On December 24, 2011, our dear colleague, Larry Ribstein, passed away. The intellectual life of everyone who knew him, of this blog, and of the legal academy at large is deeply diminished for his passing.
For many, Larry was an important influence, not only intellectually but personally, as well. Larry was the godfather of this blog, which got its start when a few of us, including Bill Sjostrom, Geoffrey Manne, Josh Wright, Thom Lambert, Henry Manne, Keith Sharfman, Kate Litvak and an anonymous colleague pinch hit for Larry at Ideoblog in November 2005. It took eight of us to fill his shoes, and still his traffic went down. He was a friend, mentor and intellectual touchstone to so many of us who now mourn him and, of course, a husband, father and son to those who will miss him most of all.
The outpouring in the blogosphere from Larry’s friends, admirers, colleagues, and the like is moving, and serves as a testament to his tremendous influence.
Likely everyone who knew him well shares Todd Henderson’s sentiment, as we do:
I will miss him beyond words. I will consider it a life well lived if when I die there is at least one person left behind who feels as I do about Larry.
Remembrances from Truth on the Market bloggers:
- Todd Henderson
- Thom Lambert
- Geoffrey Manne
- Henry Manne
- Paul Rubin
- Keith Sharfman
- Bill Sjostrom
- J.W. Verret
- Josh Wright
Remembrances from others:
- Jonathan Adler
- Atlas Society
- Stephen Bainbridge
- David Bernstein
- Matt Bodie
- Don Boudreaux
- Champaign News-Gazette (with quotes from Andy Morriss, Nuno Garoupa, Henry Butler and Bruce Smith)
- Donald Clarke
- Carolyn Elefant
- Federalist Society
- Joshua Fershee
- Ted Frank
- Erik Gerding
- Tom Ginsburg
- Dave Hoffman
- Christine Hurt
- Daniel Martin Katz
- Tom Kirkendall
- Renee Newman Knake
- Kim Krawiec
- Saul Levmore
- Jeff Lipshaw
- Nelson Lund
- Peter Mahler
- Andy Morriss
- Walter Olson
- Edith Orenstein
- Stefan Padfield
- Alan Palmiter
- Mark Peecher
- C.E. Petit
- Francis Pileggi
- Ellen Podgor
- Nancy Rapoport
- Usha Rodrigues
- Roberta Romano
- Bruce Smith
- Gordon Smith
- Larry Solum
- Ilya Somin
- Robert Chang-hsien Tsai
- Washington Legal Foundation
- Cynthia Williams
- Pejman Yousefzadeh