Remembering Sam Bass Warner
Sam Bass Warner Jr., Visiting Professor Emeritus in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, passed away on January 22 at the age of 94.
In a remembrance, Lawrence Vale, encapsulated the joy, brilliance, and spirit Warner brought to the MIT community. Shared here with Vale’s permission.
For those who have been around DUSP long enough to have met Sam Warner, news of his passing surely triggers both a lingering sadness and feelings of immense and permanent affection for all he contributed to the well-being of this community. In the late 1990s, Sam grew restless with his final formal academic teaching post (an endowed chair at Brandeis) and left it to become a “volunteer” at MIT.
In joining us, he insisted on three conditions that were then unprecedented and never again likely to be matched: 1. We must give him no office; 2. DUSP must offer him no phone number; and 3. MIT must not pay him.
As a “Visiting Professor,” he stayed engaged for the next 14 years! He moved to Central Square, set up a daily camp at one of the large tables in the Rotch Library Reading Room, and proceeded to become one of the most generous and helpful people our School has ever known. He co-taught classes (including Qualitative Methods with me and many versions of MCP thesis prep), and invented his own Sunday morning class on pen-and-ink sketching that he called “Drawing Church.” He served as an incisive (if sometimes intimidating) reader on innumerable theses and dissertations and assisted multiple pre-tenure and recently-tenured faculty as we sought to navigate our personal and career development. Speaking personally, he was my single most important DUSP mentor, and I will always treasure the time we taught together, and a book we co-edited (Imaging the City). Today, reviewing some of the nearly 400 emails he sent me over two decades, I am repeatedly reminded of his ceaselessly abundant interest in the well-being of others, even those he did not know personally.
As a model for ‘retirement’ and as a guide to humanity, we can all celebrate Sam.
Warner is survived by his second wife, Diana Jean Kleiner; by Rebecca, William, Kate and Alice, his four children; by Daniel, Eve, Sashka and Jonah, his four grandchildren; and by his dear friend and colleague, Nancy Gerlach-Spriggs. His first wife, Lyle Lobel Warner, died in 2014.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Boston Public Library.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 25th at 3:00PM at the Needham Public Library. Warner's family invites all impacted by his generosity to attend and share their memories.