In memoriam, Part III

Don Murray died this past Saturday.

In addition to being a world-class writer, he was a class human being, too. I can say that with certainty not only because of the way his students talk about him, but also because of the way he treated me way back before I was a professional writer - while I was a techie peon working the computer Help Desk at the University of New Hampshire. He was a professor emeritus who needed help setting up his email. At a job where the professors are not the nicest people in the world to assist, he was one of the nicest people I'd ever encountered - not just polite, but warm, even friendly.

I was tempted to say that the writing world has lost something special, but the truth is, we haven't "lost" anyone so much as we've been challenged - to learn and practice not only writing, but also humility: Murray-style.