Fond Memories [of Bob Tideman]
From a Long-Time Friend

Mason Gaffney

[Reprinted from The Illinois Georgist, Vol.5, No.2, Spring 1993]

Bob [Tideman] loved the works of Henry George, and, like George, he loved cities. Both men saw the city as the focus of civilization, where independent people merge their powers and their intelligences through voluntary exchanges. Bob knew every word George ever wrote, and certainly these, from the Science of Political Economy, wherein George was explaining the productive power of cities in mental terms. "... the originating element in all production is thought or intelligence, the spiritual not the material."

Bob remains what he has been, a great spirit, outliving the handsome face and strong body that housed him. He is a spirit that still lives in us who knew him and loved and admired and followed him. His ideas will not dominate or control his followers: he did not want it that way. Bob, like George, believed civilization moves forward when oven/one's intelligence, or spirit, is developed and given free play, and incorporated into the mainstream. Whether teaching George or Montessori, Bob's message was the same: learn to think and act for yourself; cultivate the spirit.

When you look at it that way, nothing makes more sense than the way he dedicated his life to improving society, the future home of his immortal spirit. Each individual's immortality lies in the future of the whole human race. Everyone your spirit touches, first directly, then indirectly, contains a bit of that spirit, the essence of your being. That is how we are carried forward through time, "on Earth, as it is in Heaven."

Bob is carried onward through his children, as well. He knew he was made of good stuff: why not pass it along? How well he knew, too, that children bring the greatest joy when they carry the spirit with the germ plasm. He did not just sire children, he raised them: taught, led, and i inspired them. He knew that raising kids right takes hard work and devotion; he gave them. He was not one to say, "We must limit our family so we can travel and golf in our retirement." His attitude, rather. was "Why travel when I'm already in San Francisco, the envy of those stuck elsewhere."

Good teaching begins at home, and begins young. Thus, after one career devotedly teaching adults, he took up a second teaching small children, and along the way he taught and inspired ten (count 'em) children of his own to be straight, and true, and dedicated like himself. He lives in them.

As every mother knows, he did not work those miracles atone. Among his other strengths was an ability to win good women to join him in this consuming enterprise. I never knew Cathie, but I know her son Nic, who has become a power in my profession, a power he uses to advance ideas Bob taught. I spent many a pleasant time chatting with Bob and Grace at their home on Head Street, and later in Mill Valley. Grace took quick note of my health-food addiction to sliced raw carrots, and always had them there for me because I was Bob's friend. Meighen finally steered Bob into a post-missionary career in time to keep him out of the missionary poorhouse. More recently, she devotedly nursed him during his final weeks, deferring an operation she herself desperately needed. In honoring him and his children, we honor these brave, worthy spouses. We offer Meighen our deepest sympathy and support in our mutual bereavement, and the suffering she shared with Bob.

Postwar, Bob was sent to convert the heathen and rally the faithful in San Francisco. Joe Thompson and J. Rupert Mason were two of his strongest angels.

J. Rupert was a great influence on us both. From him we learned, or were constantly reminded, that the Georgist Utopia is not another state of being, in another work). It is practical and applied here and now and it consists of little parts and pieces. Georgism is an accumulation of social institutions and attitudes, many of which we already have, like the right to consult County records on landownership.

Rupert's good example gave an immediacy and relevancy to Bob's teaching. In the 1960s, when students were rebelling and demanding Relevancy, there was Bob, all ready to meet the demand. He was running the most successful George School in the country, probably in the world.

There was steel in Bob's backbone, with enough left over to lend me when needed, which was often. He was not one to nag or criticize, but occasionally showed his impatience with my academic temporizing and indirection. "Unsheath your sword," he wrote me once. "Take your stand; hold your ground." Cowardice and caution win no battles, he kept reminding me. General George McClellan could have used such an advisor!

Bob's formula must have worked: he started making converts not just in the city, but in Marin County, of all places, especially in the medical profession. There were active classes going, doctors teaching doctors. Some that I remember are Bud Weden, Val Jaros, Jean Pouteau, and Bill Filante. Bud and Val and Bob got me a speaking engagement at the Banking Section of the Commonwealth Club, on "Land Values and Inflation": attendance was good and interest high. Few, apparently, said "We won't waste time on your cranky friends."

Bob kept the central city a hotbed of Georgism. He hosted at least two national conventions I attended. No one was much surprised when then-Mayor Alioto popped in on one of them. Mayors do not pop in on wimps with no following. Those were halcyon days.

As it must to all men, disappointment came to Bob. The measure of the man is how he takes it. After 1970 or so society changed, and the School formula stopped working, nationwide. Class enrollments dropped off. Locally, Bob took the fall for it, quite unfairly, as is now clear.

Never a whine whined he, but bounced right up and went with Meighen into the Big City Montessori School, an outstanding success for him and his family. Now, three of their children are all trained and experienced to carry on without him, just as they planned. That Is also Bob's plan for all of us. Let us go on from here filled with the spirit he gave us, and work for the future that is our common property and our common care. That will keep Bob alive, and keep us alive, and keep our civilization alive.