[KB] Herb Simons

[Clarke Rountree]

Dear Burkeans—

Just heard the sad news that Herb Simons died. He was a fixture in KBS and
a friend to many of us.

Clarke


Obituary for Dr. Herb Simons (Submitted by Roderick P. Hart)

Roderick P. Hart, rod.hart at austin.utexas.edu(Submitter)

The sound has dimmed and the light is but a twinkle. Herb Simons is gone,
gone from Gayle and Michael, gone from you and me on April 20th, 2022. Herb
is gone after a lifetime of unbridled energy, of incessant ideas, of
constant dialectic, of inveterate kindness. Trained as a social scientist
but with the heart of a social critic, Herb plunged into the world of ideas
after getting his PhD at Purdue and then spent most of his professional
life at Temple University. Herb was a city guy – New York and Philadelphia
especially. He loved the press of humanity found in the city. He loved its
muffle of voices, its legion impossibilities.

Herb never did the same thing twice. He hated yesterday. He cared only for
what was new and controversial, for what was important. For some, rhetoric
is the art of the gloved hand but, for Herb, rhetoric was the art of the
naked fist. He punched at ideas rhythmically, rather like a boxer working a
speedbag. There was no conversation he did not love, no argument he could
not deconstruct.

Herb was a raconteur in the world of ideas, an internationalist but also a
campus activist. Herb saw politics everywhere and he questioned each and
every drop of it. He descended on the 1960s like a warrior, hearing the
sounds of the new social movements while the rest of the field could hear
only establishmentarianism. Herb hated establishments. Herb loved chaos and
the cauldron of ideas.

In the days to come, others will tell of Herb’s brilliance, of his
playfulness in the classroom, of his mentorship of young colleagues, of his
stentorian voice of protest, of his love for the field, of his endless
publications and scholarly awards. Today, though, and for me, though, the
sound has dimmed and the light is but a twinkle.

-- 
Dr. Clarke Rountree
Professor Emeritus of Communication Arts
University of Alabama in Huntsville
clarke.rountree at uah.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kbjournal.org/pipermail/kb_kbjournal.org/attachments/20220421/ce5942cf/attachment.htm>