23 Jacek Fisiak 1936–2019 The letter was marked by Jacek as “answered March 3, 1961.” Margaret Schlauch was one of the professors who exerted a great influence on the student of historical linguistics, all her letters and postcards show how impressed she was with the young scholar. The same year, in October 1961, Jacek Fisiak submitted his PhD dissertation. In an autobiographical essay published in 2005, Jacek revealed that from 1961, he corresponded with Robert Stockwell, who was helping him with materials concerning his post-doctoral dissertation (2005: 57). In 1964, he had a chance to work with Stockwell, as a Fulbright scholar at UCLA. In a small colored picture, dated March 14, 1964, one can see Jacek as a young man, standing in Death Valley of the Mojave Desert in California, 40 meters1 below sea level. This was one of the few journeys Jacek took with a friend, aside his daily trips to the UCLA library. Traveling and sight-seeing, preceded by meticulous studies of the places we were going to visit, however, was one of his favorite pastimes, aside from reading non-fiction books on World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, and spy stories. He also had a large collection of WWII films and Westerns. Unlike all the other “hobby” books, the ones about films, as well as the films themselves, he kept in his study, and each time he bought something, he added them to his DVD list. I can still see him, stooped over the papers, or looking into the screen of his computer, checking his film collections. I can also see him following sports on TV, usually accompanied by our cats, going through the back issues of journals, and coming to tell me what the score was or who had won this round of ski jumps. His work archives contain letters from his friends from all over the world. Professors Hans Sauer, Ernst Haakon Jahr, Wolfgang Viereck, Tadao Kubouchi, Michiko Ogura, Akio Oizumi, Young-Bae Park, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, Paul Szarmach, Steven Nagle, Ruta Nagucka, Tomasz Krzeszowski, Jerzy Wełna were among his closest friends and colleagues; there were many others, the list is too long to be mentioned here. In his library, one finds numerous off-prints of articles, which he received as presents. Other books, bought all over the world, bear the date and place of purchase as well as his signature, and they testify to a lifetime of reading, making his absence all the more tangible. Even so, his life and work are preserved in those material objects—and in bits and pieces of my memories. 1 130 ft.
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