Welcome to Celebration of Roy's Life
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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.
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.
Collection
Citation
Tom Scheinfeldt, “Welcome to Celebration of Roy's Life,” Thanks, Roy, accessed April 25, 2024, https://thanksroy.org/items/show/602.