Jack Temple Kirby

I’m shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jack Kirby,the distinguished southern and environmental historian, and, I’m proud to say, a close friend for a long time.

(From the St. Augustine Record on 8/9/2009)

Jack Temple Kirby, 70, died Aug. 6, 2009, at Flagler Hospital. He was born in Portsmouth, Va., the son of Clifford Kirby and Theodosia Palmer Kirby.

He graduated from Old Dominion University and received his master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Virginia. He was W.E. Smith professor emeritus of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where his specialties were the American South, rural and agricultural history, and environmental history. He was author or editor of seven books, including "Media-Made Dixie"; "Rural Worlds Lost: The American South, 1920-1960"; "Poquosin: A Study of Rural Landscape and Society"; and "Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South," which won the Bancroft Prize in 2007. At his death, he was president of the Southern Historical Association. For some years he was editor of the series Studies in Rural Cultures at the University of North Carolina Press. He was a past president of the Agricultural History Society and a former Fulbright Senior Lecturer at the University of Genoa in Italy. He also served on a number of editorial boards. He moved to St. Augustine in 2003.

He is survived by a son, Matthew Kirby, of New York City; a daughter, Valerie Kirby, and her husband, Mark Bruhn; and two granddaughters, Ella and Sophie Bruhn, all of Fort Wayne, Ind.; two sisters, Susan Kirby, of Portsmouth, and Betsy Andrews of Midlothian, Va,; and by his companion of 17 years, Constance Pierce.

Following cremation, his remains will be interred in the family plot at West Point, Va. A memorial donation may be made to the Virginia Historical Society, P.O. Box 7311, Richmond, Va. 23221 or the Miami University Library, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056.