Harry B. Weber (1929-2010)

[eric r laursen]

I just saw this e-mail and regret not replying earlier.  Harry was a wonderful teacher and a mentor to me when I was in the MA program at the University of Iowa.  I was an RA on the Encyclopedia and Harry was my thesis advisor.  He encouraged me to go on for my PhD and then drove me to a regional AATSEEL conference in Madison to meet the faculty and see what a professional conference was like.  Without his encouragement, I know that this working-class kid from Sioux City, Iowa never would have considered becoming a professor.  He was kind and generous with his advice and with his time.  I aspire to be half the teacher he was.  

His intellectual daring and curiosity were so inspiring.  I always say that Harry Weber taught me to read.  When I went to the Soviet Union in 1982 I came back in love with Trifonov, Shukshin--all the Brezhnev-era authors I'd never read.  Harry immediately put together a course for the following semester on contemporary literature, asking everyone he knew for the best things to read.  He was a brave soul and those wonderful late afternoon seminars on the fourth floor of Gilmore Hall will always be fond memories for me.  Harry will always hold a place in my heart.  My condolences to Nelli and kids.

Dr. Eric Laursen
Associate Professor, Russian and Comparative Literary & Cultural Studies
Department of Languages and Literatures
University of Utah
255 So Central Campus Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Valentino, Russell [russell-valentino at UIOWA.EDU]
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 8:17 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] Harry B. Weber (1929-2010)

I'm sorry to announce that University of Iowa Emeritus Professor of Russian Harry B. Weber, whom some on this list will remember as the editor of The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet Literature in the 1970s and 80s, died on July 22 after a short illness. He is fondly remembered by colleagues, friends, and loved ones as a generous and genuinely kind man, an inspiring teacher, knowledgeable, witty, charming, forever curious. I'll miss him.

http://www.funeralquestions.com/obits/lensing/memorial.asp?listing_id=158778



Russell Scott Valentino
Professor and Chair
Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature
Editor, The Iowa Review
University of Iowa
tel. 319-335-2827


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