Thanks, Roy

Such an outpouring; such a testament. Roy deserves it all.

Roy was the heart of a wonderful group that came together during the late 1970s, the Boston "collective" of the Radical History Review. Most of us were working on our dissertations and teaching part-time. Somehow we found time to build RHR. None of us worked harder than Roy. I remember a party at Jean Agnew's house. Roy fell asleep on the couch. I saw Betsy Blackmar carefully cover him with a blanket. I realized how much she cared for him, how much we all cared for each other.

The cruel and crazy job market scattered that group to the four winds. Before then Jean had started the Memorial Day picnics. He kept them going and soon Roy had become co-organizer. Then David Rosner said the picnics could take place at his house in the country. The three of them made sure we could all get together at least once a year. Nothing said or done at those gatherings ever changed my mind: it WAS the best group I ever knew: the funniest, the most politically sympatique, and accomplished, and kindest.

We all became historians out of political commitment and idealism. Roy never abandoned any of it. Everyone who has contributed to "Thanks Roy" has said it one way or another. Here is my shot at it: Roy achieved much, won well-deserved accolades, became a a distinguished figure. He never ever said so. He was genuinely unassuming. And he never relinquished the early core beliefs.

It always gave me pleasure to think that Roy was in the world, busy as always, fighting the fight, doing right. Now he is gone there is a hole in our hearts and a hole in the world. It's hard to take in. It's so very damn sad.