One of my closest friends, a teaching and intellectual partner for more than 50 years, died yesterday. Bill Pemberton, whom I was hired to replace for a year 55 years ago, was a giant figure as a thinker, a radical true to his SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) roots. His analysis, his teaching, and his published biographies, especially of Harry Truman, and his everyday commitment to students and programs like the precollege programs of the 70’s and Hmong immigrant adults of the 80’s, exemplified a unitary life. Our often daily conversations about politics, literature, economics and philosophy enlivened the mental world in which Marty Zanger, Dick Snyder and I, as well as other faculty members, lived. A devotee of racial justice and equity, it was Pemberton who took the lead to establish an investigative discussion group at UW La Crosse in 1980 when the Office of Minority Studies and Programs had collapsed leading to a complete restructuring and renewal of what became OMSS in 1983. An almost renaissance figure, he read and reviewed Latin American literature for scholarly publications, was knowledgeable about classical music, had the best blues collection of anyone I have ever known, and, incidentally, was the subject of some wild times in the late 60’s, although he soon thereafter matured. You wanted him on your side in any intellectual combat or any bar fight. An avid fisher, together with Zanger, he mastered fishing on the Mississippi River to the point that he could take you to catch any fish you requested in nearly any season. Born in Oklahoma, he encountered white supremacy in the form of Jim Crow and sought to liberate himself from those constraints and narrow provincial thinking. While studying for his doctorate, he undertook what at that time was called “new left” historical analysis, a project to which we were both committed. We co-taught a reading seminar for advanced students called “Velvet Fascism, the US since WW II” frequently over the decade of the 70’s and into the 80’s, the most rewarding course I can remember. Likewise, together with Snyder, Bill and I taught a History of the Indo China War repeatedly in the 90’s which was equally satisfying. His analysis of American culture and history was fresh, insightful and challenging. Our conversations nearly always offered new and unusual ways of seeing life and ethics. He sought a synthesis of Marxist analysis of social relations with a mix of Sartre, Foucault and Wallerstein in his understanding of the historical process. He was a voracious reader and a demanding conversationalist. We spoke and visited often after he moved to California and as recently as six weeks ago were able to have cogent conversations. His memory and abilities were slipping, which he knew and understood. He remained unwaveringly loyal to his friends and family especially his wife Marty and son Greg, and uncompromising in his devotion to equity and justice.
