Volume 13, Number 14
19 December 2006





Click, to go back to the contents of this issue

This Week
letters-off.gif (535 bytes)


We appreciate feedback from our readers
Browse through the collecton of older issues


In Memoriam: Prof. Stanford Shaw

Friday, December 16

Dear Bilkent News,
I learned just a few hours ago that we lost our dear Professor Stanford Shaw this evening.

Before I had met Professor Stanford Shaw, I remember going to the garden party at my great uncle’s house last year and seeing a gentleman there wearing New Balance shoes. My first thought was "how cool!" - for this was not a typical sight in Turkey, to see a senior member of the community wearing shoes marketed traditionally for the younger generation. I later learned that he could not wear leather shoes and so stuck with his practical New Balance shoes. Having been born and reared outside of Turkey, one of my reasons for coming to Bilkent to study was to gain a sense of identity- to discover my roots, in a sense. With that, I am most honored to say that everything I learned about Ottoman history and about the early history of the Turkish Republic, I learned from Professor Shaw. I remember going to his classes, always being greeted with a smile, a positive outlook no matter what may have been going on and a jovial "Good morning and how are you today?"

Jeremy Salt had called him amazing, a walking encyclopedia - saying that with Stanford you just press a button and information begins to flow.

To lose Professor Shaw is to have lost a treasure. To go to his 8:30 a.m. class and not have him appear last week seemed unreal. I will miss his well worn aqua colored blazer, the New Balance shoes, the long reports on the research he had been working on since 5:30 a.m. that day, and his stories about working in the Ottoman archives in Egypt only to find snakes in the basement, about having met Nazım Hikmet, Malcolm X and having lectured to Kareem Abdul Jaber, among other adventures. I will miss seeing him sitting in the balcony at the symphony concerts. I will miss seeing him walking around campus hand-in-hand with his wife, Ezel. I always felt that he was proud of all of his students and believed that they all had the capacity to take inspiration from his work and carry it forward. This semester we were asked to give 20-minute presentations on a research project of our choosing. These 20-minute reports would sometimes run an hour because he would stop us every three words or so and give details upon details - always encouraging and supporting us. The best thing I believe, we, as his students, friends and colleagues, can do is to take heed of his work and his advice. That is, to honor him by being proud of our identity, by knowing our history and by exploring the many paths he encouraged us to take. "One day you will write a paper (on such a topic)....inşallah..." I can still hear him say.

Esra Doğramacı
Graduate Student
FEASS
Department of International Relations



Click, to go back to the contents of this issue








Bilkent News Welcomes Feedback From Readers.
This newsletter will print letters received from readers.
Please submit your letters to bilnews@bilkent.edu.tr
or to the Communications Unit, Engineering Building, room EG-23, ext. 1487.
The Editorial Board will review the letters and print according to available space.