(A nice posting by the folks at the Center for Digital Storytelling…)

Dear Friends,

We learned today of the loss of Studs Terkel, author, radio journalist, humanitarian, and the inspiration for much of our work in life story. On behalf of the Center for Digital Storytelling, we extend our condolences to his family, his friends and his colleagues around the world.

May 16, the International Day for Sharing Life Stories was chosen, in part, because it is Studs Terkel’s Birthday. We felt it critical to honor his life, while he was still around, able to share the idea that an entire world holds a debt of gratitude for his work. Just days away from the likely election of Barack Obama as U.S. President, Studs was part of a larger progressive Chicago community that was the soil for Obama’s rise as a political leader. I am sure he would have like to have made that day, we will think of him when we celebrate.

At 96, he has left behind an enormous volume of work, scanning 8 decades of work as an interviewer, more than a dozen publications.

He has been described as a champion of underdogs, but his contribution, like many of his generation of social change activists, was his humble, but unwavering, sense of justice. He listened to thousands of interviews, from world famous celebrities to local workers, but his ear was always attuned to a sense of righting wrongs, of giving voice to the oppressed.

We will miss him, and will continue to dedicate our efforts to his memory.

“Why are we born? We’re born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we’re born and we die? We’re born to live.”

“One is a realist if one hopes.”

- Studs Terkel, 1912-2008

A nice Chicago Tribune article on the life and history of Studs Terkel