Ryan Huey

My remembrance begins at the Michigan State University Department of History’s recruitment event for potential graduate students in 2012, at which I was a prospective student. When I met Dr. Bailey, it was the first face-to-face meeting I had with an MSU professor.

We introduced ourselves and I nervously dove into explaining what I thought I wanted to study: music history. After listening intently for a bit, Dr. Bailey gently redirected my ramblings with the question,
“How catholic is your taste in music?” he asked with a genuine inquisitiveness.
I repeated the question aloud, giving myself much needed time to remember that ‘catholic’ did not mean ‘religious’ when used in this context, before responding,
“Well I like rock, blues, and hip hop…and funk.”
“You know, funk music is pure sex,” Dr. Bailey interjected.
Confused at first, I sat back and listened intently to Dr. Bailey embark on a fascinating mini-lecture about the politics of the body of Funkadelic. We talked for another twenty minutes about music and the meeting ended with me feeling fully confident I chose the right field of study.

That conversation in Dr. Bailey’s yellowing, dusty, cramped-with-books office at Morrill Hall helped convince me to attend MSU. His vast intellect, kindness, and affinity for all things esoteric were special. As was his deep love of learning, which was very obvious to anyone who interacted with him.
Near the end of the meeting, I told him I did not have funding to attend MSU and I wondered if it was a bad idea to use student loans. His response was “eh” while shaking his head and gesturing his hand dismissively, indicating his belief that no amount of money could match the value of a good education. I joined MSU’s Department of History a few months later.

I had the good fortune to serve as Dr. Bailey’s teaching assistant last summer for his online class, History of Sport in America. I was amazed when he began the class with a discussion on black jockeys racing horses professionally while enslaved in the Antebellum South. I was completely unfamiliar with this topic and slightly puzzled as to why Dr. Bailey seemed so enthused about horse racing. But when I graded the students’ response papers on the topic, I realized that his brief lecture on horse racing helped students grasp the complexities of slavery in ways that many teachers can only dream of. Few approached teaching the way Dr. Bailey did. He had a way of speaking to students about extremely complicated ideas in ways they could understand without a hint of condescension. His example as not just a teacher and scholar, but as a person, reminds me to always seek out new knowledge with curiosity and humility.

He will be greatly missed.