Ken Hale

[Tom Givon]

                A MESSAGE FORWARDED FROM JOHN HAIMAN:


My teacher Ken Hale

In the spring of 1969, as a second year grad student, I took Field
Methods
from Ken Hale. The language of study was Papago, which, as Dan Everett
has
reminded us, Ken spoke perfectly, along with who knows how many other
languages.  You would never know it from that class, where Ken's spoken
Papago was confined to some brief and totally inaudible murmurs to Al
Alvarez.  What I remember from that class is not Ken's phenomenal
linguistic gift, but another one which is maybe almost as rare.  He had
the
gift of admiration. He was enthusiastic and appreciative without a hint
of
condescension -- not only to us, his privileged students, but, as I
later
learned, to almost everyone. To all of us, his inferiors. I've met with
this kind of generosity in two or three people in my life.

John Haiman