Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Services for Bernard A. "Bud" Hirsch, 61, Lawrence, are pending and will be announced later.Mr. Hirsch died Sunday, Sept. 3, 2006, at his home of brain cancer.He was born Oct. 3, 1944, in Chicago. He graduated from Roger C. Sullivan High School in 1962 and received an accounting degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1967. He received a master's degree in 1968 and a Ph.D. in 1975, both in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana. He wrote his dissertation on Byron's poetry.Mr. Hirsch was a noted scholar on American Indian literature and culture. He had been a professor since 1976 at Kansas University, where he taught classes on British romantic literature and American Indian literature. He previously taught at Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Urbana.He served in a number of administrative and service positions at KU, including twice as interim chair of the English department and vice chancellor's fellow. He was a member of KU's Indigenous Nations Studies Task Force from 1995 until he died. He served as undergraduate director for the English department and a mentor and adviser to English majors from 1996 until his death.Mr. Hirsch received the Crystal Eagle Award from KU's Center for Indigenous Studies for his contributions to the study of American Indian cultures. He also received a W.T. Kemper Award for teaching excellence this year.He was author and co-author of several texts and nearly two dozen articles and reviews. He received an Outstanding Advising Certificate of Merit as faculty adviser from the National Academic Advising Assn. in 2004. He also received KU's inaugural Faculty Adviser Award in 2003.Mr. Hirsch frequently lectured across the country on American Indian topics and focused on coyote tales, humor in American Indian literature, and oral and contemporary American Indian traditions. He was a writer and script adviser for several documentaries on American Indian history and culture filmed in the 1980s.He was married to Elaine Lindberg, who died in May 1996.Survivors include his mother, Mollie Bernover, Chicago; a brother, Arnold Hirsch, New Orleans; a stepbrother, Neil Bernover, Chicago; a granddaughter and four nephews.The family suggests memorials to the KU Center for Indigenous Studies or the American Cancer Society, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home.