraduate and Roy was a graduate student at Harvard. He hosted me when I visited the campus, showed me around Cambridge and would somehow find time to get together regularly for lunch or just a chat on a nice day in Harvard yard. During these conversations, Roy -- with gentle but incisive questioning -- would help me understand and clarify my own thoughts. It has been particularly heart-warming to see that – 30 years later – when our daughter came to DC for college, Roy – now together with Deborah – reprised this role, making her feel welcome, making it clear she had a home away from home. Roy was generous with more than just his time. He gave my wife and me our first car, which was stolen several times from Cambridge. Whether because it was somehow blessed – or because it was a 1967 Dodge – it always came back. My sister, who recently lost her own husband to a brain tumor and couldn’t be here today, sent this message: “What a year this has been. A cruel year, unlike any other experienced or imagined in my worst nightmare. So true for all of us. Losses across a spectrum: my uncle, my husband, a cousin’s husband and my dear cousin Roy, honored here today. At times it seems unbelievable that all this has happened in a few short months. I wish I had known Roy better, that our paths had crossed more often [but] I admired Roy from afar—proud of all he had done….[and] proud to count him as a relative. When in the DC area I reached out to Roy & Deborah and they always welcomed us for a visit. Last year, on our last trip to the NIH, where my husband was in a clinical trial…, we shared a quiet dinner together at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda. It was a blustery cold February night and the winds were especially cruel. Together we commiserated, sharing the trials and tribulations of living with serious illness and frustrations with modern medicine -- two cancer patients and two caregivers. Roy was as sharp as ever and aside from hair loss seemed to be doing well. Richard on the other hand was not. I am sorry that I cannot be there physically today to share a warm hug and shed a tear. Please know that I am with you nonetheless because of what I carry in my heart--the feeling of kinship, of heritage, of friendship, of family. Loss is loss, never welcome, never wanted but an inevitable part of life. For me I try to cherish what I have learned from the experience, the good that has come from the bottom of the abyss—the strength, the lessons learned, the people.” [She ends by quoting her 16 year old son Ross’s eulogy for his father]: “… it is different for everyone. Who could honestly say how exactly they feel, and then feel the same as the person next to them. It is different for everyone. And they can’t. It is different; nothing is the same and nothing is as simple. The loss of a Lover is not the same as the loss of a brother. The loss of a brother is not the same as the loss of an Uncle. The loss of an Uncle is not the same as the loss of a colleague. The loss of a colleague is not the same as a teacher. A teacher is not the same as a close friend. Nothing is Worse. Nothing is Easy. Nothing is as simple. Everything is different.” Represented here today are people who had each of these relationships with Roy and though each is different, we all each of share a common sense of loss but also will carry with us a common legacy, the gift that – like that 1967 Dodge – will keep coming back since it comes from having known and been touched by Roy. [Message from Roy's sister, Robin Schkrutz:] Since it is Chanukah, this story that my father liked to tell comes to mind. It was one of my son David's early experiences at Sunday School. Our rabbi was trying to explain the miracle of Chanukah. He wanted to make sure that the class of 5 year olds all knew what a miracle was. He asked the class what do you think a miracle is? Five year old David raised his hand and answered a miracle is when people are nice to each other. My brother Roy was someone who practiced miracles every day of his life. He was always nice to other people. The Roy that I knew was the Roy that everyone in this room knew. He wasn't different to different people. He was good and kind to everyone. Although his academic achievements and awards are amazing, he never made a big deal of them. It was always you who was the important focus of any conversation. I cherish the time we spent as children spending endless hours playing games together. As we got older, the distance grew, but I am grateful that we kept a tradition of thanksgiving and Christmas vacation get-togethers. Roy's kindness was one of his most wonderful attributes. When I read all the wonderful ways you treated others, it makes me even more proud than ever to have been your sister. And that is what I will remember you for. I hope all of us will think of honoring Roy by showing kindness to others. Because that would be the way to spread what he gave to all of us. 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 149 Title A name given to the resource Roy Language A language of the resource eng Description An account of the resource Speech written by Tony Rosenzweig, for the Celebration of Roy's Life, December 9, 2007. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tony Rosenzweig Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tony Rosenzweig Type The nature or genre of the resource Document cambridge family husband loss 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. I wasn’t one of Roy’s closest friends, but I feel lucky to have known him for a long time. We met when I joined the Radical History Review editorial collective in late 1990, and worked together on that for many years. I can’t be surprised that so many others have used the word “generous” about Roy. Usually it means a nice person, someone who gives you some time and tips. Roy was the real thing: without any pretence or show, he helped other scholars, including me, in substantial ways. Over and over, more times than I count, his advice and assistance was crucial, on everything from big to small. He left me with an example of what it means to understand history as a collegial rather than competitive initiative. Roy’s generosity was tied up with his politics, as a radical historian, and a central figure in establishing the practice of radical history in the 1970s and 1980s at RHR, the American Social History Project and CHNM. Yet here, as in everything else he did—and he did so much, as a scholar-activist—he was exceptionally modest. Not self-consciously humble, the way some are on the left: he could tell some very funny stories about the old days of MARHO, and was quietly helpful in explaining to those of us younger to the enterprise what had actually taken place, minus any mythography. The great radical historians of the past forty years, among whom Roy numbered, are people who took seriously the idea of opening up how history works to everyone—undergraduates, K-12 students and teachers, and the politically-engaged public, as well as our disciplinary peers and graduate students. His contributions are monumental in that respect, from Who Built America?, to “History Matters,” to charting the path to a democratized digital history, let alone his own books, which will be read and taught for a very long time. And then there is a whole other side: how, as one half of “R.J. Lambrose,” he showed up the absurd misappropriations of history by bad scholars and reactionaries of every stripe, helping to make sure that no one would ever mistake the RHR for just another journal. There were many times when I read that section of the journal first, laughing and declaiming it aloud to whomever was in the vicinity. To be judiciously, bitingly funny and radical too—a rare gift in our country, let alone our profession. That’s what Roy was, a rare gift. 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 65 Title A name given to the resource Roy Rosenzweig, Presente 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 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. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Van Gosse Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Van Gosse 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. I first met Roy in 1983, serving then as the liaison librarian to the history department. I had gone up to his office on the fifth floor of the library and introduced myself--explaining that I was there to do whatever I could to better enable the library to support the history department. We hit it off from the start since we were both interested in computers and neither of us was in a position to do much about it within our areas of responsibility. Roy was polite and listened to my library spiel for a few minutes without much reaction; that is, until I happened to mention the word dBASE. He was suddenly very interested and in no time had me helping him figure out how to code a menuing system for a database he was using to store information about oral history interviews. Once we finally got it working, I remember we both laughed over the idea that the university's computer center had just decreed that dBASE would not be supported and everyone should standardize on Condor 3. We both instantly agreed it was just better to go underground. 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 92 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 Wally Grotophorst Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Wally Grotophorst Type The nature or genre of the resource Document Library dBASE