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Pugwash, and the world at large, owe much to Martin Kaplan. He devoted a fair portion of his life to Pugwash. His long stewardship as Secretary General witnessed a significant growth of Pugwash's activities. It ran -- from 1976 to 1988 -- through the years of the Cold War up to the beginning of its end. To the extent Pugwash contributed to this evolution -- as I do believe it did -- much of the credit must go to him. It was subsequently my privilege -- by serving as his successor through the years from 1989 to 1997 -- to reap the fruits of this development, the end of the Cold War. The transition from his tenure to mine was extremely smooth, thanks to the human qualities of Martin. Indeed, thanks to his generously collaborative spirit, he had me involved in the running of Pugwash as soon as it was apparent that I was going to serve as his successor, well before I formally took charge of it. I can remember no circumstance in which we clashed, much as our professional backgrounds and styles differed somewhat, and sometimes also our political judgements were not quite in unison. But we both always believed that the main strength of Pugwash is to provide room for a frank exchange of views among individuals coming from differing geopolitical and cultural backgrounds and entertaining, in good faith, diverging opinions. Now Martin is gone, after as full a life as anybody could wish. I hope and expect that there will be appropriate opportunities for others and for me to remember his achievements and the many facets of his personality more completely than I can now, when the sad news of his death reaches me as I travel in China; and that eventually -- when a history of Pugwash will be written -- his contributions to Pugwash and to conflict resolution, arms control and disarmament will be detailed as they deserve to be. Let me just end by singling out what, in my recollection, was the most remarkable trait of his personality: his warmth in personal relations, his cultural open mindedness and generosity in listening to the point of view of others, his attention never to be offensive and yet to be firm when needed, entailing the capability to be a good manager as demonstrated throughout his professional life. And I will always remember, as a great lesson in human relations, his explanation of the pleasure he derived from playing with friends as an amateur musician in a privately organized string quartet -- a continuing avocation throughout his life -- including the delicate balance of amicable yet rigorous relations required to organize such an activity, which can be conducted only if, out of a circle of acquaintances, no less and no more than four individuals are made to convene at the right time, having comparable musical capabilities and the diligence -- in the middle of active professional lives -- to make in advance the right amount of repetitions required to make the experience enjoyable for the group. It is this mixture of human qualities that were, in my recollection, the most endearing, but also the most formidable, aspect of his personality. Francesco
Calogero |