I went to Yale in the late sixties, a time of great change and turmoil; a time of wondrous excitement and awakening. Yale provided a sanctuary and a place of grounding from which I could experience and assimilate changes in perceptions, changes in attitudes, changes in roles and role models; from which I could venture into the world of excitement and revolution and renaissance and then return to ponder, discuss and reflect.

Yale offered me entree to the best minds and the most interesting people imaginable. I can't think of any other era I would have preferred to grow up in, nor any other place. I like to think I've become a caring, intelligent, useful and honorable person, and parent, and that, somehow, my years in New Haven helped mold me in that direction.

--Prof. Scully's lectures on the history of architecture, played to a
packed house, with verve and panache, and opening up a world otherwise
sterile and unknown

--Vladimir Horowitz at Woolsey Hall and learning for the first time that
one of my roommates was a concert pianist with the New Haven Symphony

--John Blum on history and William Penn Warren on writing

--trying to understand the rudiments of calculus from my roommate who
was operating a laser in our dorm room in the fall of 1966

--freshman soccer practices with kids from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone,
Ivory Coast as we discussed politics, economics and social realities on
a global level; heady stuff for an 18 year old, even a supposedly
sophisticated one from New York

--Jim Morrison and the Doors at the Civic Arena, Blind Faith at Woolsey,
Roller Derby, Bobby Seale and Erica Huggins and all the other events
which opened one's eyes and made one contemplate and, in most instances,
formulate a "position" and act upon it in some small way

--Henry Winkler and Meryl Streep and Ron Liebman showing how vibrant
real theatre can be up close, beginning a lifelong passion I've had with
intimate performances.

These are but a few of the memories which jump to mind. the
key, from my perspective, was the ability to experience all of these,
and other, events and people, in the company of intelligent, articulate
and interesting peers. there are few other places, I would say, where
such opportunities existed.