Lillian Corti

I was hired onto the faculty of the UAF English department in the winter of 1991-92, when Roy Bird was in Roumania, so I never met him until he came back to work the following year. Nor was our first professional encounter a promising one, since it occurred in the context of a shouting match in the English Department Office and left me thoroughly rattled. I went home that night in despair. Whereas another colleague had told me that if I ever wanted to get tenure in this department, I would probably do well to say as little as possible at department meetings for the next five years, here I was, new kid on the block, distinguishing myself right off the bat by disagreeing in no uncertain terms with a senior colleague.I figured I might as well start packing my bags right away. Nevertheless, while trying to figure out what to do and where to go, I kept on teaching my classes and doing my research, which, at that time, involved writing an essay on the African American poet, Countee Cullen, a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance.. When one of my colleagues called it to my attention that Dr. Bird was teaching a graduate seminar on the Harlem Renaissance, I shrugged my shoulders, little imagining that this convergence of our scholarly concerns was ever likely to do me any good. But friends persisted in urging me to at least offer Dr. Bird a copy of my article and ask him to read it, and finally, I did so. To my great surprise, Dr. Bird not only read the essay and liked it, he also invited me to visit his graduate seminar, present my paper to his students and lead them in a discussion of Countee Cullen's life and work. This experience proved to be an important turning point in my career. On the basis of that article and class visit, Dr. Bird became a staunch supporter of my work and when I came up for tenure a few years later, I enjoyed the unanimous support of my colleagues.

In the course of the years that I worked with Dr. Bird, I was regularly impressed by his intelligence, passion and generosity. I am very sorry that he is no longer among us.