Timeline: HB, J. M. Kauffman!

What will Jim be doing?

On 7 December 1940, James M. Kauffman made his public debut. Within 30 years, the world would begin to know the value of Jim’s birth. By the late 1960s, Jim was showing some scholarship and, within another decade, he had established himself as a highly productive and skillful academic. His collaborations with Daniel P. Hallahan influenced the academic courses of lots of doctoral students at the University of Virginia, encouraging them to consider problems of special education from empirical and informed positions. That collaboration also resulted in their co-authoring the first versions of multiple foundational textbooks in special education, learning disabilities, and other areas—and Jim’s initially solo-authored text on emtional and behavioral disorders. Tens of thousands of graduate and undergraduate students have read those books.

Jim Kauffman & Steve Forness. Photo by John Wills Lloyd

Jim’s work had profound influence on many of his colleagues. Not only were he and Dan great collaborators, but the also joined together with others, too. I had the good fortune to fall into that orbit in the late 1970s, when I got to Virginia. Indeed, Jim, Dan, and I developed and disseminated a newsletter in the early 1980s that was called “Special Education Today!”

Jim has built a personal Web site at jmk9t.com. (For readers who are wondering about that title, it’s the userid that the University of Virginia, where Jim used to work, assigned to him…astute readers will realize that combining that userid with “@Virginia.edu” would create an e-mail address.) I strongly encourage that those interested in learning more about Jim go to this Web site rather than any sites that one might find by searching on his name; there is another site “out there,” but it was built and is controlled by a third party.

Jim posted a copy of his curriculum vita at JMK9T.com. Those interested in reading it probably should stick to the electronic version, because printing a paper copy will require a lot of paper.

If you’ve had a chance to work with Jim, read one of his many books and articles, or have any other reason for doing so, please jump down to the comments and wish him a HB!