Jules Tygiel, A Gracious Colleague

I was saddened this morning to see the obituary in the New York Times for my fellow historian and colleague, Professor Jules Tygiel. For me Jules was one of those people in one's life and career you happen to cross paths with and something profound and important arises from the encounter.

I met Jules only once. He came to Sacramento State University to give a talk about his biography of Ronald Reagan when Longman first published the book. We had dinner that evening with some colleagues and I discussed with him my interest in writing a similar biography of Robert F. Kennedy. He was very helpful and a terrific colleague because shortly thereafter we carried on an email correspondence and he put me in touch with the right people over at Longman.

The result of my encounter with Jules ultimately led to my book, "Robert F. Kennedy and the Death of American Idealism," (Longman, 2008). Seeing the obituary today made me think that if it were not for that chance meeting with Jules, where our lives intersected ever so briefly, the project that I worked on for two and half years that gave me such fulfillment might never have happened.

I will always be grateful to Jules for helping me along on my path as a historian. The RFK book came out the year I was up for tenure and it was a great help. So, thank you, Jules for helping me along. You were a great colleague and a great historian.