REMEMBERING RON
More than 13 years after his retirement, Squires Professor Emeritus of History Ron Heinemann remained a fixture on the Hill. Proof of his lasting legacy can be found in these tributes authored by his former students and fellow faculty members following his passing on November 18, 2020, with many describing him as the consummate good man and good citizen.
BY DALE PITTMAN ’71
Ron Heinemann has been one of the most important influences in my life since I first set foot in his classroom in Morton Hall. I have driven back to campus many times over the years to sit in that same classroom and attend more Heinemann history lectures, and memories of history classes gone by come right back. The set of his jaw. The look in his eye as he confidently paused before making his next point. More than 50 years after pursuing my history major, I can pick up one of Ron’s books or one of the many notebooks I kept from those classes and see comments from those late ’60s history lectures come flying right off the page. In a polarized world, he possessed the nearly unheard-of capacity to enthrall students from across the entire political spectrum, not just liberals like me. He was the quintessential world-class professor, and he loved Hampden-Sydney right down to his core. My daughter Linnea once described her favorite professor at Georgetown. She finished by saying, “Dad, she’s my Heinemann.” I told Ron this story and finished by saying that it brought tears to my eyes. He said that it
brought tears to his eyes also. There we sat, professor and former student, now old men, weeping over the joy of learning. We mourn the loss of one of the best while we smile in deep appreciation for what he taught us and how he inspired us. BY DAVID MARION, ELLIOTT PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT & FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Ronald Heinemann was not a quiet or timid member of the Hampden-Sydney community—he made his presence felt around campus and beyond the campus as well. He was unquestionably a consequential member of the HampdenSydney family, and the depth of his commitment to making a difference was reflected in the energy, passion, and serious thought that he invested in his teaching, his scholarship, his community service, and life itself. His moral convictions defined him in every way that is important, and they were visible for everyone to see—Ron was not one to hide his convictions under a bushel. Our conversations over a period of more than 40 years, some of them public and some private, were often spirited and always enlightening. We were both prominent and passionate participants in the faculty’s coeducation debate of the mid1990s—and we were not on the same side. But he never acted as if there was anything personal about our disagreement. Our last public debate, on the merits of the Electoral College, took place less than a month before his untimely death. His tough and informed criticism of the Electoral College, and his stamina at 81 left me feeling rather aged at 72. I apologized the next morning for the occasional aggressiveness of my defense of the Electoral College only to have him respond that debates should be spirited. His response, as always, was generous and good humored. He could be spirited himself, something that did not escape his attention, but he was too proud to behave as anything other than a thoroughgoing professional, too proud not to conduct himself as a gentleman. Ron was emblematic of what was best about the Hampden-Sydney College that I joined in