PROSSER GIFFORD

There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone the light remains. Your light, dear Pross, still shines on all around us.

I was fortunate to work with Pross for five years at the Library of Congress when the Kluge Center was first established. He was truly generous and inspiring to all around him; and he continued to keep in touch long after we both left the LOC. He was a mentor to me, and I am forever grateful. My deepest condolences to his family.

No one can prepare you for a loss; it comes like a swift wind. However, take comfort in knowing God is with you and your family lean on him in your time of need. Please accept my most heartfelt condolences.

We met Pross at the very beginning of our stay in the USA, when we still didn't know we would eventually become American citizens and find ourselves living in this country. Throughout all these years, more than 20, Pross remained our closest friend, even when we changed job, when we spent long stays abroad to do research, when he retired to Woods Hole: each and every time we coincided in Washington DC, we would have lunch or dinner together. He was a brilliant mind, a fine scholar, a generous...

I knew Prosser as Dean Gifford at Amherst. He was my African History professor too. I benefited from his thoughtful critique of my papers that I wrote for his classes. Although he was a Yale man, he personified for me the Amherst academic sensibility.

I worked with Prosser briefly at Amherst College. I was young and in awe of him. He was unfailingly kind, a true gentleman with the most memorable, joyful laugh. I felt lucky to have known him.

He forced preachy members of powerful committees at Amherst get to the point and left order in his wake.
Lew Spratlan