Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Obits of Note

- Roy Rosenzweig, a professor of history at George Mason University and a leader in the field of "digital history", has died at age 57 after a fight with lung cancer. Rosenzweig founded GMU's Center for History and New Media in 1994; "as its director, he oversaw the creation of online history projects aimed mostly at high school and college students, including Web sites about U.S. history, the French Revolution and the history of science and technology. Perhaps its most visible project was the September 11 Digital Archive, a collection of 150,000 items - including e-mails, digital voice mails, BlackBerry communications and video clips - made by average citizens at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The center gave the materials to the Library of Congress in September 2003.

Tributes from colleagues and other materials about Professor Rosenzweig are being collected here.

- Joe Board, 76, longtime professor of political science at my alma mater, Union College, passed away last Friday, 12 October. He also had been battling cancer. Professor Board was officially retired when I arrived at Union back in 2000, but he was still teaching some classes, and I was lucky enough to take his course in international law in the spring term of my freshman year. He was the very epitome of a scholar and a gentleman, and well-liked by all who knew him. More on his life and works here.