Here is another piece in the Washington Post about Bill, this one in the style section.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...122102403.html

It includes a funny story about the origin of the Steps. Near the Christmas of 1981, staffers in his congressional office were thinking about doing a nativity skit. But, recounts Bill, "It was impossible on Capitol Hill to find three wise men or a virgin." So they decided to do parody instead.

--Neil

It was with great sadness that I learned of Bill Strauss's passing tonight, while reading David Kaiser's latest essay at the History Unfolding site. If you haven't seen the December 22 entry, I encourage you all to read the beautiful tribute David has written to his long-time friend.

I thank Neil, David, and all of the collective voices of this community for sharing their grief and the joy of their memories of William Strauss. For 10 years, this has been a truly dynamic, thought-provoking, exasperating, and familial web site, and as we're here due to the efforts of Strauss & Howe, what a wonderful tribute to the lasting impact of these men.

God bless to the Strauss family, and God bless this Christmas season to all the family of us who read and post at the Fourthturning.com.

Wes Volkenant

Suffice it to say that I am both shocked and saddened.

Let me add my condolences to Bill's family and friends, and express my sadness at the loss of one of the great polymaths of our time.

Pax,

Dave Krein '42

To Neil Howe and the Strauss Family: I am deeply sorry for your loss.

As I heard the news of Bill's passing, I've been greatly sadden as

a fan of his books since I frist picked up Generations in 2000.

Bill Strauss was an excellent person that I've come to know about. From

reading all his books over and over again from calling him at Lifecourse for

generational advice, he's changed my view on history and how my life is

affected with generations as I deal with both Xers and Millennials.

Bill was a wonderful person and he will be remembered. In fact he'll be

remembered as a Hero who spoke up for the Millennials as we move closer into

America's next great gate of history. Most of all

my best wishes go out to Bill's family in Virginia and Neil Howe and family and

the best of luck as we play our generational scripts.

a TRUE FAN:

Angelo Losito
vancanuck48@yahoo.com

I am very sorry to hear about the passing of Bill Strauss.

He and Neil Howe changed my view of history for the last 16 years.
I thank him for the time and energy he put into the Generations concept and community. It was wonderful the way he showed us around Washington, putting things into a generational perspective. I especially enjoyed the little performance of one of his plays we did at a Potomac River park.

I only check these forums a couple times per month, so I am only now reading of the passing of Mr. Strauss. I am very deeply saddened that I will never get to meet him, but I'll never forget his words of wisdom in the chat thread earlier this year when I asked about educating the Millennials.

Mr. Strauss' and Mr. Howe's theories have forever changed the way that I make sense of the current landscape of American education.

Thank you. And may you forever rest in peace.

Originally Posted by The Wonkette

Here is a link to one of Strauss's spoonerisms. This one is relentlessly non-partisan.

LOL, that was hilarious!

Thank you all again for your thoughts. They're much appreciated.

I thought you’d enjoy this wonderful column, written by Martin Snapp for the SF Bay Area papers. He puts it all better, in short compass, than just about anyone else I've seen. --Neil

***

What does the New Year have in store for us? All I know is that it'll be different from what we expect.

Remember how the future looked 12 months ago? Rudy and Hillary were shoe-ins for their parties' nominations, and the newly elected Democratic Congress was going to force Bush to bring the troops home.

Didn't quite work out that way, did it?

One of biggest mistakes we can make about the future is to assume it's going to be a continuation of the present.

I learned that from my friend, Bill Strauss.

Bill was the co-founder of the satirical group, The Capitol Steps. The Washington Post said he taught a whole generation of lawmakers to laugh at themselves.

But he was also the co-author, with Neil Howe, of my favorite book, "Generations." On the back cover of the paperback edition are three rave reviews ¬ one by Al Gore, one by Newt Gingrich, and one by me. I said it would change the world as much as Darwin's "The Origin of Species," and I still believe it.

"Generations" and the three books that followed - "13th Gen," "Fourth Turning" and "Millennials Rising" ¬ are a radically new way of looking at American history. They reveal hidden generational cycles in our past that recur over and over again.

For instance, the Baby Boomers are echoes of the self-righteous, narcissistic Transcendental Generation of the 1850s, who bungled this nation into the Civil War.

("Never vote for a Baby Boomer for president," Bill once warned me. "They're just the type to take us into a disastrous war on a matter of principle.") And if you can trace these generational cycles backward, it follows that you can also project them forward into the future. And this Bill and Neil had the audacity to do.

Now, the idea that history occurs in cycles can be hard to swallow at first because we're used to thinking of time in linear terms. We assume that the future will be like the present, only more so.

And that's pretty depressing, considering what a gloomy present we have.

But what if the linear approach is wrong? Consider: Back in the square, button-down '50s, everyone thought the '60s would be more of the same. But look what happened.

And in the '60s, when young people were shouting "Ho, ho, ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win," who would have predicted that the next generation of college students would be Reagan voters?

If these guys are right - and I think they are - it means that the horrible social and political unraveling we're going through is just another phase.

Unfortunately, the next phase is even worse: a full-blown crisis as dangerous as the one our parents and grandparents confrontged during the Depression and World War II.

That's the bad news. The good news is that crises can be good or bad, depending on how you handle them. The last time, America emerged stronger and more united than ever before.

But (I can hear you saying) back then America had a generation of heroes:
the so-called Greatest Generation, who manned the C.C.C. camps, beat the Nazis, outlasted the Commies and created the world we live in.

True enough. But as "Generations" reveals, there's another generation of heroes, potentially as great as the Greatest Generation, right under our noses.
It's our children, the Millennials. They are the ones who are going to save the world.

Sadly, Bill won't be here to see it. He died Dec. 18 after an 8-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was one of the wisest, wittiest and most perceptive people I ever met
.
And the best way for me to honor his memory is to urge you to be nice to your kids.

Who knows? They could turn out to be the next Jack Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, Walt Disney or Walter Cronkite.

And that goes for other people's kids, too.

Originally Posted by Neil Howe

Thank you all again for your thoughts. They're much appreciated.

I thought you’d enjoy this wonderful column, written by Martin Snapp for the SF Bay Area papers. He puts it all better, in short compass, than just about anyone else I've seen. --Neil

***

What does the New Year have in store for us? All I know is that it'll be different from what we expect.

Remember how the future looked 12 months ago? Rudy and Hillary were shoe-ins for their parties' nominations, and the newly elected Democratic Congress was going to force Bush to bring the troops home.

Didn't quite work out that way, did it?

One of biggest mistakes we can make about the future is to assume it's going to be a continuation of the present.

I learned that from my friend, Bill Strauss.

Bill was the co-founder of the satirical group, The Capitol Steps. The Washington Post said he taught a whole generation of lawmakers to laugh at themselves.

But he was also the co-author, with Neil Howe, of my favorite book, "Generations." On the back cover of the paperback edition are three rave reviews ¬ one by Al Gore, one by Newt Gingrich, and one by me. I said it would change the world as much as Darwin's "The Origin of Species," and I still believe it.

"Generations" and the three books that followed - "13th Gen," "Fourth Turning" and "Millennials Rising" ¬ are a radically new way of looking at American history. They reveal hidden generational cycles in our past that recur over and over again.

For instance, the Baby Boomers are echoes of the self-righteous, narcissistic Transcendental Generation of the 1850s, who bungled this nation into the Civil War.

("Never vote for a Baby Boomer for president," Bill once warned me. "They're just the type to take us into a disastrous war on a matter of principle.") And if you can trace these generational cycles backward, it follows that you can also project them forward into the future. And this Bill and Neil had the audacity to do.

Now, the idea that history occurs in cycles can be hard to swallow at first because we're used to thinking of time in linear terms. We assume that the future will be like the present, only more so.

And that's pretty depressing, considering what a gloomy present we have.

But what if the linear approach is wrong? Consider: Back in the square, button-down '50s, everyone thought the '60s would be more of the same. But look what happened.

And in the '60s, when young people were shouting "Ho, ho, ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna win," who would have predicted that the next generation of college students would be Reagan voters?

If these guys are right - and I think they are - it means that the horrible social and political unraveling we're going through is just another phase.

Unfortunately, the next phase is even worse: a full-blown crisis as dangerous as the one our parents and grandparents confrontged during the Depression and World War II.

That's the bad news. The good news is that crises can be good or bad, depending on how you handle them. The last time, America emerged stronger and more united than ever before.

But (I can hear you saying) back then America had a generation of heroes:
the so-called Greatest Generation, who manned the C.C.C. camps, beat the Nazis, outlasted the Commies and created the world we live in.

True enough. But as "Generations" reveals, there's another generation of heroes, potentially as great as the Greatest Generation, right under our noses.
It's our children, the Millennials. They are the ones who are going to save the world.

Sadly, Bill won't be here to see it. He died Dec. 18 after an 8-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was one of the wisest, wittiest and most perceptive people I ever met
.
And the best way for me to honor his memory is to urge you to be nice to your kids.

Who knows? They could turn out to be the next Jack Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, Walt Disney or Walter Cronkite.

And that goes for other people's kids, too.

That is a wonderful obit!

Originally Posted by Odin

That is a wonderful obit!

I second that opinion wholeheartedly! A wonderful tribute to a wonderful man!

As his family and friends remember him privately, let the public celebration and honor of William Strauss continue.

Let's publicly celebrate William Strauss the Comedian, at least as brilliant as Bill Maher or Mark Russell.

Let's celebrate William Strauss the Historian, with as sure a vision as any history professor.

Let's celebrate William Strauss the Storyteller, sharing with us the grand narrative of the Parade of History.

For tens of thousands of us, William Strauss has already left a lasting, enduring, permanent legacy. For we found part of our identity in the books of William Strauss and Neil Howe.

In the intellectual history of the human race, the insights Strauss and Howe had together in just three short years in the late '80s stand out as something of a revolution.

And from those four books tens of thousands of us have come to a new understanding. Of our identity and place in collective time. In history. In the present. And in our efforts to forge the future.

No one can really say that but William Strauss and Neil Howe. They stand alone, peerless.

They have helped us understand our culture. Our ancestors. Our peers. Our next-juniors. Out time. And our lives.

We have worked our way through their four books paragraph by paragraph, wrestling on each page with our own identity in the flow of time. And this wrestling has shaped and sharpened our identity, our values, our purpose, and our lives.

William Strauss and Neil Howe have helped us understand who we are and what we might become. So let the celebration of Mr. Strauss's legacy continue --- for decades to come.

Mike Weber
Albuquerque, NM

Thank you, Mr. Strauss.

Originally Posted by webmaster

There will however be a public memorial in March of 2008 in McLean, Virginia, to which all of the Bill’s friends and associates and well-wishers and fans are invited to attend. Exact dates and details to come.

March is coming up. Has a place or a date been decided yet? I know of at least one 4Ter who will want to come, but will be flying in and wants to get a good price.

I plan to attend the memorial service if it is open to me, since I live in the DC area. Who else would like to come to the memorial service from these threads?

It's sad to hear the news about a person who actually contributed to a different way of thinking. William Strauss will be deeply missed.