David Matza

We were about 5 minutes into the start of the class with about 30 or more undergraduates when I detected a flash passing the open door of the lecture room. A few seconds later, Matza walked in, cool and calm, or at least making it look that way because he was sweating. He bolted towards me and ask: "What class is this?" I responded, "Sociology of the Family." He gave me a wink and went to the front and started his lecture.

This captured so much of how I remember Matza. First:...

I am now a professor of public health at the University of Washington and among the too few African American professors in higher education. I can honestly say I would not have been set on this path without the encouragement of Professor Matza. I took sociology classes from him as an undergraduate back in the seventies, including an independent study where I did a participant-observation study of kitchen-workers in the International House up the street from the law school. Less than a week...