Saturday, June 2, 2007

Festschrift, Santa Fe Class of 1968

Dear Classmates --

Over the past two days, I have had two good, long conversations with Sam and Claudia Larcombe. I am very happy to report that Sam wants to be part of the homecoming celebrations, and both have agreed even to set foot on campus, something they have not, on principle, done for many years. Sam is working on a kind of memorial piece in honor and recollection of Ken and will be circulating it soon. He and Claudia also plan to enter the email lists in the near future.

In the course of conversation, it occurred to us that Sam's piece on Ken could well be folded into a more significant document. What I have in mind is a Festschrift, a collection of essays, poetry, recollections in honor, not only of Ken, but of Hal Papps, Gary Thornton, and any others who have died, and also of our tutors, Ford Brown, Bill Darkey, Tom Slakey, Bob Bunker, Charles Bell, and others. I'm sure that, over the years, all of us have done some writing. So the idea is not necessarily to contribute something specifically about Ken or Hal or FKB, etc.; rather, it is for each of us to contribute something of value, the very value itself being a way of showing respect and love for those in whose honor the Festschrift would be put together and published. Contributions could range from a scientific paper you, Tom, have already published (with permission from the former publisher, of course!), to a poem written specifically for the occasion. In short,the contributions can be whatever anyone wants to contribute.

Sam, at my insistence, has agreed to edit the volume, and I have offered to help him. If we start sending things to Sam now, we should be able to have all contributions in hand in plenty of time to get a small publishing run off the press in time for our homecoming, whether it is in summer of fall of 2008. Accordingly, I am proposing that all of us send hard copies of our contributions to Sam (not email versions, as he is not now using email and, besides, it would not be fair for him to have to print out all of our stuff). Let's see what we can collect over the next couple of months.

Here is Sam's address: 4313 Sleeping Bear Lane; Santa Fe, NM 87507.
Here is Sam and Claudia's phone number: 505.983.5336. I am sure they would like to hear from any of us.

I trust that the idea of a Festschrift will meet with approval of all of you.

Warm regards,

Phil

1 comment:

Phil Chandler said...

Jim Liljenwall had the excellent idea that the Festschrift can -- and, for reasons of cost, should -- be published on CD-roms. That will solve the cost problem completely. As there will be videos taken during the reunion and/or submitted as contributions to the Festschrift, the latter can be published in part on CD, in part on DVD.

PHil