Laughter and tears characterized a memorial tribute conference session for Cliff Kuhn, who died Nov. 8, 2015, after two years as the Oral History Association’s first executive director, and who was remembered as an always-enthusiastic historian, father and friend.
OHA past president Stephen Sloan noted Kuhn’s enthusiasm for the wide-ranging content at OHA conferences. “Cliff loved every session he went to; there wasn’t a session he didn’t love.”
Another thing he loved, said OHA Program Associate Gayle Knight, was working with students. He would always say after meetings involving students, “aren’t they terrific?” she recalled.
Knight said his colleagues at Georgia State University observed that Kuhn had never before seemed so happy or so alive after the OHA chose him as its first executive director.
“It was a great privilege to get to know Cliff,” she said.
A Georgia State graduate student recalled Kuhn, his thesis adviser, demanding high-quality work. “There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t just really need to talk to him.”
Kuhn’s widow, Kathie Klein, thanked OHA members and expressed “the deep gratitude of all of Cliff’s family.”
