XMCA Mail 2000_12: Alan Peshkin, r.i.p.

>>Alan Peshkin (Buddy) died yesterday after a yearlong struggle
>>with a particularly aggressive brain cancer. Until two weeks
>>ago, he was meeting his classes at Stanford, conferring with
>>students and colleagues, and actively collecting source
>>materials for his projected book on Muslims and their schools
>>in America.

I’ve been reading Peshkin’s book God’s Choice, about the culture of christian schools. It stirred me so much, I thought I should find out more about Peshkin.

I was so pleased to find he was a professor at Stanford! Stanford! That’s close! I was just fantasizing about talking with him, and telling him how much I appreciated his fine work.

But then I find the above postint. He’s dead. Too young, really. Only 69.

I mourn him, even though we never met. His book reveals an extraordinary man.

I hope his students are able to produce some more works in the tradition he taught them. The world is a richer place because of what Alan Peshkin accomplished.