LINGUIST List 20.3455
Wed Oct 14 2009
All: Obituary: Thomas M. Hess
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1. David
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Obituary: Thomas M. Hess
Message 1: Obituary: Thomas M. Hess
Date: 14-Oct-2009
From: David Beck <dbeckualberta.ca>
Subject: Obituary: Thomas M. Hess
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Thom Hess, who died on August 27, 2009, was a giant of twentieth centurylinguistics, invisible to those whose eyes could not reach high enough totake the true measure of his greatness, but in plain sight to those whoseminds are open to clear thinking, unbiased analysis and true commitment toone’s tasks. Although his life’s work was geographically limited to a fewAmerindian languages of the northwest, its scope was boundless in the rangeof topics covered within his field of study, and few could match the depthof his insights or the clarity with which he explained them. His impact onNative American linguistics will be deep and lasting.
Thom was born in 1936, in Flint, Michigan. He did his undergraduate work atthe University of Colorado (1959), and his Master’s (1964) and PhD (1967)at the University of Washington. It is unfortunate that his PhDdissertation, Snohomish Grammatical Structure, hitherto has remainedunpublished, because it is the first detailed description of the Snohomishdialect of Lushootseed, a Coast Salish language to which Thom woulddedicate many more years of his professional life. Over time, Thom wouldalso make contributions to Saanich and Nitinaht, respectively a Salish anda Wakashan language of southern Vancouver Island.
It is typical of Thom’s humility that he generally shied away frompublications that would only benefit the academic world, but that heconcentrated on works that would be useful to the Native languagecommunities where he obtained his data. Aside from a number of publicationsin scholarly journals, and contributions to the annual conferences onSalish and neighboring languages, the bulk of his work is pedagogicallybased, such as his two-part Lushootseed: The language of the Skagit,Nisqually, and Other Tribes of Puget Sound, co-authored with his long-timeLushootseed consultant Vi Hilbert, and his three-volume series ofLushootseed text collections, with translations, glossaries and grammaticalanalysis, published between 1995 and 2006 in the University of MontanaOccasional Papers in Linguistics. In these works, and in his purelyacademic publications, Thom managed to explain difficult topics in clearlanguage that eschews theoretical jargon but cuts to the core of the matterwithout fuss or obfuscation. His outstanding 'Central Coast Salish Wordsfor Deer: Their Wave-Like Distribution' (IJAL 45:5-16) is just one exampleof his complete mastery of profound analysis and insightful academicwriting. His discussion of agent- and patient-oriented stems in his firstLushootseed text collection (1996, see above) is another.
It is indeed a hallmark of Thom’s work that he always combined pedagogicalusefulness with academic rigour, and that his scholarly contributionsremain accessible even to undergraduate students without losing any oftheir theoretical depth, while his pedagogical work never suffered from anill-advised attempt to popularize (and trivialize) his writing style. Assuch he was a teacher in the purest and best sense of the word. Thestudents at the University of Victoria, where he taught from 1968 to 2000were very lucky to have him as their teacher and mentor. Amongst his manystudents, Thom earned a reputation for generosity and fairness.Ever-willing to share his experience and wisdom, he was also ever-willingto share (even give away) the data he had collected and his insights on itwith the next generation of academics. His attitude towards students’ workwas always supportive, even on those occasions where their ideas were atodds with his own, and more than a few current researchers in Northwest andother languages owe their success to Thom’s guidance, equanimity, andforbearance.
Thom’s intellectual talents were more than matched by his emotional andmoral qualities, and I have rarely if ever met a more generous and caringindividual in my life. I remember with particular fondness his moralsupport during the years 1985 to 1989 when my family and I lived inVictoria, B.C., and long-term jobs in linguistics had basically dried up.Not only was Thom there always with genuine concern, heartfelt words, anduseful advice, but he also offered to help us out financially for as longas it would take for me to find a decently paying job. (Fortunately I didnot have to take him up on his offer, due to the fact that I obtained anappointment at First Nations University of Canada in 1989, but Thom’sgenerosity allowed me to coin the term "Hessian loan" for what is in factan outright monetary gift.)
Finally, and most poignantly, I should mention the exemplary courage withwhich Thom faced his final, difficult years when he was stricken withcancer. It is a source of profound consolation to his many friends thatduring this period he was supported and cared for by his long-time partnerRob Taylor in a manner that we all wish for, should we have to face theordeal that Thom did. We can be grateful that Thom was accorded as muchlove and compassion as he always devoted to others, and that his end waspeaceful. We shall reward his kindness with the sweetness of our memoriesof him. As a linguist he was superb, as a human being he was sublime.
Jan van EijkDepartment of Indian Languages, Literaures and LinguisticsFirst Nations University of Canada
[Thanks are due to David Beck (University of Alberta) and Leslie Saxon(University of Victoria) for providing some of the personal memories andbiographical details that have been entered into this obituary.]
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