IN MEMORIAM: BENJAMIN KAPLAN

When the author thinks of Ben Kaplan's work, he recalls a passage in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Marlow is looking at the wreck of a ship that he needs to proceed upriver. Someone asks in a philosophical tone of voice what is it that the man needs. What he really wanted was rivets. Kaplan retained his humor and modesty when he became a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. One of his most touching qualities was that he, genuinely, did not recognize his own tremendous achievements and talents. Sometimes he would muse that he had accomplished little in life and even questioned whether he had shown sufficiently his affection for his family. Grand master of Socratic teaching, Kaplan used the method to keep his students alert, but never to put them down, wound, or embarrass.