Saturday, October 13, 2007

Ralph Watkins: A Life of Courage, Compassion, and Dignity

One of my favorite photographs is of Ralph Watkins and I, along with Don Hill and Bo Whaley, standing in front of the UUP tent on Labor Day, 2004. In that photo, it is evident that Ralph was strong, proud, and knowing. Then, I ask the eternal questions: Why Ralph? Why now?

Ralph Watkins died the way he lived — with courage, compassion, and dignity. Ralph fought the cancer hard until he was ready. The end came on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. For over a third of a century, he graced the College at Oneonta with a distinctive intelligence and commitment to social justice. Ralph served as a Professor — and Chair — of two departments, History and African & Latino Studies, and was instrumental in the creation of the latter. UUP, of which he was a stalwart, joins Ralph’s family, colleagues, friends, and students in remembering his life with great affection and respect.

Ralph was a superb teacher. His courses on African-American history, slavery, postwar America, and the 1970s informed and inspired students. Primary sources, including music, art, and novels, added nuance and texture to Ralph’s pedagogy. Assigned readings for his courses drew from monographs freshly off the press and classics of the canon, such as Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick and W.E. B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folks.

As they examined the past, Ralph’s students learned to think critically, to challenge shibboleths in discussion, and to write with care. Ralph encouraged students to scrutinize the hidden ideology implicit in nearly every phrase and deed. While noted for his command of subject matter, incisive analysis, and probing questions, Ralph also shared his dry wit and sense of irony with two generations of undergraduates. He always treated students with a respect that was reciprocated. His answering machine greeted them with mellow jazz. This past summer I had a reunion, over coffee and donuts, with SUCO graduate David Lonborg, himself now a teacher, and David, with much enthusiasm, deftly recreated, from fond memory, a portion of one of Ralph’s lectures, capturing language, interpretation, and inflection. As David and so many others could attest, Ralph possessed a distinctive authenticity inside — and outside — the classroom.

Scholarship provides content to pedagogy. Beyond his extensive reading of secondary sources, Ralph conducted seminal research on the African-American experience. He wrote important articles for the preeminent journals in his field, and was the recipient of several National Endowment for the Humanities awards.

Like so many others, I learned lessons of history and life from Ralph. In recent years — until his retirement at the end of the spring 2007 semester, we two former chairs of the History Department shared an office in Netzer 232 and some brunches at the Neptune, and after thirty years as colleagues and friends, we still found much to discuss. We talked passionately about history, students, education, race, economics, national and campus politics, unions, gender, family, sports, and life. We tried to understand how one could endure the abuse that Frederick Douglass suffered in a childhood marred by slavery and still emerge as a whole human being. It was with some satisfaction that we finally identified, with help from the Baseball Hall of Fame, every player in Ralph’s 1939 photograph of the fabled Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro National League. Ralph posted the long and memorable New York Times obituaries, the ones that were amalgams of biographical essay and social history, on our office door; bandleader Woody Herman’s final curtain call observed, “Any more would have been less.”

Only occasionally did Ralph talk of his illness, and then in a matter of fact manner. Never did he indulge in self-pity. Treatment and illness induced fatigue, discomfort, and weight loss, but Ralph’s spirit and keen intelligence never dimmed. Despite substantial physical duress, he remained an exceptional classroom teacher and the moral center of the History Department. As always, Ralph spoke truth to power and championed the vulnerable.

Ralph taught me and others that life is best lived day by day. Chess is a game for the grounded, and for years, Ralph ended the teaching week with a late Friday afternoon match at the Autumn. As he had throughout the years, Ralph, even at the end, maintained an exceptional inner balance, clarity, and deliberateness. Thanks to Caridad, I had the opportunity to visit with Ralph again on Thursday, September 13th . When I recalled a memorable stand of conscience that he had taken, Ralph said that we — and others — had done it together. Ralph Watkins was as brave and good as any person that I have ever known.

Ralph was the best of us. Every community has a heart and soul, and Ralph was ours. As the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote of another, so might it be said of Ralph Watkins:

One prefers to think of him in this way — as a productive scholar who was also an intrepid public spirit, as the patron and guide of younger colleagues, the distinguished and embattled defender of civil and academic liberties…the spokesman of the native decencies — and one remembers that the life of a man does not end as a series of propositions that can simply be assessed and found true or false, but as a set of lingering resonances that for our own sake, we must be attuned to hear.

By Bill Simons


Donations may be made to the "Dr. Ralph R. Watkins Scholarship for the Study of African American Life and History" at the SUNY College at Oneonta, College Foundation, 308 Netzer Administration Building, Oneonta, NY 13820-4015. His dear friend and colleague, Dr. Kathleen K. O’Mara, was instrumental in establishing this fund in Ralph’s honor.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Dr. Fleisher Remembers Ralph

I am so sorry to learn of Ralph's passing. Although on opposite ends of
the campus, we were friends and colleagues for decades, during which we
shared committee responsibilities and held common perspectives on so
many issues. Not very many people are aware that throughout the 80's
Ralph and I shared, with a few other faculty in History and
Anthropology, informal membership in what we jokingly called the "Mystic
Knights of the Lodge Hall" - the Lodge Hall was the Black Oak and the
agenda was always the same - cathartic discussions of campus politics
shared over a beer now and again. It was just last May that Ralph and I
talked about the pros and cons of retirement, which he was seriously
considering. He made a very positive, lasting impression on everyone
who knew him. I will miss Ralph's smile and genuine greetings.
Unfortunately, Yom Kippur will preclude my attendance at his service.
He will remain in my heart.
In sadness,

P. Jay Fleisher
Earth Sciences, Emeritus

Monday, October 8, 2007

Dr Ralph Watkins Scholarship

The History Department requests that as many people as possible make a donation to the Dr. Ralph R. Watkins Scholarship for the Study of African American Life and History. This scholarship is firmly supported by his wife and fellow scholar, Dr. Caridad Souza Watkins, and the family of Dr. Watkins.

Donations can be made @ SUNY College at Oneonta, College Foundation, 308 Netzer Administration Building, Oneonta, NY.

****It is very important to specifiy that your donation is for the Dr. Watkins Scholarship for the Study of African American Life and History****