Joseph Sax, A Human Kaleidoscope

Abstract

Probably more than any other person most of us will ever have the opportunity of knowing, Joe Sax was kaleidoscopic in the way he projected his mind and lived his life as a scholar, teacher, and citizen seer. Shifting his analytical gaze from challenging context to challenging context, he repeatedly threw rich new patterns of perceptive light, thoughts broad and deep, onto a remarkable range of puzzles. Joe’s ability to think broadly and deeply influenced and reshaped the way that his students, friends, colleagues, and readers understood the intricacies, beauty, and challenges of the world around them. Others in this collection of essays are exploring the variegated dimensions of his work and teaching. This short piece — noting some selected vignettes of Joe’s time away from the podium and his typewriter — tries to capture at least a partial sense of how he carried himself as a person through the years of his professional life.