University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Department of Near Eastern Languages and Departmental Papers (NELC) Civilizations (NELC) 1996 Obituary: Kenneth S. Goldstein (1927-1995) Dan Ben-Amos University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers Part of the Folklore Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ben-Amos, D. (1996). Obituary: Kenneth S. Goldstein (1927-1995). The Journal of American Folklore, 109 (433), 320-323. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/86 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/86 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Obituary: Kenneth S. Goldstein (1927-1995) Abstract A midrashic proverb observes that "when a man departs this world, he does not have as much as half of his desire in his hand." When Kenny Goldstein died on November 11, 1995, at the age of 68, he left behind manuscripts he did not complete, songs he did not transcribe, and singers he did not record. But the books and articles that he did not write himself he did write through his students and friends: hundreds of them. Always the consummate teacher, he was a rabbi of folklore. The situations he enjoyed most were the long seminar discussions when, surrounded by students, he and they were engulfed in conversation about folklore matters. He deemed a seminar that ended on time a failure. Often these discussions moved from the seminar room to his home, which he and his wife Rochelle opened up for students, or to his private library, which he made accessible to all. The 1967 Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching was the professional honor he cherished the most. Disciplines Folklore | Jewish Studies | Near and Middle Eastern Studies This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/86 OBITUARY Kenneth S. Goldstein (1927-1995) ..... ..... ... DAN BEN-AMOS University of Pennsylvania A midrashic proverb observes that "when a man departs this world, he does not have as much as half of his desire in hand." When .... .... .. ........ Kenny Goldstein died on November 11, 1995, at the age of 68, he left behind manu- scripts he did not complete, songs he did not transcribe, and singers he did not re- cord. But the books and articles that he did not write himself he did write through his students and friends: hundreds of them. Al- ways the consummate teacher, he was a rabbi of folklore. The situations he enjoyed most were the long seminar discussions when, surrounded by students, he and they were engulfed in conversation about folk- Photo by Robin Hiteshaw ? 1993 lore matters. He deemed a seminar that ended on time a failure. Often these discus- sions moved from the seminar room to his way, by guiding them toward folklore as a home, which he and his wife Rochelle field, a profession, and even a job. In the opened up for students, or to his private days when university positions were still library, which he made accessible to all. The commonly available, his phrase of encour- 1967 Lindback Foundation Award for D)is- agement to a budding folklorist he liked was tinguished Teaching was the professional "I would like to see you teaching at our honor he cherished most. department at Penn." He meant it, believed When he retired in 1992, after being a it was doable, and in a few cases succeeded. department chairman off and on (mostly Most of us at the Department of Folklore on) for 20 years, he said half-heartedly that and Folklife at the University of Pennsylva- now he would write all the books he had in nia owe our faculty positions to the weight mind but not yet on paper. "I have material of his personal influence and practical ef- for 25 folksong books," he said. Indeed he fort. Kenny did not found the Department had, but he knew-and he knew that we of Folklore and Folklife, MacEdward Leach knew-that he was not going to place him- did. But admiring his mentor, he took it self at his desk, or even in front of his upon himself to carry out his teacher's vi- computer, and start writing all these books sion and to build the department, expand it, we had been anticipating for many years. maintain it, and protect it in a period of Not that Kenny did not love books, but he mounting odds against nonconventional loved people more. He flourished in com- disciplines such as folklore. Around campus pany, be it that of friends, neighbors, col- he was known as Mr. Folklore. lectors, or students. Particularly students. Kenny Goldstein was born in Brooklyn He touched their lives, not as a mystic, or on March 17, 1927. He was a Pisces, and a guru-though in the months that passed later in life he would decorate his house since his death, some have begun to remem- with drawings, paintings, and carvings of ber him as such-but in the most pragmatic fish and fisherman. Perhaps his attraction to This content downloaded from 165.123.108.206 on Tue, 05 Sep 2017 17:30:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Obituary 321 maritime folklore His dissertation, publishedof theas A Guide forfishing communi- ties in Newfoundland and Labrador was also Field Workers in Folklore (1964; translated influenced by his own fascination with his into Turkish in 1977 and Chinese in 1982) zodiac sign. After his military service in put him at the forefront of the intellectual 1946, he enrolled in City College of New changes that were brewing in folklore stud- York, from which he graduated with a de- ies at the time. Richard Dorson counted gree in business administration in 1949; he him among the "young turks" that brought received his M.B.A. in 1951. Working as anew perspectives to folklore. Kenny's par- statistician at Fairchild Publications, he be- ticular contribution was the fieldwork gan his lifelong avocation of folksongs and revolution. Until he left for Scotland on a folk music of the British Isles, United Fulbright Fellowship for 1959-60, folklore States, Canada, and Australia. During the fieldwork followed mostly the expedition 1950s and early 1960s he produced and model. It involved journeys into, rather edited more than 500 records with the lead- residence in, the countryside. Weekends- ing labels in the field--such as Stinson, or at best, whole summers-served as the Folkways, Prestige, and Riverside Re- time frame for searching for and recording cords-recording such well-known singers singers and storytellers. Dorson's five- as Jean Ritchie, the Reverend Gary Davis, month trip into the upper peninsula of Lightnin' Hopkins, Ewan MacCall, A. L. Michigan which resulted in his book Blood- Lloyd, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, stoppers and Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of the and many others. Among these records, the Upper Peninsula (Cambridge, Mass.: Har- set The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vard University Press, 1952) was an exten- (The Child Ballads) (Riverside, 1956) has sion of this very model. Anthropologists remained an unmatched classic. But others, who delved into folklore, following the many of them of field recordings, such as demands of their discipline, lived in a com- Banjo Songs of the Southern Mountains (Riv- munity for a longer duration but often had erside, 1957) and Folksongs and Ballads of the folklore only as a side interest rather than Southern Mountains (Riverside, 1957) have the main subject of their research. It was also become milestones in the folksong re- Kenny who introduced the methodological cords field, setting new standards for the shift into folklore fieldwork. After him oth- production of folklore records. The notes ers followed. for these and all the other records were Affiliated with the School of Scottish inevitably popular yet fully scholarly. They Studies at the University of Edinburgh, established Kenny as a leading authority Kennyon began to study the folklore of folksongs in the English language even be-Buchan District, Aberdeenshire, estab- fore he attended a single class on the sub- lishing residence at the northern Buchan ject. community of Strichen. Lacking any mod- Soon, however, he realized that he els for long-term folklore research, Kenny needed formal academic training in folk- literally had to invent his own method. lore. He enrolled at the University of Penn- Most of us knew him as a collector of songs, sylvania, at first in the Department of stamps, books, and broadside ballads, and Anthropology. Then when MacEdward therefore we would have assumed that Leach founded the Program of Folklore infieldwork collecting would have suited his 1962, Kenny switched to that and graduated personality the best. But Kenny was a sci- in 1963 with the first Ph.D. in folklore ever entist at heart. As a folklorist, he regarded awarded by the university. Soon after, he collecting as an essential stage but not a goal joined the faculty. He became cochairman unto itself. He searched for a method that (together with Don Yoder) of the Depart- would have turned the folklore fieldwork ment of Folklore and Folklife in 1969 and into his scientific laboratory. For that pur- its chairperson in 1971. From then on he pose he reached out for ideas not to anthro- served in this role, with a few interruptions, pology but rather to psychology and began letting us take our turns, until his retire- several projects of folklore experimenta- ment in 1992. tion, testing principles of transmission, in- This content downloaded from 165.123.108.206 on Tue, 05 Sep 2017 17:30:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 322 Journal of American Folklore 433 (1996) novation, and decline in the performance society.