On Friday, November 30, a great man will celebrate his 100th Birthday. His name is Jacques Barzun, and over his life he has been a brilliant author and professor, and a friend, mentor, and role model to countless students and people throughout the world. He has done all this while remaining a gentleman in the old-fashioned sense of a man of decency, generosity of spirit, and true civility. He has received international recognition and numerous honors—among them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation's highest civilian award, recognizing exceptional meritorious service. He is one of my heroes.
In an article about him in the Columbia University paper, Anne Burt touched on some of his achievements:
Professor Barzun taught [at Columbia University] as Seth Low Professor of History and in the course of his career served as dean of the Graduate School, dean of Faculties, and provost, and retired in 1975 as University Professor. He founded and championed the field of cultural history; with Lionel Trilling designed the humanities portion of Columbia’s famed core curriculum and held legendary seminars; and authored and edited more than forty books, amongst them: Teacher in America (1945), The House of Intellect (1959), The Modern Researcher (with Henry Graff, six editions), and Dawn to Decadence (2000) have been particularly influential and received critical acclaim and interest far beyond the academy.
About a year ago, two friends of Jacques Barzun, Mark Halpern and Leo Wong—who is the proprietor of a blog which is dedicated to Professor Barzun—found out that at that time Columbia University had no special plans to recognize Barzun for his Centennial. Halpern and Wong set up plans for “The Barzun Centennial”, and formed a Steering Committee. Over time the Barzun Centennial Subscribers grew to over 100 people, myself included, who wanted to be part of the celebration.
Then it turned out that over the summer, Columbia University decided to organize a celebration of its own for Barzun, wherein the date was set for October 18th to honor the Professor with the Society of Columbia Graduates’ 59th Annual Great Teacher Award.
This changed the nature of the events planned by the independent Barzun Centennial Subscribers, and it was finally decided that many of the people involved—including me—would write to tell Jacques Barzun (and the world) how important the Professor had been to their lives. These would be gathered at a Web site and presented to him on his 100th Birthday, November 30. These tributes, including mine, are accessible at “The Barzun Centennial” site. (I am also posting my essay below.) You can see a list of the Subscribers by scrolling down the right hand side of the site to the bottom and clicking on “Barzun Centennial Subscribers”. You can also find there links to other facets of Jacques Barzun’s life, and it gives an overview of the extraordinary breadth and depth of the man’s accomplishments. It is one of the most intriguing aspects of his influence that he has deeply affected people from a rich variety of professions, from a wide spectrum of political beliefs, and from a long list of interests.
Some of the articles that have recently appeared in print honoring him can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here. They are well worth reading, and one of the measures of the man is the fact that these articles and the tributes that he inspired engage the reader with a vast array of ideas worth thinking about long after you have read them.
My next post is a copy of the tribute I wrote for the Barzun Centennial Site.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, Big Dog's Weblog, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Conservative Cat, third world county, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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