Dale Flecker

Dale Flecker

I had the enormous good fortune to work closely with Sid for almost a quarter century when he served as Director of the Harvard University Library.  There are so many things about Sid that stay with me from those years, but two stand out. The first was his deep inherent decency.  Sid treated everyone with kindness and respect, genuinely listening to what they had to say.  Harvard at times can be a very class-based system; as accomplished and distinguished as anyone in the University, Sid treated everyone as an equal.  

The second abiding memory is of Sid’s humor and the joy he took in life.  We all remember the jokes and consciously bad doggerel (“Bang the drum, and blow the bugle/Drink champagne, let’s not be frugal/Harvard’s finally signed with Google!”) But even more was that subtle smile, the twinkle in the eye.  Even in the past couple of years when we encountered the diminished Sid, those persisted. One went away sad, but also thankful that that joy from within was still with us.  And now it is not.