Grateful Acknowledgement to Ronald D. Srigley

The transfer of editorship at any publication, but especially VoegelinView, is an opportunity to say what has too often gone unsaid. That is, to express our gratitude to the outgoing editor, Ron Srigly, for the magnificent job he has done in preserving and enhancing our online presence. We are of course conscious of the debt we owe to the founder of VoegelinView, Fritz Wagner, who conceived and sustained the online journal for many years. But when it came time for Fritz to withdraw from the operation it was a great blessing that Ron so ably and generously stepped forward to take on editorial leadership. The position of editor is an indispensable role and for the past three years Ron has been our indispensable man. The unbroken continuity of VoegelinView amply attests to that reality.

We wish Ron well as he moves on to address other challenges, and remind him that he leaves behind a community of readers all the more enriched by what he has done. The field of those who are immersed in or touched by the work of Eric Voegelin is indeed a large one. VoegelinView remains one of the important tangible arenas for the exchange of their work and ideas. Without the willingness of Ron and his associates to put the time and effort into making it what it is we would all be the poorer. In particular, I wish to single out the book review editor, John von Heyking, who has worked closely with Ron to make the reviews a prominent feature of the publication. Overall we may observe that Ron’s tenure has been marked by an impressively large Canadian participation, one we hope will continue as the editorial control slips just south of the border.

In that regard, I am pleased to welcome Lee Trepanier, Professor of Political Science at Saginaw Valley State University, who has graciously agreed to assume the mantle of VoegelinView leadership. Lee is a familiar face and voice to our readers, having contributed regularly to both essays and reviews. He is also a distinguished scholar and a powerful entrepreneurial force within political science, especially through the series on Politics, Literature, and Film that he heads for Lexington Books. His own interests extend from his early monograph, Political Symbols in Russian History, to the recent edited volume on The Free Market and the Human Condition, and to numerous anthologies on literature, education, ideology, and the work of Eric Voegelin. With his wide range of contacts and collaborators and his impressive intellectual energy, Lee makes an ideal successor to the adventurous editorial style of Ron Srigley. We bid fond adieu to the latter as we extend a warm welcome to the former. I sleep more easily knowing VoegelinView has been and continues to be so well served.

David Walsh

Meeting Director of The Eric Voegelin Society

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