1
10
1
-
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 can’t remember how or exactly when I met Roy. I imagine it was at the MARHO table at the AHA, sometime in the late 1970s when I was finishing my PhD. Sue Porter Benson might have introduced us, or perhaps I had just signed up to sit at the table the same time as he did. He seemed always to be at the MARHO table then, before he started serving on every committee in sight. In those days, there were a lot of leftist men who hadn’t quite gotten the gist of feminism, but Roy was a welcome exception. Just when I was about to utter some universal complaint about macho leftists or about one more session on labor history that failed to consider women or gender, Roy would pop into my head. Then I’d have to take a deep breath and realize that there were a few good men.
It wasn’t just that Roy acknowledged women’s history. He also embraced what I thought of as feminist process, though he didn’t articulate his style in those terms, or any terms--he just got things done in an incredibly collaborative and unassuming way. I remember especially a moment in 1991, when we served together on the OAH Program Committee. There were lots of proposals for complete sessions that year and a big stack of single paper proposals as well. Most of the committee was willing to focus on the complete sessions and only move to the single papers if we really needed to add speakers or sessions. But Roy cornered me at the first coffee break and said we should volunteer to go through all the single proposals and create sessions because otherwise lots of graduate students and young faculty who didn’t have the networks to produce full sessions would get lost. So we did just that—and it yielded some great sessions. On so many occasions like this one, Roy did the invisible work that makes such a difference and refused any special acknowledgement for his efforts. He was a mensch.
Around the same time, I was serving as an outside reviewer for The Park and the People. In that capacity, I discovered that Roy’s passion for collaboration was just as strong when it came to research. Roy (and his co-author, Betsy Blackmar) actually seemed excited to get suggestions for revisions. I think this was the first time that I let a press give out my name to the authors of a manuscript, and they were so appreciative of my comments that I foolishly thought their response was typical. (I soon learned otherwise, but I was forever grateful that they had taken my ideas seriously. It gave me greater faith in my critical abilities and served as a model for how to embrace criticisms and suggestions about my own work.)
In addition to Roy’s generosity and collaborative spirit, he was excellent at persuading people to take on extra work for a good cause since he was always doing more than his share. The point was reinforced over and over again as I crossed paths with Roy in MARHO, the OAH, the ASA, History Matters, and especially, the American Social History Project. When I was recruited to join the ASHP group revising Who Built America? in the mid-1990s, it was Roy who called. I was overwhelmed with commitments of various kinds at the time and would have turned anyone else down. But Roy always seemed to be juggling more obligations than anyone else and doing it so well. Plus, he was listened so carefully to my concerns and anxieties that by the end of the phone call, I’d said yes. I’m glad I did.
Joining the WBA? circle gave me the chance to collaborate with Roy—and Steve, Josh, Chris, Nelson, Susan, Ellen, and Pennee. This was a project that highlighted Roy’s intellectual and technological creativity and his amazing ability to find humor in the midst of crisis and chaos. As we await publication of the third edition, I still expect an email from Roy to pop up in my inbox. (I’ve studied the nineteenth-century “spiritual telegraph,” and if anyone can get it to work, it’s Roy.) Like so many of us, it’s hard for me to think about a world without Roy. But then we don’t quite have to since he’s still present in so many places—in books and websites and digital archives; in the ways we think about research, writing, and collaboration; in the tools we use to teach; in our commitments to history as politics; and of course, in our hearts.
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
82
Title
A name given to the resource
A few good men(sches)
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
Nancy Hewitt
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Nancy Hewitt
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Document
collaboration
mensch
WBA?