My great friend Richard B. Bernstein has died, and I grieve his death.
From his professional bio:
"Richard was Lecturer in Political Science at CCNY, teaching in the Honors Program in Legal Studies of the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership. From 2011 to 2014, he was an adjunct professor of political science and history. A lifelong New Yorker, he was educated in New York City's public schools, graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 1973. Educated at Amherst College (B.A. in American Studies, 1977) and the Harvard Law School (J.D., 1980), he did graduate work in history at New York University. He spent three years in corporate law practice (1980-1983). He has co-curated exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the New-York Historical Society, and the Library of Congress, and he was Historian at the New York City Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1987-1990) and Research Director of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution (1989-1990). He is also a distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, where he has taught since 1991. His books include The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (2009), a finalist for the 2010 George Washington Book Prize, and Thomas Jefferson (2003), both New York Times Bestsellers. His most recent publications include An Expression of the American Mind; Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson (editor, introduction, commentary) (Folio Society, 2013), and Making Legal History: Essays in Honor of William E. Nelson (co-editor) (NYU Press, 2013). He had been at work completing The Education of John Adams, to be published by Oxford University Press."
I add this personal note: I met Richard at the first annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History I ever attended back in the 1990s, and then spent a lot of time with him at annual meetings since then. I visited him several times in New York City Richard was an inspiration for me in the books he wrote--no wasted words and every word communicating meaning and significance--and in his gently, never pridefully, displayed erudition. And what a conversationalist and boon companion for dinners and discussions! I am grieving this loss. . . .
