Publication Date
5-20-2016
Abstract
[Note: This interview was conducted on two different days and the resulting recording was edited to bring together some of the subject's comments that were in audible due to technical problems.]
Sommers begins with the story of their first meeting and later becoming Myers' roommate. He asserts that Myers was more interested in history than his declared major of political science. Myers undertook an obscure research project during their Senior year that Sommers judges was graduate level work and uses as an example of the lengths Myers would go to, beyond the minimal requirements of the course. Sommers also reflects on early teaching tendencies in Myers through the publication he created called the Copely Historian. They remained friends afterwards, were frequent correspondents and had several in-person visits with latest being in 1997. Sommers shares specific memories of what he characterizes as Myers' "sense of propriety" and then adds that he observed that same characteristic in Myers' family during the IWU commemoration. Sommers was instrumental in Myers being recognized as Carleton's Distinguished alumnus in 2004. Sommers did not have knowledge of Myers book collecting interests but reflects on his own collections. He concludes with further observations about Myers' character.
Duration
01:20:14
Keywords
collector, youth, scholar, student, humor, historian, editor, printer, student group, administrator interest, personal characteristics, commemoration, distinguished alumnus, music scores, instruments, Portrait of a Collector
Disciplines
United States History
Recommended Citation
Sommers, Richard and Miner, Meg, "Richard Sommers" (2016). All oral histories. 129.
https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/oral_hist/129
Comments
An abstract of this interview is available below. A time-annotated index is linked above and to the right. A transcription will be posted as soon as it becomes available. An essay summarizing themes that emerged from interviews conducted about Myers in 2016 is available: Portrait of a Collector: Reflections on an Influential Bibliophile.
This interview subject is affiliated with IWU and/or President Myers in the following ways: Army War College Distinguished Fellow; Carleton College Class of 1964 and Myers' roommate, 1962-64.