Dear Geoff and All:

I was dreading this announcement, but I knew it was coming, since I'd received
several reports that he was gravely ill.

I hope we'll have the chance to honor him in some way, but he was an amazing
person and scholar; a rare thinker, and a great friend.  Going to Brno will
never be the same again.

That someone could be so serious and yet so full of fun at the same time was
always a source of astonishment.  A remarkable man!

Last week Ales Brezina was visiting me and we spoke of Fukac.  Ales told me
that when he was a first year student in Plzen, he came to Brno for a
conference.  Fukac, who was running the show and fantastically busy, took him
under his wing, arranged everthing from intellectual companionship to housing
accomodations for him.  From that moment, he said, he felt like a musicologist.
There must be many other stories like that, and most we'll never hear.

We shall miss you more than we can say.

Best to all,

Mike

Quoting Geoffrey Chew <[log in to unmask]>:m

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am very distressed to have to inform you that Prof Jiri Fukac, formerly
> head of the musicology department and Dean of Arts at the Masaryk
> University, Brno, and for me a very valued colleague in various projects,
> died this last Friday 22 November 2002 in Brno.  We shall miss him
> greatly.
>
>  Geoffrey Chew
>  Music Department, Royal Holloway, University of London
>  Internet: [log in to unmask]
>