Posted by Alex Simon on September 12, 2008 at 06:10:42 from 206.174.90.26 26-90-174-206.gci.net :
I only attended the University of Buffalo for one year (1984-85) and I was only enrolled in one of Ed's classes (Sociology of Religion). Most of my interactions occurred with him outside of the classroom at various political events. He was one of the people who inspired me to become a sociologist. I think that teaching and research were to him, just some of the tools he utilized to effect social change. As a teacher, he genuinely listened to us and encouraged us to express ourselves and to question everything. I have attempted to emulate him to some degree in my approaches to teaching and to research. When I bike to classes in the rain and the snow, I admit to my students that I wasn't the first professor to use that mode of transportation. When they are occassionally shocked or disturbed by some of my statements, I assure them that I had a professor named Ed Powell who was far more iconoclastic than I would ever dare to be. I last saw Ed in Washington, DC in the late 1980s. It was a protest against our government's attempts to overthrow the Sandinistas. We talked for a bit and he gave me some excellent advice (which I later followed) about choosing a graduate program. Alex Simon
I count myself lucky to have been one of his students and I know that his family and friends must miss him.
Juneau, Alaska