Cliff Kuhn Passes Away at Age 63

Cliff Kuhn Passes Away at Age 63

by Jack White

This neighborhood was stunned last week by the sudden death (following a heart attack) of Virginia-Highland resident and Georgia State University professor Cliff Kuhn.  He is often thought of professionally for his longtime work in oral history, a field in which he was an early and avid practitioner.  He was an enthusiastic student of what he saw as “the people’s history”, with emphases on the civil rights, labor, and the women’s movements, of which he often spoke on WABE.   When local residents Lola Carlisle and Kari Hobson-Pape wrote their book on the history of Virginia-Highland, Cliff was one of the first people they interviewed, and they had yet another round of talks scheduled with him.  “New to writing history, we so appreciated his knowledge of how communities in Atlanta developed and the encouragement he readily provided.” Ms. Carlisle noted with sadness this week.

His sons’ growing passion for soccer turned him into a serious mid-life fan of the sport.  He bemoaned the dearth of books on the subject in the university and county library systems, borrowed a lot from wherever he could, and became quite knowledgeable about the game’s history.  A student of organizations, he inevitably found himself spending a lot of time in youth sport administration, an oft-trying and unending challenge that he undertook with both devotion and humor. His labors in that field were leavened by his obvious love for the sport and appreciation of what it had meant to his family; a majority of my conversations with him over the last decade were on one or both of those two topics.

His death is a great loss for his family and his many friends, for Virginia-Highland, and for his many other communities.  We will all miss him hugely.

Learn more about Cliff Kuhn’s life and contributions to Atlanta here and here. The remembrance (by Alex Saye Cummings) in the second article is particularly apt and very touching.

Jack White is the President of VHCA.

Photo courtesy of the GSU Library via Google Images