A year ago, March 30, 2007, Ely Liebow passed away. Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) faculty, staff and students joined the family in mourning his passing, as he touched many lives and enriched them all. Ely Liebow’s wife of 57 years, three daughters and two granddaughters will miss him most of all, but as his friend and colleague, Donald J. Terras, said at the time, “It was a sad day for all who knew this unique man that was loved, honored and enjoyed by so many people from all walks of life.”
However, it has been a year, and it is important to note that the legacy of Ely Liebow lives on in a number of ways. Although a lifetime Sherlock Holmes aficionado, after Liebow’s retirement from the English department of NEIU, he became even more immersed. According to Terras:
“It was during this time that his appreciation of detective fiction fully developed, with a particular interest in the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. But this interest wasn’t strictly academic. He would become a member of Hugo’s Companions in 1968 and the Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) in 1971. With the Companions, Ely went on to become Sir Hugo from 1976 to 1978 and was The Most Notable Companion in 1988 and the Horace Harker Award winner in 1983 and 1995, in recognition of his many notable written contributions about the Holmes canon.”
“Outside of Chicago,” Terras continues, “Ely was a regular at the Sherlock Holmes birthday festivities held annually during January in New York, where one of his favorite pastimes was getting together with like-minded souls for drinks at Pete’s Tavern, a pub that was frequented by O. Henry. In 1979, he received his shilling and investiture as Inspector Gregory from the Baker Street Irregulars and in 1991 was presented with the Irregular’s Two-Shilling Award. From 1976 to 1995, Ely acted as an editorial adviser for the prestigious Sherlockian journal Baker Street Miscellanea, published in Chicago. All these accomplishments aside, Ely was best known for his research on Dr. Joe Bell, the Scottish physician who served as Arthur Conan Doyle’s inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. This research led to a book, Dr. Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes, published in 1982 by Bowling Green University’s Popular Press and which has been re-released by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2007.”
Liebow was a member of two Chicago Sherlockian scion societies (a scion is a branch group of the national organization called The Baker Street Irregulars). The Chicago groups are Hugo’s Companions (contact-Bill Sawisch at wmsawisch@sbcglobal.net) and The Hounds of the Baskerville (houndsofthebaskerville.org). In 2001, Liebow also started a Sherlockian group called the NEIU Sherlockians. This group meets at the Highwood Library every two months on the second Tuesday. More information about the NEIU Sherlockians is available from Sonia Arvanitis (T-Arvanitis@neiu.edu).
“The [NEIU] Sherlockian Club is a tight knit group at this time of about 20 people,” says Arvanitis. “After professor Liebow died, they were worried that the group would be disbanded, but I agreed to continue it in memory of professor Liebow. We now have rotating speakers, preferably with an NEIU connection, at each meeting. The group has read a host of Holmes stories and watched videos and movies made years ago. They discuss the stories in great detail and no detail escapes them. They also read professor Liebow’s Holmes book.”
Arvanitis, as Director of Development at NEIU, has also been involved in the instituting of an Ely Liebow Scholarship Award. It is still in the works at this time as the endowment money is being raised. Once that has been accomplished, the chair of the English department will work out the selection criteria with input from the Liebow family. Further announcements will be made regarding this scholarship at an appropriate time.