I never met Don in person. He contacted me about nine years ago after I'd written a piece for the surrealist issue of Fifth Estate. Due to his passion for the subject he sent enthusiastic greetings to our (now dissolved) surrealist group in Portland, OR. Over time we traded mail--he generously sent multiple copies of his pamphlets, collages and writings my way and I passed them out locally. He also communicated via email and joined my yahoogroup. In fact there is a post from him on that list from January 3oth. Don critiqued a comically banal and thankfully brief video made by a self-proclaimed poet who was little more than an advertising agent for capitalist values.
Some of Don's writings on Arab Surrealism can be found in issue 22 (Fall-Winter 2010-2011) of the magazine Communicating Vessels. It's available for a donation or postage stamps, from PO Box 83408, Portland, Oregon, 97283 if you want to check it out.
I mourn Don's passing and will continue to celebrate his life and achievements. My condolences to his family members and closer friends. May his intelligent, creative enthusiasm become more contagious.
Shibek
As I cannot for the life of me figure out how to log in from here in France, I find it necessary to leech off of this comment. Normally I would have just given up and not said anything but Dr. LaCoss was too important to me. I had a very hard time believing the headline of my e-mail as I read it Wednesday - I had said good-bye to him as I left last semester and promised to send e-mails with pictures from my time abroad. It seems as though it was just yesterday I was crying over my frustrations of dealing with "the system" trying to get into grad school; something with which Don was quick to sympathize and criticize. As my adviser, he was the person who suggested I take the history of medicine track instead of medical school and forever changed my life's path. As my professor, he was the quickwitted man who introduced me to all of the bureaucracy and bullshit in the professional history field. As an awesome person in general, he made me a tougher, more concise and more sarcastic historian, showing me you don't have to sell out to play the game. He was truly a shining light among academics and will forever remain one of my favorite professors and mentors at UWL. I sorrowfully regret that I will never be able to send him my thesis one day but his touch will be on every page. I have shed many tears in the past few days shocked that such a good man could pass so suddenly but I feel as though Don would want me to find humor in the fact that he is probably arguing intellectual issues with the Devil (or, Lord help him, God) right now. He was a shining academic light who has left an indelible mark on both me and my field. I will never forget the professor in the t-shirt and cotton shorts. Because I will not be there to say it in person, Good-Bye Dr. LaCoss – I miss you already
ReplyDeleteKelly Nussbaum