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Renowned historian Anthony John R. Russell-Wood died August 13, 2010, after a brief battle with melanoma. He was the Herbert Baxter Adams Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, where he began teaching in 1971, twice serving as department chair (1984-90 and 1996-99). He was a former director of Hopkins' Program in Latin American Studies and a contributor to the university's pivotal Atlantic History and Culture Program, as well as serving on numerous university committees. The recipient of numerous professional honors and distinctions, Russell-Wood authored and edited ten books, over eighty articles and essays, and dozens of book reviews. He was a firm believer in the civic responsibility of academics; he chaired the Maryland Committee for the Humanities between 1980-82, presented several Congressional testimonies on behalf of the historical profession, and contributed to the work of the Smithsonian Institution, the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and public history initiatives around the world.
Though a specialist in Brazil, lohn Russell-Wood is also remembered as one of the great chroniclers of the vast empire commanded by Portugal in the mercantile era, eventually receiving a knighthood as Commander of the Order of Dom Henrique, bestowed by the President of Portugal, and in 2006, honorary citizenship in his fondest corner of the empire, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. His work helped build the foundations of modern social history, Latin American history, world and comparative history, and African diaspora studies. His accolades and scholarly contributions might suggest the image of a stuffy historian, most at home away from the world. Yet it was precisely his vitality, his fascination with even the seemingly smallest, quirkiest, least significant moments in life, that helped him connect with the humanity of the early modern era and bring it alive for his readers. Those who knew him will miss his vivacity and cheerfulness, his compassion, his humor, and long, far-ranging conversations over a glass of Brazilian cachaca.
On the day I first walked into lohn Russell -Wood 's sunny office in Johns Hopkins' old Gilman Hall, I was stopped in my tracks by the figure of Exu standing at the center of his desk, precisely on the invisible border between the professor's space and that of his guests. This enigmatic Yoruba deity...