Remembering Bob High

by Roy Laird

April 12, 2004

EDITOR'S NOTE: A LONGTIME PERSONAL FRIEND OF BOB HIGH'S, ROY WROTE THE FOLLOWING NOTE IN RESPONSE TO A RECENT QUERY BY A FORMER SCHOOLMATE OF BOB'S. WE FOUND IT A TIMELY REMINDER OF AN OLD FRIEND AND LEADER IN THE GO COMMUNITY AND THANK ROY FOR AGREEING TO SHARE IT WITH E-JOURNAL READERS.

Bob High drowned in a rafting accident in Chile in January 1993. He had just taken office as President of the American Go Association eight days previously, and had many plans for the future of American go.

After studying mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, Bob became a statistical analyst and computer programmer, part of the team that created electronic stock transfer technology for Wall Street. He also wrote articles and submitted math problems to The Scientific American and other such magazines. But I think the events that really defined Bob as a person occurred in the decade between the Berkeley days and the start of that career.

Sometime in the late 60's, Bob was one of two doctoral candidates approaching completion of their doctorates at Berkeley. Only one was able to graduate -- Bob had taken note of a program where Americans went abroad to teach math, kind of a Peace Corps for math teachers and Bob decided to let the other guy graduate while he went to Chile to teach math. Bob was in Santiago on September 11, 1973, when Pinochet seized power in a military coup, with the assistance of the US government. After several harrowing days, Bob was able to make his way out, but his friend Charlie Horman was not so lucky.

Charlie, a writer for The New York Times, had gone for a weekend holiday to the coast that happened to be where thousands of American troops were secretly landing. A US military officer learned of his presence, and informed Pinochet's team about an American journalist who knew too much. The next day they rounded Charlie up, tortured him for a few days, and then killed him. This incident was immortalized by Costa Gavras in the film "Missing," which Bob consulted on and which went on to win several Oscars in the early 1980's.

Bob was outraged by Charlie's death, as well as the deaths and torture of many other Chileans he knew. He became one of the founding organizers of NICH (Non Intervention in Chile), which for many years was the only voice of Pinochet's opposition. When Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador, was assassinated in Washington in 1976, it became clear that Bob's life was in danger. He lived underground for years, continuing to expose Pinochet's repressive practices. One of his more ingenious schemes involved the arrival of a Chilean tall ship in San Francisco, a ship that had been used as a floating torture chamber. Bob organized a flotilla of prostitutes to meet them in the harbor with protest signs. His creative twist on the Lysistrata theme gained national attention.

After NICH had done its job, Bob got involved with the AGA, which is how I came to know him. He brought an intensity and urgency to the work that took our organization to the next level in many ways, and we all looked forward to his leadership as President. Bob also had a whimsical side: have a look at the AGA's "Bob High Memorial Library" at http://www.usgo.org/bobhighlibrary/, which includes several articles he wrote about the nature of go. The AGA Songbook also contains many witty song parodies, including a fairly complete parody of the Mikado.

I looked forward to staying in touch with Bob's intelligent, witty take on things over the years. It didn't work out that way, but he does continue to pop up every so often. When he died, I promised myself that I would look for opportunities to do things he might have done as time went on. I think he would have told you all about Pinochet, so I did it for him.

Back to Articles