Though he always published under his initials, F. R. P., anyone who knew him called him Ron. He was a superb scholar and a much beloved individual; his passing leaves a real hole in the American academic community and the Occitan scholarly community specifically.

His former colleague and current AIEO board member Mary Franklin-Brown writes that “He was an unfailingly generous colleague and mentor, who welcomed me to the University of Minnesota and was quick to introduce me to all of his networks of colleagues and friends. He was brilliant and funny, a man of many experiences and even more stories. We in Minnesota dearly missed him when he moved [away from Minneapolis], and I mourn his passing.”

Daniel O’Sullivan adds, “I especially remember … dinners at Kalamazoo where we sang, laughed, and exchanged ideas about our mutual interests. He was a gentleman and a scholar, and I know we will all miss him.” Christopher Callahan remembers “his disarming mix of kindness and irony; he was a pleasure to hang out with.”

I add that Ron participated in the early discussions of the AIEO, though he did not attend the 1981 founding gathering in Liège. It is for that activity that he was made a AIEO membre d'honneur. My records suggest that he may never have participated in an AIEO congress, though he was very active in the International Courtly Literature Society (ICLS).

His work in digital humanities is incorporated into COM1 and COM2, as is clear in the materials attached to those databases, “direction scientifique, Pater T. Ricketts, ... avec la collaboration de F. R. P. Akehurst, John Hathaway, Cornelis Van der Horst.” For his own digital projects and leading towards COM, he used the technology of the time (punch cards), each card coded and completed with one line of troubadour verse. Having assisted in this endeavor (I entered the data for Perdigon’s lyrics), I can attest to the time and effort involved, just to create the materials needed that would lead to COM.

His edition of the Costuma d'Agen is, of course, a significant addition to our understanding of the medieval legal traditions of Occitania. His work as editor of and contributor to the Handbook of the Troubadours, still used in classrooms across the world, cannot be emphasized enough. He gathered an international group of experts to contribute chapters that are still, thirty years after publication, current.

I cannot emphasize enough how significant a figure he was in Occitan studies in North America. He took the work of Doktorvater very seriously, paying as much attention to the Vater part of that title as to the Doktor part. He could be counted on for good advice and counsel as well as for good laughs.

He served as a mentor to countless younger scholars, myself included. He was instrumental in launching my career in service to the profession, first by inviting me to be an ICLS bibliographer, bibliographic work that led directly to my Occitan bibliographic efforts. Even as he downsized his library, he sought to share those materials with scholars who could benefit from the materials, whether he knew them well (Sarah-Grace Heller) or not well at all (Ada Kuskowski, another scholar of medieval law).

He stayed young at heart even as he aged in body, eager to spend time with people he liked and loved, across the globe.

I had the honor of knowing Ron as the extramural reader for my doctoral dissertation, as a mentor when I was a young scholar, as my friend to his final days. His enjoyment of food, drink, conversation, the sharing of information, stayed with him to the end.

May his memory be for a blessing.

Wendy Pfeffer