Joseph Martin Hernon Jr.

Joseph Martin Hernon Jr BOSTON, MA - Joseph M. Hernon Jr., University of Massa-chusetts/ Amherst Professor of History (Emeritus), died on June 29 after a long illness at his home in Boston, MA at the age of 70. Professor Hernon was an innovative and popular teacher at the University of Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. His signature course on "The Irish Experience" drew large numbers of students year after year. Two other courses sought out by students were "The Life and Trials of Oscar Wilde" and "New Approaches in History: the Mystery of Jack the Ripper." Professor Hernon became a mentor to many of the students he taught. " I don't know if Joe ever fully realized what a profound impact he had upon our development, both professionally and personally, said Laura McNeil, a former student who is now a professor of Irish history at Elms College. " He offered me his genuine friendship and taught me to let my studies inform who I was as a person." Professor McNeil presently teaches The Irish Experience at UMass/Amherst as a visiting professor. Faculty members remember Professor Hernon as a genial colleague with a keen sense of humor and a deep interest in American politics as well as his academic specialities of British, Irish, and European History. Professor Hernon retired in 1995. Professor Hernon authored several books on Irish and American history. His first, published in 1968, was Celts, Catholics, and Copperheads: Ireland Views the American Civil War. In 1989, he coauthored The Irish Experience: 200 B.C. -AD 1988, revised and republished in 1996. Two of his articles appeared in the American Historical review: "The Use of the American Civil War in the Debate over Irish Home Rule" in 1964 and "The Last Whig Historian and Consensus History: George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1876 - 1962" in 1976. Professor Hernon's lifelong interest in politics lead him to work on John F. Kennedy's Campaign as a College Young Democrat and to write Profiles in Character: Hubris and Heroism the US Senate, 1789 - 1990 , published in 1996. He was interviewed about Profiles in Character on CSPAN's Booknotes. In the interview he described his book as a "Plutarch-like study comparing and contrasting the lives of two senators for each era." A review in Roll Call stated "Hernon shows how individual character shaped historic events, and he celebrates those who grew more courageous in office." Professor Hernon's political activities caught the attention of the national press a number of times during his life. In May of 1970 he helped organize a faculty and student movement to impeach Nixon for "the invasion of Cambodia" and Agnew for "crossing state lines with intent of inciting riot." Professor Hernon received letters both praising and denouncing him from places as far away as Hong Kong. Born in Washington DC on June 30, 1936, Joseph Hernon was the son of Joseph M. and Lucille M. Hernon. He attended St. Anne's School in Washington DC. and St. Mary's Seminary in Catonsville Maryland. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Catholic University of America in 1959. He won a fellowship to study at Trinity College, Dublin University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1963. In addition to his many years at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he taught as an instructor at Ohio State; an assistant professor at Catholic University; and a visiting professor at the University of Stirling, Dublin University, and Georgetown University. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and received a Theodore Sorensen Fellowship from the John F. Kennedy Library. Professor Hernon is survived by his long time companion Matthew Griffing of Boston, his brother, Donald Hernon of Lyman, Maine, four nieces and nephews, nine grand-