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| Larry Stokes |
With the sudden death of Lawrence D. Stokes on Christmas Eve, the Department of History lost a cherished colleague.
Larry鈥檚 dedication as a teacher was legendary.聽He committed himself to whatever subject he was teaching 鈥� whether the history of Germany, the study of European culture or George Orwell 鈥� with an intensity and enthusiasm that successfully encouraged students to raise their intellectual expectations of themselves.聽He had a uniquely effective teaching strategy that used carefully organized seminars for an intensive dialogue about demanding readings.聽As challenging as his classes in Weimar and Nazi Germany may have been, they invariably filled before the term started. He had a moral gyroscope that enabled him to analyze the historical contingencies and complexities of totalitarian regimes without conceding a relativism about their violations of humanity.
After playing goalie behind Frank Mahovlich at Saint Michael鈥檚 College School, Larry forwent a promising hockey career to study at the University of Toronto, where he graduated with First Class Honours in Modern History.聽An internationally competitive Woodrow Wilson Scholarship took him to The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Vernon Lidtke and received his PhD in German History in 1972.聽In 1967 he joined the 麻豆传媒资源 History Department, where he taught for the next 31 years.聽
With students as well as departmental colleagues, he was an assiduous marker, microscopically reading each paper to make stylistic comments, grammatical and typographical corrections, and recommendations for further reading.聽He was a generous but absolutely honest reader and marker:聽when students and, indeed, colleagues received high plaudits from him, they knew that it meant something.
Larry was a historian鈥檚 historian.聽His devotion to archival research resulted in monumental publications of documents from the Schleswig-Holstein town of Eutin during the Nazi period; the town鈥檚 citizens organized several meetings to mark their publication.聽This research provided the base for over聽two dozen articles, many of them in German, examining experiences during the Nazi regime in every aspect:聽 from minor careers and everyday life, through neighborly betrayals and complicity in genocide, to heroic resistance.聽His classic article on reports of 鈥淓insatzgruppen鈥� murders in the eastern theatre studied some of the earliest documentation of the Final Solution as a Nazi program.
Larry was a pillar of collegiality. He meticulously edited the department鈥檚 annual report so we had a comprehensive idea of the department鈥檚 academic contributions. He kept track of each colleague鈥檚 research so he could pass on reviews of potentially interesting books and articles.聽He crucially initiated and sustained the department鈥檚 remarkable Graduate-Faculty Colloquium.聽 He was always good for a 20-minute in-the-hall seminar when asked a casual historiographical question.
In retirement, Larry remained a keenly active historian, with a fruitful interest in the transnational careers of writers such as Alfred Ernst Johann Wollschl盲ger and Thomas Wolfe during the 1920s and 1930s.聽He died on his way to the National Archives in Ottawa.
Larry is survived by his wife, Erika; his daughter, Kathrin Stokes-Bonhomme (Eric Bonhomme); his son, John Stokes (Katie Smith); his grandchildren, Eric and Anna Stokes, and Maya and Eva Bonhomme; his sister, Patricia Goodwin (Robert); his brother, Richard Stokes (Nancy); his sister-in-law, Anneliese Voss (Richard); and nieces and nephews in Canada and Germany.聽Donations in Larry's memory may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Canadian Diabetes Association.聽A memorial service will take place in early spring in Halifax.
Jack Crowley is Professor Emeritus with 麻豆传媒资源鈥檚 Department of History.