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I am one of the fortunate ones who benefited in profound ways from knowing Roy even though I did not know him very well. Larry Levine, whom I got to know when he served on an advisory board of a film reference book project that I was involved in, encouraged me to enroll in Mason’s cultural studies program by talking up the history department he recently had joined. He suggested I look at Eight Hours for What We Will. That book, along with Larry’s Highbrow/Lowbrow, showed me what could be done with the study of popular culture when historians approached it from a broader perspective. I recently completed my dissertation, writing much of it after both Larry and Roy had become ill. I realize now that in a sense I was writing it for them to read, knowing that in some ways, both obvious and oblique, it was hugely informed by their work.
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Writing for Roy
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Eight Hours for What We Live
influence
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One of the things that I remember most about Roy is that no matter how busy he was, he always had a thank you at the ready. It didn't matter if what you did for Roy was just part of your job, he would always remember to recognize your contribution.
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Always a Thank You
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Allison O'Connor
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Allison O'Connor
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thank you
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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EEDC163AF937A25753C1A9619C8B63
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1st notice in New York Times
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ROSENZWEIG--Roy, The staff and board members of The American Social History Project (CUNY) mourn the passing of our cherished collaborator, advisor, and friend. A distinguished historian, visionary educator, lifelong radical, and supportive comrade, Roy counseled us in times of need and was our indispensable partner, board member, and co-author for more than a quarter-century. From our ''Who Built America?'' books, documentaries, and CDROMs through our many Web collaborations, Roy was our intellectual anchor and our inspirational and kind taskmaster. He has left his indelible mark on the field of history, democratic education, digital scholarship -and in our hearts. We send our deepest sympathy to Roy's wife Deborah, his family, and to his many colleagues in the History Department and Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
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New York Times
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American Social History Project
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2007-10-14
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Mike O'Malley
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As he was to so many people, Roy was a wonderful mentor, friend, and scholar. I first met Roy in January 2000, when I was considering returning to do my Ph.D. I made my way from DC to the wilds of far-off Fairfax to take his postwar America seminar at GMU. Six and a half years later, though several classes, independent readings, many meetings at Murky Coffee and elsewhere, I defended my dissertation with Roy--proud to have him as the chair of my committee--after having passed my orals with him.
Gentleness and scholarly prowess, kindness and academic rigor, student-centered teaching and professional accomplishment do not often go together -- but Roy was a model of how to bring this rare combination of scholarship, humanity, and pegagogy into one true gem of a person.
It is hard to imagine not seeing and talking with Roy again, as all of our talks were so enjoyable and enriching, but he, and what he contributed to my life, always will be with me.
-- Andrew Yarrow
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Remembering Roy, 2000-2007
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Andrew Yarrow
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-
https://thanksroy.org/files/original/44ce78a4e198587dfb79ebed830121d4.jpg
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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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May 18, 2006
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Andrew Yarrow
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Andrew Yarrow
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Transcription of remarks made at the OAH session, “Morning Coffee with Roy Rosenzweig: A Remembrance,” on March 29 by Barbara Ashbrook, National Endowment for the Humanities.
Good morning. I was invited to talk about Roy and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I suppose most of you know what we do? (laughter) We give grants, and we give grants with your money, and so we use great care when we give those grants. Within this framework, Roy enjoyed legendary success as a seeker of grant funds, and I think what is even more important, his projects were always the kind that grant makers could point to with great pride.
I consulted before I came here the old NEH database-- printed something out. I see that Roy first appears on the list (laughter) for a fellowship he won in 1982 to write a social history of Frederick Law Olmsted’s public parks. Then, in 1986, his knack for collaboration kicks in, I guess, and it gets a boost with a collaborative research grant for a project on the Central Park.
Now, I’m not going to march you through the rest of this list of Roy’s way to seven figures and beyond, shall we say, (laughter) from the NEH. And of course this list that I have doesn’t count the numerous grants where Roy was a key partner but not a director, often working in collaboration with his friends at the American Social History Project and their wonderful New Media Classroom workshops and seminars which have reached hundreds of teachers and changed lives.
However, that next project, the third one that shows up on my database list, means a lot to me because this was his first grant from the Education division – the first of a good many grants. And from this, I figure it must have been late 1994 or early in 1995 when two guys showed up in my office. Now, that would be Steve Brier and Roy Rosenzweig. And at the time I thought, “Oh boy, here comes trouble, (laughter) just the kind of trouble I love to have!” because what makes working at the Endowment so exciting is, of course, your scholarship, your energy, the experiences that you have as teachers that you share, and your sense of developments in the field. That’s what makes it wonderful. Well, these two guys were telling me something pretty interesting about what they were doing with technology, and it sounded like a good thing because some of what had been done before wasn’t really so great, but . . . I didn’t know it at the time, but Roy and Steve were opening the door to a whole new way of working in the humanities. We funded that CD-ROM – that Who Built America, question mark – and later, History Matters, and projects on the French Revolution, and projects in world history, all of these projects in which Roy’s leadership was so crucial to their success. I will also mention the Challenge Grant which Roy put together which would give the beginning of a permanent endowment for the Center for History and New Media, and I believe this is part of his lasting legacy, too.
When Roy began his career as a professional historian, I doubt that he imagined he would end up making history himself, and that he would be one of those builders of America -- the best parts of America – but, in fact, that is just what he did. And so, on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities, I want to say “thanks, Roy” for giving us the opportunity and the privilege of playing a supporting role in your life’s work (applause).
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Coffee with Roy, Roy and the National Endowment for the Humanities""
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eng
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Barbara Ashbrook, National Endowment for the Humanities
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2008-03-29
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Coffee with Roy
Grants
NEH
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During the late 1960s and early 1970s Roy was my constant companion, my dear friend and, for a time, my husband. The outpouring of grief and love expressed in the many notes about Roy that have been left here is not surprising. Roy was as good a person as I have ever known.
Beyond his genuine sweetness, loyalty, generosity of spirit, and daunting work ethic, Roy was a truly principled individual. He was fascinated by the intricacies and ideological minutia of political groups, but never took the easy route of allowing party politics to do the thinking for him. His opinions were his own. And when he decided an issue was important he acted on it. During the Vietnam War years Roy applied for and received conscientious objector status. But freeing himself from the potential horror of wartime military service didn’t end the issue for Roy. Instead, once a week for two years Roy rose at 5:00am so that he could travel down to Whitehall St., New York’s selective service headquarters, to try to find ways for those waiting on line to get out of service. I remember he was particularly upset that they were inducting junkies who weren’t able to protect themselves from the Selective Service madness. Roy did what he could to help.
He also had the wonderful ability to use his sharp, slightly subversive, sense of humor to undercut self-righteousness and pomposity. His father, Max Rosenzweig, helped to nurture Roy’s sly funny bone - introducing him to the Marx Brothers and Bob and Ray at an early age. Perhaps these were also early inspirations for Roy’s love of the offbeat - not the temporary, self-defining off-beatness of adolescents or the cutsie off-beatness of gift stores, but the genuine, quirky uniqueness of American subcultures and individuals who have somehow landed on the stove top instead of in the cultural mixing pot.
Roy’s concern for those facing systemic problems that blocked them from attaining some semblance of the good life was also come by honestly. One summer during college he worked in a shoe factory in Brooklyn. Many days after work he would tell me stories about the social and financial obstacles faced by the workers. Personal stories, real stories - not textbook generalities. He knew full well how lucky he was that in September he got to go back to being a student and how relatively oppressive it would be to see nothing but more factory work in one’s future. Roy noticed and cared.
Roy and I rarely saw each other since we both moved on from Cambridge in 1978. When we did see each other it was invariably somewhat awkward and sad but I would have given anything to have been able to talk with him briefly one last time. Unfortunately, I did not even know Roy was sick until I came across the death notice in the NY Times. I am so horribly sad that his life was so unfairly cut short but get some solace from knowing he led a full life surrounded by people who loved him dearly.
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84
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Roy, back in the 60s and 70s
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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.
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Beth Bernick
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Beth Bernick
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1960s
1970s
husband
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Roy taught me most of what I know about history that matters. He taught me a lot of history that I didn’t know mattered until I read what he wrote (those brave, dedicated, obstinate Musteites, the class-mixing Elks and the teetoling Washingtonians; Allen Nevins and his vision of a popular history in American Heritage, to say nothing of wikipedia, which I now know I can use with utter confidence). In graduate school, he and Warren Leon taught all of us how to experiment in teaching history, and Roy just kept running with that one. He taught me how to use a data base back in the days of Kaypros, and he kept running with that one, too. So what, if he entered “lawn” and I entered “grass”and we both entered “politics” for just about every other keyword? Roy tried very very hard to teach me how to write transition sentences, to say nothing of how to get organized, meet deadlines, and work 18 hours a day without getting cranky. What could one do if what Roy willed for his eight hours was to get another twenty tasks done? He taught me how to argue as a way of thinking a problem through and without getting cranky--well, he never got cranky, anyway. He taught me how to put some flesh and bones onto historical abstractions, how to find the people and think about what a difference they made to the story we were trying to tell. He taught me to have faith in people, who would go about making history, whatever the rules. This photograph is of Roy about five years ago doing research on the Central Park Conservancy. But Roy isn’t here to show me how to upload this paragraph and the image in the same file, so I have to count on the rest of you he taught to figure out how to fix this.
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42
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learning from Roy
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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.
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Betsy Blackmar
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Betsy Blackmar
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grass
lawn
politics
-
https://thanksroy.org/files/original/a127b98f999caf44d06606093cac46f8.jpg
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61
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a sign that gave Roy satisfaction
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eng
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From a demonstration that was not given a permit to use Central Park during the Republican Convention
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Betsy Blackmar
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Betsy Blackmar
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grass
lawn
politics
-
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Celebration
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Speeches from the Celebration of Roy's Life, December 9, 2007, George Mason University, Arlington campus, Arlington, VA.
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I am Betsy Blackmar, and I am one of the many people in this room who arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early 1970s very uncertain as to what exactly we were doing. Roy helped us figure that out. What do you do when you don’t know what you are doing? You organize a reading group; you form a collective to produce a journal, you make sure that all of your friends know each other—whether in person or as legends. You give other people drafts of your work to read and read theirs and talk to them. Roy helped us all collectively to gain the confidence to do our creative work, and he helped many of us find jobs, housing, roommates, and life-long friends. Given Roy’s faith in mutuality and reciprocity, it matters to me to think that I may have given him back one thing: he met Deborah at a party at my Cambridge apartment. (of course, given the principles of six degrees of separation on which he operated, they were destined to meet one way or another). And Deborah gave Roy back to us all a hundred fold by sharing his hospitality and wit, and, over the years,—I think it took a long time-- helping him see that he could do even more if he didn’t stay up all night or live on chocolate donuts and Tab or drive himself to exhaustion; she even taught Roy to take vacations, which just seems like a miracle.
Roy recruited me to help write a short screen play for a short documentary by Richard Broadman on Boston’s parks. Then, he suggested that we write a short book on Central Park. The thing is, the story was more complicated, there were more layers, we really needed to bring it up to the present, so more than six years and 600 pages later, we finished the Park and the People. But we would not have been able to do this had Roy not figured out the magic key to grant writing: all of our proposals started with a Johnny Carson joke from the mid-1960s—“It was so quiet last night in Central Park, that you could have heard a knife drop.” It was followed somewhere in the proposal by another one, “Did you hear the Soviet ambassador was mugged in Central Park last night? The park commissioner said it was an exceptional case: ‘it’s the first time they got a Russian’.” I never knew where Roy found these Johnny Carson jokes, but who else but Roy would recognize that someone sitting reading fifty pleas for money would be desperate for some comic relief? Of course, being Roy, he also compiled and analyzed all the crime statistics of the 1960s to prove that it was safer to be in the park than on the streets of New York.
It was not always easy to collaborate with Roy. It was not just the damn to-do lists and the feeling that you could never keep up with him. It was Roy’s honesty: you just couldn’t tell Roy white lies about why you hadn’t done something you said you would do. I don’t think Roy hated a lot of things, but I do think he really really disliked cowardly self-serving white lies and excuses. He also didn’t have much use for pomposity, grandiosity, arrogance, or abuses of power.
There is only one time when I think Roy was actually relieved that I didn’t follow through on something: for his 40th birthday, just after we finished the park book, I gave him a trowel and the promise of 100 daffodil bulbs. I had arranged to have the bulbs shipped to my house in Carmel, but, as it turned out, I didn’t travel to Washington that Fall, so I ended up planting them in my yard: he never asked me what happed to his opportunity to become a gardener.
When I think of Roy now, I think of that little crinkle and light in his eyes when he was telling or hearing a good story. I think of the pleasure of sharing Roy’s and Deborah’s stories of the Human Comedy. It is probably because he recognized and so readily forgave the foibles of his friends, his colleagues, his students, that Roy was able to help so many of us muddle through and collectively hold each other up through so many bad things, political and personal, of which surely one of the hardest is losing Roy himself.
Okay: no tears, no hugging, but here’s a lesson Roy would have allowed: start your grant proposals with a joke.
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155
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eng
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Betsy Blackmar
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Betsy Blackmar
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central park
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roy
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