"He was the heart of our Department for many years"

I simply want to remember how extraordinary it was to be on the receiving end of Ted’s ebullience/enthusiasm. I saw many a student exit his office with spirits transformed. In the early years of my time in the Department, I was also on the receiving end of a “this is an award-winning... “ ‘review’ from Ted that kept me powered and writing for months thereafter. The same was clearly true for one of the most important early feminist writers, Jo Freeman -- whose work Ted, virtually single-handedly, supported.

There are many anecdotes. But one I remember with particular amazement and amusement:  I was co-teaching a graduate seminar with Martin Bernal and Ted was scheduled to be the guest speaker. At the appointed time, we waited in the seminar room, and no Ted.  After a few minutes, I ran down the hall to see if I could find him.  He was sitting in his office working. He exclaimed (with a perfectly printable expletive or two --- I simply can't remember what it was) that it wasn’t on his calendar, but he jumped up from his seat, followed me back to the seminar room and without blinking delivered a note-less, exquisitely polished, gripping 50-minute lecture followed by another half-hour of lively back and forth.

And then there was his [oboe], his warmth, his deep love for Angèle, Anna, and Jason that was so evident even well beyond his academic persona.

He was the heart of our Department for many years.

Mary Fainsod Katzenstein

Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies, Emerita, Cornell, and

Cornell Prison Education Program