had done some Dickens and Hardy research just the previous summer (2000) at UBC when I arrived at Lakehead, and offered an article on the illustrations for Hardy's "Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid." George not only snapped it up, and then started corresponding with me about other articles on Dickens, Hardy, and Illustration. Herkomer and Phiz were two illustrators in which he was interested — and to my surprise he asked me to become a regular contributor, although he did not offer me the title "Contributing Editor, Canada" for another year. And then he invited me to spend three weeks in Singapore, just after my daughter's wedding in Vancouver at the beginning of our second December in Thunder Bay. Welcoming a reprieve from the cold weather, we gratefully accepted, and my wife and I flew out to Singapore, and took up residence in a huge apartment overlooking the city and the harbour. George had us out for dinner several times, and I spent some time with him each day, although, as you can appreciate, his scholarly and administrative activities kept him very busy. I saw him about two years later when I went to a Dickens conference in Providence, RI, and again had dinner with him and Ruth, this time, of course, at their home. He was indeed a hospitable and welcoming host, and answered a great many questions I had about his city and his university.
Old Parliament House (currently Arts House), Empress Place, Singapore.
Outside of the three weeks in Singapore and the week in Providence for the Dickens conference I saw little of George; ours was definitely an online relationship. But even though I was not a physical, day-to-day reality for him, he was never stinting in his praise, always offered helpful suggestions, and never flagged as an editor. Over our two-decades-long, virtual-and-"in-person" relationship George constantly impressed with the breadth of his scholarship. I was struck by his appreciation of the needs of undergraduates, graduate students, and instructors in terms of the scholarship on the Victorian Web, which remains a monument to his wide knowedge of things Victorian and his passion for the vast online resource he created and managed so ably. I shall always treasure the memory of my time with him in Singapore.
Created 30 July 2023