I will always remember Kemp with a particular fondness and for exactly the reasons you say. But, more personally, I will also remember him with a special fondness because of the kindness he once showed to me when I was a mere undergraduate over lunch at some Ashbrook function in D.C. He sat next to me and engaged me in serious conversation for more than 45 minutes about Abraham Lincoln and the thesis I was then working on. He asked me to send him a copy when I finished and, when I did he not only remembered the conversation, he actually read it, commented upon it and wrote me back. I think he even sent me something else about Lincoln to read. I had the opportunity, thanks to the Ashbrook Center, to meet all sorts of politicians and scholars as an undergraduate. Many of them were very patient and kind in speaking with us and all of them taught us something. But few of them were as sympathetically engaged or as genuinely curious as Mr. Kemp seemed to be. I often think back to that memory and recall it as one of the first genuinely grown-up conversations I had with someone outside of the circle of people whose duty it was to provide such to me. I was very sad, indeed, to hear of his passing. RIP, Jack Kemp.

This is also a nice remembrance.

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