Yesterday was longtime Executive Editor J. Reynolds Smith's last day here at Duke Press. He joined the Press in 1976 as a copy editor and since then has become one of the public faces of the Press. He aided in the transformation of Duke Press from a stodgy publisher of such tomes as Politics of Canadian Airport Development to the cutting-edge producer of critical theory and cultural studies that we are now. Reynolds has worked with hundreds of authors over the years, and many of them have fond remembrances of their collaborations with him. We collected a few such remembrances in a series of video tributes. Be sure to view all three videos to catch such luminaries as Ariel Dorfman, Walter Mignolo, and Priscilla Wald talk about working with such a great editor.
Reynolds's colleagues at Duke Press gathered for a party last week to send him off. There was great food and drink organized by the Books Editorial department and tributes from current and former co-workers. Here are a few pictures from the bittersweet event.
Reynolds's longtime assistant Sharon Parks Torian presents him with years of post-it notes.
Delicious food!
Lee Willoughby-Harris, who has been at the Press nearly as long as Reynolds, shows off the t-shirt for the 1980s era Duke Press softball team, named the Purple Pros by Reynolds.
Reynolds and Ken Surin, Duke professor and author of Freedom Not Yet.






