Retired sociology professor Richard Tomasson died of leukemia last Thursday at the age of 73. This took me completely by surprise, since whenever I saw Dick during the summer he would respond to questions about his health by saying that he was OK and that his ailments were not serious. Even his long-time loving companion Tamara was caught somewhat unawares. Like a number of other departed colleagues he has set a high bar for nobility in the face of death.
Dick joined the sociology department at UNM in 1967 and served there for 20 years, six of them as chairman. As to be expected, he wrote academic books and was particularly interested in Iceland, as evidenced by the fact that two of his three sons are named Lars and Leif (Chris is the third).
But Dick’s real passion in his later years and, especially following his retirement, was the seemingly endless battle against the hypocrisy, political correctness, intellectual cowardice and just plain silliness that permeates the American university and has been particularly prominent in his own field of sociology.
In the course of this struggle, he established the New Mexico branch of the National Association of Scholars; an organization dedicated to opposing the ruin of the university by those claiming to represent progressiveness and social justice. He was without question, the dynamo of the chapter, constantly goading the rest of us.
For his troubles and his commitment to intellectual honesty and academic excellence, Dick was privileged to be labeled an elitist, racist and sexist by the weak minds that could find no legitimate arguments against his positions. Unlike most academics, who flee at the slightest sign of social disapproval, Dick welcomed such slurs as evidence that he was doing his job.
Dick Tomasson was, especially in retirement, truly an Annoying Man at UNM, constantly gathering data and bombarding Scholes Hall and the regents with unpleasant facts and demands for changes in policy. A steady stream of opinions on the state of the University flowed from his pen to the local newspapers, as he attempted constantly to make the public aware of the true condition of their flagship university. Such hardly struck fear into the heart of Scholes Hall, but it must surely have been annoying.
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None of this of course has had any effect on the regents and university policies, but a man cannot be judged a failure because he tilts at windmills that no individual can topple. Patroclus was no less a hero because he was doomed to fall to Hector. You fight the good fight and hope to hell that others notice and join you.
I will miss Dick as a friend, but even more as a rare vocal comrade in the perhaps hopeless fight, he would surely disagree with me, to save the American university. Pious pronouncements to the contrary, I rather doubt he will be greatly missed by most of those whose policies he considered pernicious to the health of the university.
There will be a memorial service for Dick Tomasson Friday at 3 p.m. in the Alumni Chapel on campus. Call 277-2501 for more information.
Editor’s note: The Tommasson family requested that Richard Tomasson’s obituary be written by Richard Berthold.
