John Lovas passed away yesterday. I was one of those people who visited his weblog regularly and was concerned that the recent quiet there was uncharacteristic of John. John was outgoing and outspoken, a sociable and generous colleague, scholar, mentor, and friend. Like many, I’m sure, I’m startled by death’s swift pace: one colleague had been working to edit a collection of writing in John’s honor for his retirement, and I’m saddened to know that John won’t see it. John’s weblog posts, his mentoring and activism, his presence at conferences and in our disciplinary literature, his comments here and elsewhere: I’ll sorely miss them all.

But if you go back through John’s archives, as I did this afternoon, you realize that the things John had to say — the insights he so often offered — still stand, in conversations that we’re still having.

I’ll stop with that, because my eyes are misting up.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.