[KB] Sad News about Robert Wess

[Rochelle Gregory]

I'm so sorry to hear about Bob's passing. I don't think I ever met him in
person, but he was such a lovely and kind man when we chatted online. As a
reviewer with the journal, Bob was always so kind and patient, both with
the authors and me. I'm so glad that he got to see his book come to
fruition in the final moments of his life. That must've been very special
for him.

Thank you for sharing with us. I'm going to say a prayer for his family and
loved ones. He was truly special.

On Tue, Dec 6, 2022 at 1:12 PM Evelyn Burg <psccontracthelp at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear David and KB Society,
> So very sorry to hear about Bob Wess's passing. He was a truly
> brilliant Burke scholar and a deep thinker. I am so grateful to have met
> him and to have communicated with him a little over the years. He was
> supposed to chair a panel I was on at the last Burke conference I attended,
> before the pandemic, but if I remember rightly he or his wife took a fall
> and he couldn't come. He also shared some early material for the last book.
>
> To Bob!
>
> Evelyn Burg, LAGCC, CUNY
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 3, 2022 at 5:55 PM David Blakesley <david.blakesley at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Burkelers:
>>
>> I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad news. Bob Wess passed away earlier this
>> week after a long and heroic battle with cancer. Bob was eighty-one. I was
>> in touch with Bob until just before Thanksgiving, when he told me he was
>> moving to a hospice. Bob's wife Sandra told me his health declined rapidly
>> after the move.
>>
>> For the last six months, I was fortunate to work with Bob on his new
>> book, *Philosophical Turns: Epistemological, Linguistic, and
>> Metaphysical*, which is due out from Parlor Press by the end of this
>> month. Bob got to see the final proof just ten days ago.
>>
>> Bob was exceptionally smart, one of those "scary smart" people who could
>> see right to the heart of the matter. We enjoyed talking about golf. (He
>> was as good on the golf course as he was with a Burke idea.) He advised me
>> on which players to pick on my fantasy golf team for the past couple of
>> years, so that helped. Thirty-two years ago, Bob attended my first
>> presentation about KB in New Harmony, Indiana, and told me to "stick with
>> it, Dave."
>>
>> Bob served as the President of the Kenneth Burke Society from 2005 to
>> 2008. He also received the Society's Distinguished Service Award in 1999
>> and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Bob attended the first 1984
>> conference at which the Kenneth Burke Society was formed.
>>
>> In addition to *Philosophical Turns*, Bob was the author of *Kenneth
>> Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism* (1996) and coeditor (with
>> Jack Selzer) of *Kenneth Burke and His Circles *(2008).
>>
>> Bob's obituary page is here, with details pending:
>> https://www.demossdurdan.com/obituaries/Robert-Wess/#!/Obituary
>>
>> I hope you join me in raising a glass in Bob's honor. Here's to you, Bob!
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
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-- 
Rochelle Gregory, Ph.D.
she/her

Black Lives Matter
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