Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 103.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2024-08-18 08:31:38+00:00
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
Subject: Michael Sperberg-McQueen (18 May 1954 – 16 August 2024)
Dear colleagues,
What can one say about the death of a close friend? A couple of stories
is my offering here--a poor one, but it is what I have to give.
Biographical details may be found elsewhere.*.
I'm writing to pay personal tribute, not because of his great
professional accomplishments. Put simply and inadequately, he changed
and enabled the computational encoding of our cultural heritage, hence
how publishing is done, how resources are constructed and retrieved, and
likely much else I am unaware of and incompetent to comment on. Put
simply he changed my life, though without intending to do anything of
the sort. Perhaps he never understood the extent of what he had done for
me. But within that bit of personal history is something else worth
sharing. It has to do with Humanist, and so with the kind of
dissemination of what we do that is its own reward. Those here who have
taught likely know how you take refuge sometimes after teaching a class
to students who seem not to have grasped what you've said at all; you
tell yourself, "you'll never know what effect you've had, perhaps
something good." And then a student, perhaps many years later, comes up
to you and tells you how you've changed her or his life. Or something
like that.
Michael and I met at the ACH/ICCH conference in Columbia, South
Carolina, in April 1987. He was there to give a paper entitled
"Providing centralized support for humanities computing", and I to talk
(very nervously, as I recall, to travel-weary colleagues some of whom
fell asleep) about "How we work: Implementing a model for inductive
research in the humanities".** Both Michael and I were at the time among
the many misemployed academics stuck in support roles and not at all
happy about it, throwing ourselves--this is how I thought about it in
darker moments--against an impervious brick wall. It may be hard to
believe now that then ANY affiliation with computing was for a newly
minted PhD virtually a guarantee of failure on the job-market. This was
certainly the case for both of us.
At the conference, spotting Michael's topic, I dimly remember conspiring
with him to hold a spontaneous, unscheduled meeting later that evening
to discuss our outcast state. Word of the meeting was circulated; a
couple of dozen people turned up, including the father of American
humanities computing, Joe Raben. Michael spoke eloquently, as
always. Then we all discussed what to do to put to work the obvious and
highly encouraging energy and fellow-feeling among us in the room. Soon
we'd all be gone, back to our jobs, and inevitably determination to do
something would fade in the day-to-day grind. I volunteered to handle
communication among us, how I did not know. E-mail was young then in the
humanities. Back home in Toronto, thanks to a colleague in the computing
centre, ListServ was unearthed, and Humanist went online.*** Without
it--without Michael--so much that then evolved would not have happened,
not the subsequent career I have enjoyed and the life that has come with
it. So much would have been very different indeed. Hence my personal
indebtedness to Michael Sperberg-McQueen.
It would do the man whose life I mean to celebrate injustice, however,
not to remember and dwell on his wonderful generosity of spirit,
friendship and radiant warmth. A small anecdote to illustrate. I
remember going to a restaurant somewhere in Germany with him and some
others, likely during yet another conference. Michael, a big man, was
having difficulty wedging himself between the wall and the table, and so
apologised to the waitress (auf Deutsch, of course). She replied
cheerily, "Ein Mann ohne Bauch ist wie ein Tag ohne Sonnenschein", "A
man without stomach is like a day without sunshine."
We have lost such sunshine!
Yours,
Willard McCarty
----------
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sperberg-McQueen
** https://dh-abstracts.library.virginia.edu/works?conference=79.
*** "HUMANIST: Lessons from a Global Electronic Seminar", Computers and
the Humanities 26: 205-222, 1992.
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews; Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk
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