Remembering Alan F. Day

Ed Papenfuse

I never knew what the  ‘F’ was for, but I do know how much we appreciate all the good times we shared with Alan, Kate, and the family, including my guided tour of Baltimore with Anneliese and her friend, and dropping Charlotte and Alan off at Oriole Park to watch a game.

Alan tried to teach us cricket in Forsters’ side garden, and shared a love of the Orioles with Eric,  David, Charlotte, and James.  Here he is at the Babe Ruth House in Baltimore admiring the World Series trophy which these days seems an elusive goal for their favorite team.

Alan had a way with words and a talent for inspiring the highest standards of research and writing.  I was able to bring him back to Annapolis for several summers to work on the legislative history project which produced a two volume dictionary of the Maryland Legislature.  Indeed there was a certain amount of fear and trepidation as each summer approached among the staff at the Archives as it was Alan’s task to evaluate the work of the winter.  While fair, and an excellent teacher, he did not suffer sloppy research gladly.

As to Alan the wordsmith, that is clearly evident from his writing. I tried lamely to compete, but when I suggested that we call all the work we had done on the lives of the legislators, profilography instead of prosopography, he knew I had gone too far.   His instinct for attractive titles and livening up deadly prose is best remembered in an essay that we contrived about one of Maryland’s lesser known lights of the American Revolution, William Paca.  Alan suggested the title “Patriotism and Perfidy” and the topic “The Interconnected Careers of William Paca and Benedict Arnold”.  For those of you who don’t know, Benedict Arnold was an American General, who contacted British intelligence, and surrendered West Point, a strategically important American fort, in return for money and a commission in the British army.  I suspect that if Alan were here with us today he would suggest that the more things change the more they remain the same with regard to American politics.  It is one of those many discussions of the state of world affairs and history that  I will sorely miss.

Sallie scoured her collection of photographic albums for our favorite images of Kate and Alan and suggested that we include a few.  They are emblematic of the happy times we have shared together.

At the British Museum

Our Favorite Couple

Hosting our Son and Daughter-in-law

On one of our many visits to historic places

Salut!