R. J. Kaufmann

R.J. Kaufmann was an exceptional professor who sent me to the Philosophy Dept. upon expressing my interest in "Form". Always supportive of his students even after they went on to other universities. A significant and interesting mind, and experience not unlike a Greek symposium. that

Dr. Kaufmann was the finest teacher I had at the University of Texas. How fortunate for me that Dr. Kineavy suggested I take his course on selected plays of Shakespeare in 1970. I asked him to critique a poem I wrote, and he was sensitive and encouraging in the best possible way - a teacher of the highest order. Years later, I saw him entering a crowded local restaurant with a small group. He saw me, recognized me after all that time, and nodded his acknowledgement before resuming...

I owe my professional life and my intellectual reach to R.J. Kaufmann. He was a force of nature, one that pressed me to reach farther, a force that lit and fanned the intellectual fire that burns in me still. For three years I spent most Fridays 11:00 to 1:00 (with two other grad students) in R.J. and Leslie's sun porch. (After our first meeting in EPB, Kaufmann (as we called him then) observed that such fine gatherings were better held in less dismal places.) Hence the beginning of "The...

Dr. Kaufmann was one of the two great mentors I had as a PhD student at the UNiversity of Texas. Grad student rumor had it you could tell how deep he was in thought by the way he wore or had dangling from a chain his glasses as he walked down the hall. Ridiculous rumor, but the truth in it was that Dr. Kaufmann was frequently engaged in very deep thought and there's no telling how many of his students were forever energized and transformed by his thinking. Another grad student joke was...

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