David Skilling (65), Alberta, Canada

Good evening.

On behalf of my brother Peter and my wife Jane, I would like to express our immense appreciation and gratitude to Dr Vilém Prečan for his unwavering vision and dedication in conceiving and organizing this wonderful three-day event to honour the life and work of our father, H. Gordon Skilling. Gordon’s close friendship and collaboration with Dr Prečan involved many visits, phone calls and much correspondence over the years and I know Gordon would be very happy to know that the collaboration continues in 2012!

And a special thank you as well to Helena Kašová, Jitka Hanáková, Derek and Marzia Paton, and Dominik Jůn for their many contributions to the conference and exhibition.

I know that both Gordon and Sally would be extremely happy to see so many of their good friends and respected colleagues gathered together in this gorgeous setting this evening. It’s a fantastic beginning to the conference!

At this time I think it is also very important that we honour my mother, Sara Bright Skilling, who died 22 years ago this month.

Sally and Gordon enjoyed a partnership of more than 50 years – a life devoted to family, friends, extensive travel and shared intellectual ideals. Throughout her life Sally spent much of her time and energies in supporting Gordon’s academic work while at the same time being actively involved in social and political causes of the day.

She was born near Philadelphia and was the eldest of three children. Her father was a carpenter whose Quaker ancestor, Thones Kunders, emigrated to North America in October 1683 to escape political and religious oppression in Germany.

Civic and religious liberties were extremely important to the Quakers or ‘Friends’ as they call themselves and our forefather, Thones Kunders was a member of a small band of Friends who raised their voices in 1684 in what was to be the first recorded protest against slavery in America.

When she was growing up, Sally had a number of family elders, in particular several aunts who had a great influence on her social outlook and beliefs. The strong Quaker and family values she was immersed in throughout her youth continued to be important compass points in many of the choices Sally would make throughout her life.

At Barnard College Sally studied Sociology and Economics. She was a student leader, a Phi Beta Kappa member, and graduated at the top of her class. Upon graduation in 1935, Sally was elected by her class to receive a scholarship to study abroad. She left New York City to attend the London School of Economics where she studied under the eminent sociologist Morris Ginsberg and the demographer Robert René Kucynski, who was one of the founders of modern vital statistics

Both Sally and Gordon were experiencing radical shifts in their social and political perspectives and beliefs when they met.

Sally was visiting a friend at Oxford University for the weekend when she met Gordon on November 2nd, 1935. Their friendship grew and over the Christmas holidays Gordon spent four weeks in London with Sally where they explored London, studied together, went to films and concerts and marched together at political rallies on behalf of the unemployed, against war and for Indian independence.

After Sally’s return to the United States in late 1936, she secured a job with the Milbank Memorial Fund in New York, working on research in population statistics.

By this point Sally had become an admirer of the Soviet Union and had come to view socialism as the only alternative to rising fascism. In 1936, in her first opportunity to vote in a United States national election, Sally voted a straight Communist ticket. She also filled out an application to join the Communist Party. On her return home that very day, she found a letter from Gordon in London, reporting that he was contemplating joining the Party as well. Both had committed themselves to a radical approach to politics in this troubled time.

A year later, in September 1937, Sally sailed from New York City to Bremen and then travelled 17 hours by train to Prague to be reunited with Gordon and begin their new life together.

Gordon had already begun the preparations required for a civil marriage ceremony and on October 16, 1937, Sally and Gordon were wed in the Marriage Room of the Old Town Town Hall. They spent their honeymoon in Prague, walking in the Lesser Town, listening to music, including Smetana’s The Kiss at the National Theatre, and attending the 150th anniversary of the premiere of Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre.

Sally wrote of her early time in Prague – ‘we were married almost a month after the death of President Thomas Masaryk. My first month on Czech soil was absorbed in enjoying the beauties of Prague and reading history. I fell in love with Prague immediately, and a longer acquaintance served only to deepen this affection for the city and for the people’.

A few months later, while in London, concerned about the worsening situation in Europe, both Sally and Gordon devoted more time to political activities.

In preparation for May Day they both worked up their nerve and spoke on street corners promoting their socialist viewpoints. They took part in political demonstrations in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square. When the Germans occupied Austria they joined a large protest of over 50,000 outside the House of Commons and marched with the group to the German and Czechoslovak embassies under the slogan ‘Stand by Czechoslovakia’.

Sally and Gordon returned once again to Prague in May 1938 in the midst of a crisis.

Sally resumed her work on social questions. She worked with the Anglo-American Friends Service Committee to relocate Gypsies (Roma), Jews and others to safety. In mid August she visited the Sudeten regions and took part in a march in support of the Republic.

She and Gordon witnessed the arrival of German troops in March 1939. Sally redoubled her work with the Anglo-American Friends Service Committee and for four months headed up the office, giving out financial support, helping the most endangered refugees escape, advising on emigration prospects, working to unite women with their husbands and children with their parents while arrangements were made for them to leave the country by crossing the narrow frontier into Poland.

At the time Sally wrote the following to her family: ‘Many of the refugees were Sudeten anti-fascists who had fled when their villages were occupied, others were from the Reich, having fled first to Austria, then Sudetenland and finally to Prague. All of them were admirable: true to their beliefs and ready to remain true to them, despite privations and the fact that this steadfastness made them exiles from their beloved homelands’.

In July 1939 Sally and Gordon bade a sad farewell to their friends and the city they loved, not to return until after the war. They crossed the Atlantic and began a new chapter of their married life initially in Winnipeg, Canada where Gordon held his first university teaching position and then for almost 20 years in the United States.

While living in Hanover, New Hampshire during the late 1940s and the 1950s Sally was very engaged in community and social affairs. She was active in municipal affairs and with the League of Women Voters, a national nonpartisan group that continues to influence policy through education and advocacy. Sally’s contributions to committee work and policy development led local citizens to urge her to run for an elected seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Her potential political career abruptly ended, however, when our family moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1959.

Sally was to live the final three decades of her life outside the United States, yet she chose to remain an American citizen and was therefore unable to be active on the Canadian political scene. She instead devoted herself to being a full-time mother, bringing up two sons and supporting Gordon’s career. She assisted with proof-reading and editing his articles and books and working on the massive task of indexing books such as Czechoslovakia’s  Interrupted Revolution.

All who met Sally experienced her warm openness towards others and her keen interest in their pursuits and ideas. She treated everyone in a caring and engaged manner and will be remembered by many as a wonderful welcoming hostess, organizing many evenings at our home with students, colleagues, visitors and newly arrived émigrés from Czechoslovakia.

Finally, I would mention something I think exemplifies both Sally’s and Gordon’s approach to life. As anyone who shared a meal with Gordon will likely remember, he claimed to have a ‘special compartment’ for desserts. No matter how big a lunch or dinner he had just consumed, Gordon always had room for dessert because of this special compartment.

Sally and Gordon lived life with an enjoyment and expectation of something special and rewarding from all activities they undertook. They were not satisfied merely with the main course, but always demanded a little bit extra – the whipped cream with strawberry on top.

Thank you!