I am utterly baffled by William Lear's posting. Bill, just what do you mean by "hand-picked" and "unwashed"? You are touching a raw nerve here. I am very fortunate in having been able to consider Lynn a friend. He was one hell of a nice guy, highly energetic, highly personable, great sense of humor, a great conversationalist and a great fun guy to have around. He sent me copies of just about every thing he wrote, and on occasion asked me to critique articles and or chapters he was working on. I was amazed at how widely read he was. Although we were roughly the same age, I always considered him "my professor" and some times would mockingly address him that way. .Every time I had an opportunity to be with him he would always ask "have you read this' or "have you seen this" "What, you have not read this? "You just got to see this etc etc. What I found missing from Lynn's obituaries was the fact that he was one of the nation's leading Sovietologists back in the late 50's and middle sixties. He was right up there with other giants such as, Berliner and Bergson etc at Harvard and the group at Rand. He testified several times at congressional hearings on the Soviet Economy. What amazed me also was the fact that he could shift from the ranks of the Sovietolgist greats to the raanks of the Post Keynesian Greats. He also presented many papers on the treatment of Gypsies. He also had an unerring eye as to who the rising stars were. On quite a few occasions he would say hey, keep an eye on this guy. He was j one hell of a nice guy. Kathy and I will both miss him. Frank > From: William S. Lear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [PEN-L:4354] Re: NYT Obit for Lynn Turgeon > Date: Tuesday, March 16, 1999 1:43 AM > > On Monday, March 15, 1999 at 22:27:58 (-0800) Michael Perelman writes: > >... > > He served in the Navy during World War II and joined the Hofstra > >faculty in 1957. > > There was a wave of former military personnel into academia thanks to > the GI bill. Many of them turned progressive, or didn't turn > reactionary, since they hadn't been hand-picked. Was Lynn one of > the unwashed, perhaps? > > > Bill >
