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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
50, 1994
Agur Jon
By William A. Douglass
By their nature eulogies are always most
unsatisfying, particularly to the eulogizer. How, in a few
words, do you sum up a quarter of a century of friendship,
colleagueship, and partnership?
Jon Bilbao was my dear friend, my esteemed colleague
and my partner in the creation of the Basque Studies
Program. I have a wealth of personal and professional
memories of Jon that I shall savor for the remainder of my
life. They are obviously far too extensive to recount here.
What I would underscore is the one feature of Jon’s
character that best epitomized his life-his sense of
dedication. I have never met a person more dedicated than
Jon to his work and to his colleagues. His entire existence
was devoted to the “Basque cause,” whether when
serving in the Basque army during the Spanish Civil War,
enduring political exile during the Franco years, or
devoting his energies to creation of a world-class Basque
library as the centerpiece of UNRs Basque Studies
Program.
Jon’s own major work, Eusko Bibliographia,
itself speaks volumes (nine to be exact) about his selfless
facilitation of the work of others. It is Jon’s legacy
to us all that the field of Basque Studies enjoys a superb
reference tool, unsurpassed in breadth and quality by the
bibliographic resources regarding any other people and
culture. Too few persons are given the patience and
dedication to begin a task in the 1940s that would only
begin to see the light of day through publication in the
1970s. Furthermore, it is the bibliographer’s lot to
accept that perfection is impossible (since some references
inevitably escape one’s attention) and the task is
never-ending (new books and articles appear continually). In
short, Jon was one of those special people willing to
sacrifice his life to a goal that was intrinsically
unattainable, but whose pursuit enriched and facilitated
immeasurably the work of his fellow scholars. Therefore, in
all of their names and with special affection I say,
“Agur, Jon.”
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