Remembering Esteemed Bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan

Shatin, Hong Kong --  An email sent Saturday 12 May 2018 (received the next day here) from his nephew Armen informed me that my close friend and colleague at University of California, Irvine, Libraries, the incomparable bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan, had passed away that morning, in his sleep.

I am currently on a Fulbright in Hong Kong and this news made me too sad for words.  Now, after a few days, I am beginning to put some words in print.

He was 78 when he left us, born in Ethiopia of Armenian heritage, he felt free after his retirement to devote himself to compiling a massive, multilingual compendium on the Armenian genocide, published in fact by the Vatican press.  It was his ultimate triumph after a career at UC Irvine devoted to being a really dedicated librarian who was a philosophy bibliographer.

His triumph at the libraries there was the creation of the critical theory archive and its massive collection of bibliographies about the top cultural theorists of the time, who came to Irvine to lecture.  He even became a media sensation, appearing in Derrida, where he was filmed talking about the French critical theorist's archive at UC Irvine.  (It was the only time I spoke to Derrida, where I managed to utter "enchanté", as the regular visiting UC Irvine professor sat in the audience for an Irvine screening.)  The dialog is reprinted in a spinoff book, Derrida: Screenplay and Essays on the Film by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman (Manchester University Press, which records Eddie saying: "This is the entire Derrida archive beginning there almost to the end, there's about 100 boxes.  We see Derrida pacing through the archive..." 

Speaking once with Eddie about a summer in the late 1960's I spent living in Berkeley with friends from Hong Kong, I showed him a photo of the apartment complex. He quickly pointed out that he had lived there before, in the same complex, when he pursued his undergraduate studies some years  earlier.  So it was inevitable that we took a trip to Berkeley together to relive old times.

He was my regular companion at Chinese eateries, even as I at time wrote short blurbs for the OC Weekly.  And we would also go together to many of the Vietnamese International Film Festivals that started at UC Irvine and continued in Orange County, and which I covered for my radio program, Subversity Show, and later its podcasts, as well as review for the OC Weekly.

Eddie, who was short but not slim, had an uncomfortable experience eating at Irvine's Taiwanese eatery modeled after a school classroom, Class 302 on Culver Drive.  The furniture seemed more appropriate for elementary school so it was not a huge success our eating there.

Photo copyright © 2015 Daniel C. Tsang

My happiest memory of him was when he attended after his retirement the graduation party of my  student assistant, Tatevik.  She also was of Armenian heritage.  I really love this photo of him (right).

He also attended a critical theory conference, coming back on campus -- we stayed in hotels in Irvine so he could conveniently attend.  At the event, it was astonishing, but totally understandable, to see
Chancellors Professor Gabbie Schwab kneeling in front of Eddie, in a public tribute to all his contributions to the critical theory discipline.

I wrote about a 2015 critical theory event (that Eddie didn't attend) at UC Irvine Libraries  in my blog post.  Here's some excerpts:

During the exhibits opening event 9 April 2015, in the Q&A session after the opening talk by UCI Humanities Dean Georges Van Den Abbeele, I related the anecdote of the New York Times calling Eddie up to ask if the newspaper could use a low-resolution photo of Judith Butler that Eddie had taken and posted online next to his bibliography on Butler.  Eddie - the unasuming and generous soul he was - offered to give it to the paper for free. To laughter, I said he could have asked for $1,000.   "He didn't want any money," I added. The photo was subsequently published in the 27 February 1999 edition of the NY Times, p. B11 to acccompany a story on "Attacks on Scholars Include a Barbed Contest With 'Prizes' " by Dinitia Smith that began on page B9.   This past Sunday Eddie recalled the New York Times had offered him $100 which he declined.  The photo is missing from the online version but Eddie is credited.

UCI Chancellor's Prof. (in Comparative Literature) Gabriele Schwab then spoke up thanking Eddie for his "most amazing bibliographies." UCI Humanities Dean Van Den Abbeele from the podium then said he "knew that" and had "consulted" Eddie's Lyotard bibliography "many, many times" and that "it is an amazing piece of work."  He later told me that while French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard had given him (the Dean) some pamphlets of his (Lyotard's) writings, Eddie's bibliography listed every one of them. 

At a time when library administrators at many places are urging librarians to collaborate with faculty more, Eddie stands as an exemplary example of the benefits of producing scholarly work that brings recognition to bibliographers and other librarians.   

Photo courtesy Eddie Yeghiayan

At my encouragement, Eddie penned his own tribute to Roger Berry, who headed Special Collections, and his favorite boss.   I also like this photo since it shows Eddie with his characteristic smile behind Roger Berry.

To me, no one could replace Eddie, nor could the University find a comparable replacement.  He was one of a kind.

Daniel C. Tsang

____________________________________________________

My past colleague Julia Gelfand and I sent out this email 15 May 2018 about Eddie to our colleagues:

Photo copyright © May 2015 Daniel C. Tsang

The family of Eddie Yeghiayan, former Librarian for Philosophy, French, Italian and English, and founding librarian for Critical Theory at UCI announced his passing on May 12.  Eddie retired in 2002 after devoting his entire professional career to the UCI Libraries.  He received his PhD in Philosophy from UCI in 1974 under the direction of the late Professor Abe Meldon, studying Hume’s theory of moral sentiments.  He went on to support and document the founding of the program in Critical Theory at UCI by creating extensive bibliographies of all the distinguished faculty, critics and scholars who shaped and defined that internationally acclaimed program.  A graduate of UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University where he also taught in the Philosophy Department, he received his MSLS from Berkeley in 1977 and returned to UCI that year to be the Humanities Bibliographer working under Marion Buzzard and with Roger Berry, Head of Special Collections, where the Critical Theory Archive was established.   Born in Ethiopia, Eddie came alone to the US as a young teenager joining his older brothers who were already working as an engineer and lawyer in the US.   

Eddie devoted his retirement to compiling an extensive bibliography of the Armenian Genocide, published in 2012.  Already online as a searchable database via the web site of the Glendale-based Center for Armenian Remembrance, the 1126 page bibliography was released in print by Vatican Publishing House.  In April 2015, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana issued  Eddie’s volume in Italian.  In Spring 2015 the UCI Libraries held an exhibit “Through Discerning Eyes: Origins and Impact of Critical Theory at UCI,” where the Welleck Lecture series was well documented with Eddie’s extensive bibliographies of the giants of the field and for which he is much recognized and highly cited.  He also appeared in a short video clip from Derrida directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman. 

Eddie is remembered as a very generous and engaging colleague, a terrific storyteller, who mentored many librarians and scholars in the scholarship of language and literature.  He loved words, film, international cuisines, was fluent in many languages and had a very well informed worldly view.  He leaves a brother, 4 nieces and nephews, several great nieces and nephews, and a large extended family around the world.   Information about services and memorials are forthcoming.

Julia Gelfand & Dan Tsang

Vatican Publishing House Releases Eddie Yeghiayan's Comprehensive Armenian Genocide Bibliography

As if more evidence were needed of the Pope's commitment to honor the memory of Armenians massacred in the genocide by Turks -- Pope Francis recently spoke of the genocide as the world prepared to commemorate that historical mass killing - - the Libreria Editrice Vaticana released last month (8 April 2015) in book form former UC Irvine critical theory and philosophy bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan's massive, The Armenian Genocide: A Bibliography compiled by Eddie Yeghiayan.

Already online as a searchable database via the web site of the Glendale-based Center for Armenian Remembrance, the bibliography by my retired friend and colleague is now made available in print by
the Vatican Publishing House, making it easier for researchers and collectors who want to flip though its 1126 pages and delve into its annotated contents.

In Italian, the press describes the bibliography as follows:

Il lavoro di ricerca, compilato da Eddy Yeghiayan, racchiude in un solo volume i numerosi studi effettuati sul genocidio armeno. Il volume è suddiviso in otto capitoli così composti: volumi e saggi ordinati per autore per il primo capitolo; una rassegna cronologica di tutti gli articoli usciti dal 1833 al 2011 nel secondo; lo spoglio degli articoli comparsi nei principali giornali e magazine nel terzo; fiction, poesia, dramma e musica nel quarto; tesi di laurea e di ricerca nel quinto; audio e visual media nel sesto; risorse d’archivio nel settimo; siti internet e risorse elettroniche all’interno dell’ottavo. Il volume, uscito in occasione del centenario del genocidio armeno, offre la possibilità di una profonda riflessione sul dramma del martirio che ha colpito il popolo armeno. Il volume, proprio per il suo essere composito e dettagliato, risulta essere un valido strumento di ricerca per tutti coloro che intendono accostarsi all’olocausto armeno e compiere uno studio approfondito sull’argomento.
Eddie Yeghiayan, Mls, è dottore di ricerca in filosofia ed insegna presso la University of California Irvine

Eddie Yeghiayan.  Photography © May 2015 by Daniel C. Tsang

Eddie's other bibliographies and his contributions to another field of study, critical theory, were also recently acknowledged at an event on campus during the opening night of a UC Irvine libraries exhibit.

Although long retired from UC Irvine Libraries, Eddie Yeghiayan appears in a short video clip from Derrida directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman - as a audivisual sidebar to the current Langson Library lobby exhibit "Through Discerning Eyes: Origins and Impact of Critical Theory at UCI."  While he is speaking in English, the subtitles are in Spanish!

Eddie Yeghiayan in clip from Derrida

I regret he is not otherwise mentioned in the formal exhibit, although he is the librarian who founded the Critical Theory Collection in the UC Irvine Libraries' Special Collections and Archives and for many years compiled the detailed Wellek Lecture bibliographies on critical theorists.  This omission was rectified during the Q&A that evening.

During the exhibits opening event 9 April 2015, in the Q&A session after the opening talk by UCI Humanities Dean Georges Van Den Abbeele, I related the anecdote of the New York Times calling Eddie up to ask if the newspaper could use a low-resolution photo of Judith Butler that Eddie had taken and posted online next to his bibliography on Butler.  Eddie - the unasuming and generous soul he was - offered to give it to the paper for free. To laughter, I said he could have asked for $1,000.   "He didn't want any money," I added. The photo was subsequently published in the 27 February 1999 edition of the NY Times, p. B11 to acccompany a story on "Attacks on Scholars Include a Barbed Contest With 'Prizes' " by Dinitia Smith that began on page B9.   This past Sunday Eddie recalled the New York Times had offered him $100 which he declined.  The photo is missing from the online version but Eddie is credited.

UCI Chancellor's Prof. (in Comparative Literature) Gabriele Schwab then spoke up thanking Eddie for his "most amazing bibliographies." UCI Humanities Dean Van Den Abbeele from the podium then said he "knew that" and had "consulted" Eddie's Lyotard bibliography "many, many times" and that "it is an amazing piece of work."  He later told me that while French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard had given him (the Dean) some pamphlets of his (Lyotard's) writings, Eddie's bibliography listed every one of them. 

At a time when library administrators at many places are urging librarians to collaborate with faculty more, Eddie stands as an exemplary example of the benefits of producing scholarly work that brings recognition to bibliographers and other librarians.  

You can listen to the audio of the Dean's talk.  The audio is at times barely audible for speakers from the audience.  See also photos of the opening night.

-- Daniel C. Tsang

In Memoriam: Roger B. Berry, Consummate Librarian

Roger Berry, an esteemed, retired colleague, passed away this past summer. My friend and retired colleague Eddie Yeghiayan pens the following tribute, with thanks to the Berry family.

An immaculately attired Roger Berry points to materials in UCI's Special Collections as Eddie Yeghiayan looks on. Photograph courtesy Eddie Yeghiayan.

Remembering Roger Berry

by Eddie Yeghiayan

Roger was an outstanding scholar, and at 16, was awarded a four-year scholarship to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. His roommate at the University was Jack Kevorkian, the advocate for assisted suicide. Roger earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History from the University of Michigan. His specialty was Early American History, especially in the era of John Adams, during the Revolutionary War Period. He was drafted into the Army before he could complete his doctoral dissertation.

He became a History professor at Kent State University in Ohio and State University of New York in Potsdam, New York. He earned a masters degree in Library Science from the Library School at the University of California in Berkeley. Professor Robert Harlan of the UC Berkeley School of Information and a former Dean of the School and series editor for Bibliographies at the University of California Press became a close colleague of his, picking Roger as an anonymous reviewer of manuscripts for the Bibliographies series of the Press. Roger Berry was a masterful bibliographer himself.

He worked at the Newberry Library in Chicago before coming to the UC Irvine Libraries in 1969. He was at first a member of the Reference Department. He moved to the Special Collections Department when Elizabeth Karsher was Head, Evelyn Houston was the Assistant University Librarian and John Smith the University Librarian. Roger eventually became the Head of the Department through his retirement in 1991. He was succeeded as Head by Jackie Dooley in 1995.

In 1989 on the occasion of the Centennial of Orange County, Roger and Sylvester Klinicke, the cataloger of Special Collections, compiled and published, with the input of librarians in Orange County, a bibliography on the history of the county as a whole and its individual cities. The compilation would later win the Donald Pflueger Local History Award.

Roger enjoyed living for many years in an apartment on Coast Highway in Laguna Beach with an excellent view of the Pacific Ocean. Next door in the cove closer to the secluded beach area was the actress Bette Davis’ house with a large letter D on it. Once in a Laguna bar Roger met and conversed with the reclusive and camera-shy author Thomas Pynchon, who was bumming cigarettes from other patrons. Roger later saw him sitting on a bench waiting for a bus.

Roger was a fastidious and meticulous person whose prose style was as fine as any and he had mastered all the different areas of the materials which comprised the Special Collections Department of the University of California, Irvine Libraries and which he had developed for several decades. He substantively and unstintingly supported the research and publishing and teaching efforts of the UCI faculty in several academic departments, and countless visiting scholars to the Library.

Roger was proud to be selected as tenor soloist for the Army Corps presentation of Handel’s Messiah. He loved musical theater almost as much as he enjoyed playing his grand piano which he had moved from Michigan to his apartment in Laguna Beach. He knew the lyrics and could sing the songs of most Broadway musicals.

Roger was always an advocate of higher education. He urged family members to advance in life by taking classes and bettering themselves, while providing them with funds to purchase books and other school supplies.

Bibliography of Works by Roger Berry

Edited (with Wilma T. Donahue and James Rae, Jr). Rehabilitation of the Older Worker. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1953.

“John Adams: Two Further Contributions to the Boston Gazette, 1766-1768.” The New England Quarterly (March 1958), 31(1):90-99.

Review of Arthur M. Schlesinger’s Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764-1776. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (October 1958), 82(4):481-483.

“The Centennial Bibliography of Orange County History.” Journal of Orange County Studies (1989), 2:41-42.

“Publications of the Faculty and Staff, University of California, Irvine, 1969-1970.” 90pp.

Centennial Bibliography of Orange County, California. Santa Ana, California: Orange County Historical Society, 1989. xvii, 339pp. Compiled by Roger B. Berry and Sylvester E. Klinicke. Edited by Shirley E. Stephenson and Roger B. Berry. Managing editor, Louise Booth.

“The focus of this bibliography is on the history of Orange County and its communities, including the history of the region before the official creation of Orange County in 1889. The listings offer extensive coverage of the political, social, economic, religious, intellectual, and artistic aspects of Orange County life. In addition, they record studies of significance for Orange County in anthropology and in the natural and physical sciences.

"The materials listed in the bibliography fall into several main categories: books and pamphlets; great registers of voters; city and county directories to the mid-1960s oral histories; theses, dissertations, and substantial research reports; special newspaper editions; selected documents (federal, state, regional, county, and city); and selected periodical articles drawn from over 230 scholarly and popular journals. Categories of materials omitted with occasional exceptions include fiction, poetry, cookbooks, yearbooks, annual reports, most serial publications, most documents, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. Although a few publications of 1989 are recorded, the intensive effort to identify and report, appropriate listings ended with works published in 1988." – From the Introduction.

Acknowledgments & References to Roger Berry

Adams, John. Papers of John Adams. Volume I, p. 59. Robert J. Taylor, editor; Mary-Jo Kline, associate editor; Gregg L. Lint, assistant editor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977-

Bruccoli, Matthew J. and Richard Layman, eds., Dictionary of Literary Biography. Documentary Series: An Illustrated Chronicle. Vol Six: Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler Dashiell Hammett Ross Macdonald, p. xi. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1989.

Bruccoli, Matthew J. Ross Macdonald, p. xiv. HBJ Album Biographies. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.

Conn, Peter. Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography, p. xxiv. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Daly, Ann. Done into Dance: Isadora Duncan in America, p. xvi. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.

Folkenflik, Robert, ed., The Culture of Autobiography: Constructions of Self-Representation, p. vii. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1993..

Horsfield, John. The Art of Leadership in War: The Royal Navy from the Age of Nelson through the End of World War II, p. ix. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1980.

Hubert, Renée Riese. Surrealism and the Book, p. xvii. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Lee, Ellen K. Newport Bay: A Pioneer History, p. ii. Foreword by Don C. Meadows. Fullerton: Sultana Press [for] Newport Beach Historical Society, 1973.

Lee, Penny. The Whorf Theory Complex: A Critical Reconstruction, p. xi. (Amsterdam Studies in the theory and history of linguistic science, Series III. Studies in the history of the language sciences, v. 81.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1996.

Marder, Arthur. From the Dardanelles to Oran: Studies of the Royal Navy in War and Peace, 1915-1940, p. ix. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Nolan, Tom. Ross Macdonald: A Biography, p. 419. New York: Scribner, 1999. Paperback edition, Scottsdale, Arizona: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001.

Sawyer, Richard C. To Make a Spotless Orange: Biological Control in California, p. xiii. The Henry A. Wallace Series in Agricultural History and Rural Life. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996.

Schwab, Richard N., with the collaboration of Walter E. Rex, with a study of the contributors to the Encyclopédie by John Lough. Inventory of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, p. 1. (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, v. 223) Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire; Banbury, Oxfordshire: The Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution, Oxford, 1984.

Obituary

Roger B. Berry. South Branch, Michigan, 11 May 1929 – Midland, Michigan, 21 August 2010

Roger Berry, 81, of Mt. Pleasant, formerly of Irvine, California passed away on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at MidMichigan Health Center in Midland. Roger was born on May 11, 1929 in South Branch, the son of Ivor and Grace Purks Berry.

Funeral services for Roger were held on Wednesday, August 25, at 11 a.m. from the Helms Chapel of Rowley Funeral Home with Pastor Ronald C. Wigan of the Caro Baptist Church officiating. Interment followed at 2 p.m. in the family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery in South Branch.

Roger is survived by his two sisters, Geraldine (Robert) Dillon of Kirkland, Washington and Gloria (Russell) Downhour of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan; and many nieces and nephews and their children. He was preceded in death by his parents, Ivor and Grace Berry; siblings, Ruth (Berry) Murphy, Lawrence Berry, Ivor Berry, Jr., Lois Elaine (Berry) Schwartz, and Shirley Grace Berry.

At the end of April 2010 Roger suffered stroke-like symptoms on his right side affecting his walking, hand movements and speech. Roger's cause of death was a malignant brain tumor.

We are thankful for the efforts of nephews, Alan Schwartz and Jeffrey Berry, who flew to California to bring him back to Michigan; Philip Berry, who cleared out his condo in Irvine, California to his own home; nieces, Gloria (Troy) LaLone and Linda (Dale) Stevenson, who kept a loving, caring vigil by his side during his last days; and Dr. Stephen Schwartz, who led a Scripture reading during his last moments as he slipped away peacefully. – Adapted from the obituary and information from the Berry family.