How did Jellinek’s contemporary colleagues regard him? Quotations from two edited volumes offer an insight: the first part is from the recorded proceedings of a conference dedicated to Jellinek’s memory; the second is a collection of interviews with notable addiction scholars.
Alcohol and alcoholism (edited by R. E. Popham, 1970)
The International Symposium on Alcohol and Alcoholism was held in the memory of E. M. Jellinek at the University of Chile, under the direction of Dr. Jorge Mardones in Santiago, August 15-19, 1966. Proceedings of this conference were compiled into a book, edited by R. E. Popham at the Alcohol Research Foundation in Canada. The selected quotes were published in the introductory pages, before the text of the scholarly presentations.
Source: Popham, R. E. (Ed.) (1970). Alcohol and alcoholism: Papers presented at the International Symposium in memory of E.M. Jellinek, Santiago, Chile. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
“If one thing could be said to characterize the work of Jellinek, it would be his keen analytic ability, which allowed him not only to discover new facts, but to establish order among the known ones and to differentiate clearly between a valid judgment and a misinterpretation of the evidence.” —Mark Keller, x
“Jellinek realized that if civilized society were ever to become able to cope successfully with the problems of alcohol, then science must replace sheer emotion as the basic means of coping.” — Mark Keller, xiii
“He taught us all how to handle alcohol statistics sensibly and how to interpret them rationally.” — Mark Keller, xiii
“We honor him, furthermore, because we consider him a distinguished exponent of the modern concept of health that goes beyond the biological content and which makes of health a service to individual well-being and social progress.” — Abraham Horwitz, xxiii
“A citizen of the United States, he was nevertheless above all a citizen of the world, not only because of his broad knowledge of various conditions of life and his work in various parts of the world, but also by virtue of his broad vision and great powers of adjustment and understanding.” —H. J. Krauweel, xvii
“Dr. Jellinek not only had an unequalled fund of knowledge but a singular talent for evoking tolerance among clashing viewpoints. He was beloved by people with sharply conflicting philosophies about drinking and he was always ready to counsel those whose lives had been adversely affected by alcohol.” — R. Brinkley Smithers, xviii
Published in the Jellinek Special Anniversary issue of the CAS Information Services Newsletter in 2015.