John Petrocik
Let me note three items that were classic SV quips that I repeated—with all credit to him—to generations of graduate students, which is evidence again of Sidney’s long multi-generation influence because I know they convey these ideas to their own students.
One of his most memorable is the famous “Always collaborate. That way you can do 1-Nth the work, take all of the credit, and none of the responsibility.” He never meant it literally of course, but that he uttered it more than once reminded me that he was mostly excited when putting energy into learning and explaining something with his research, all without any overt concern about his status in the enterprise. Maybe most significant, it was an instruction to those around him that they should get on with the enterprise without the common status anxieties of academic collaborators. I tried to convey that idea to all my students, with almost all of whom I tried to form egalitarian bonds, as he and Norman did with me.
His other gem was “Finish your dissertation, get tenure.” I also attributed the words to Sid every time I uttered them. It was not only good scholarly advice, it was good professional advice—and I always made that clear.
But my sharpest memory of Sid Verba, the democrat who did not have much tolerance of pomposity, was a quip he uttered on returning from a faculty meeting at Chicago, thoroughly exasperated as he reported a long discussion during which the faculty considered whether the person who was being considered for a position was really a genius. He reported to me that he finally suggested a resolution: “We make him an offer, he’s genius.” Sidney was not only egalitarian from a distance, but easily able to recognize posturing and pomposity in his crowd.
Sid studied the democratic order of which he was a citizen. He pried into its corners and centerpieces in a way that made understanding the phenomenon central, and he promoted our understanding of it. The substance was always central, much as he exemplified it in his personal qualities.
