For some time now I have been carrying with me the dread of finding out one day about the death of one of my teachers. When I was about to head to class day before yesterday, I paused to have a look at the bookshelf in my office to see if I wanted to take any books home. I felt like it. As I looked across the shelf, I stopped at Prof. Krimsky’s “Hormonal Chaos”.
I stopped at his book and for some reason I had a hunch that he was gone from this world. Google confirmed as much. It is now three years since his death and I only just found out. I don’t recall anything on the New School Econ listserv about it, even though he taught at The New School in the summers.
That is how I ended up in his summer class “Toxic Justice” at The New School in 2014. I needed to take a summer class that year to ensure that my regular semesters were manageable and that I could complete my master’s on time. My interest in environmentalism made me think that I would find his class interesting (I was right), and so I ended up in what was an immensely rewarding class on chemical environmentalism. At some point during the semester, Yes (whom I was listening to quite a lot in those days) were scheduled to play a concert in NYC at the same time as one Prof. Krimsky’s classes. When I asked his permission to miss the class to attend the concert, he gladly agreed and only asked that I submit an extra reading summary to make up for my absence, which of course I did.
He was sharp as a whistle as a scholar, and impressively organized and a crystal clear communicator as a teacher. He was also generous with comments on assigned work but also tried to help me improve my work. I still have two of my graded assignments with his comments from that course, along with his inscription on his own book of course.
In the summer of 2019, I ran into him at a cafe on 5th Avenue in NYC near The New School. It was, if memory serves, the last time I met him. I wish I had taken a picture with him. Here’s the email he wrote to me on June 4, 2019, when I wrote to him telling him that it was good to see him:
Hi Daniyal
It was nice running into you yesterday. You are on your way to becoming a successful academic. I can tell by the way you discuss intellectual material and the classroom experience. If you like the classroom and you enjoy research, then nothing will stand in your way.
I will be around The New School much of June and July, so we could easily connect for coffee.
Best
Shelly Krimsky
Rest easy and at peace, Prof. Krimsky. I’ll miss you. And I look forward to seeing you on the other side.
🌹❤
Daniyal Khan 