Guest Editorial: A Tribute to Dr. Mahmoud Gudarzi

For approximately eighteen years, 1986-2004, the late Dr. Mahmoud Gudarzi was a valuable staff member with The Journal of Negro Education, serving in dual capacities as Circulation Manager and Editorial Assistant. His able work far exceeded the job descriptions and expectations of these roles. Indeed, he became indispensable to the effective functioning of this periodical, and his dedication will be sorely missed. He was quite underemployed at The Journal, but he never once complained about his situation. Let me talk about him and his circumstances. I had met Mr. Gudarzi earlier in the School of Education at Howard University. He was enrolled for a major in Educational Technology in the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study program, commonly known as the Advanced Certificate program, which provided graduate study and certification a year beyond (above) the Master's degree. I taught one of the required courses in this program, and Mr. Gudarzi enrolled in that class. I was struck by his wisdom and insights. Clearly, he was a bit older than the typical student enrolled in this program, and obviously from another country. It was my custom to chat with my students during office hours, and I inquired of him about his background. I learned that he was a native of Iran, and that he had graduated from high school there. He had earned his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Journalism in Germany. Although he never said so directly, I assumed that he had come to the United States as a kind of political refugee-seeking the freedom to write and speak freely without fear of retaliation. I never pried into people's personal lives, so I did not ask him directly how he came to migrate to the United States. After Dr. Gudarzi completed the Advanced Certificate program in Educational Technology, he experienced great difficulty in locating employment. Relations between our country and Iran were tenuous, and I always felt that his Iranian background was a factor in his unemployment. In 1986, the female incumbent of the Circulation Manager/Editorial Assistant position with The Journal decided to take advantage of an early retirement program offered by the University, which then resulted in a staff vacancy. I called Dr. Gudarzi, and explained that this staff vacancy existed, that it was quite below his level of qualifications, and that he would have to compete with qualified others for the job. He did apply for the position, and his credentials were far superior to those of his competitors. I employed him, and he remained with The Journal until his 2004 retirement that was caused by his ill health. As I worked with Dr. Gudarzi, I learned more about him. He spoke Farsi fluently, and wrote elegantly in that language. He also spoke and wrote in German, French, and English. So much of his writing centered on politics and on social justice, particularly for women. For at least fifteen years he wrote a weekly editorial in the Canadian journal, Shahrvand, which is also distributed in Texas, Australia, Africa, and Germany. …

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