Posted by Bob Reinders on January 05, 2001 at 13:40:33 from 24.49.108.19 :
April 30,2001
Aldous Huxley, one of Ed’s favorite writers, wrote "Time Must Have a Stop" in which the consciousness of the departed stays on, hovering about the scene before passing into the Great Void. Ed, if you are there, all these encomiums are our way of saying we love you and Bon Voyage.
I first met Ed in the Spring of 1951 when we attended a
class on Social Movements at the University of Texas. He invited me to a party
at the house he shared with Weldon. At the party Ed introduced me to Dorothy
Yates. We were married a few years later.
What followed was a friendship that has lasted over 50 years. It included parties, parties and more parties in Austin; glorious summers and Christmases in New Orleans. (Looking at a sizable collection of wine bottles accumulated during the Christmas season, Ed remarked that he has drunk so much wine that he could tell the difference between Roma and Gallo.)
We were impecunious graduate students, but rich in each other’s company. We lived on strong black chicory coffee and red beans and rice. Above all, it was talk and more talk. When we were separated, correspondence was our substitute. How I loved getting Ed’s long and often passionate letters.
Ed went to Tulsa where he met Nita. From Tulsa to Europe from whence came letters which are gems of description and observation. Ed than went to the university of Buffalo and I and my family to England. More long letters.
We did not see each other from 1957 to 1968, but meeting Ed after eleven years was like starting out in mid-sentence. 1968, that wondrous year, Ed introduced me to the radical activists of Buffalo and to LSD. My first trip was with Ed, and remains the closest I have ever had to a spiritual experience. Thank you, Ed.
Knowing Ed in those years was like attending the perfect seminar. We observed, read, discussed. We had our walk and talks and Ed was the seminar master. To us was the Worsworthian feeling that "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive".
I am convinced that in the history of protest in Buffalo in the 60’s and 70’s would have been different without Ed. I am convinced that his book "The Design of Discord: Studies of Anomie" and his work of true scholarship in editing Stanley Taylor’s writing have become classics in modern sociology.
In the 70’s and 80’s our conversations and correspondence continued. As the
years went by, Ed never lost the enthusiasm with life and learning he exhibited
as a young graduate student. I continued to be stimulated by his ideas. Then
Karen came into his life. It was with great pleasure that I attended the marriage
of Ed and Karen and also his 70th birthday party. It was obvious that their’s
was a great love.
My heart goes out to Karen, to Ed’s sons, Jimmy and Steve, to his step-daughters
Rachael, Rebekah and Eve. Their sorrow must be mitigated by boundless memories
of Ed’s life.
Well Ed, we grew older, but our friendship survived all the years. "A faithful
friend is the medicine of life" (Ecclesiasticus 6:16). Good night faithful friend.
Bob Reinders