LETTERS
To The Editor

Score two for hoops
Congratulations to Bruce Bosley and Sally McCay for a great article on the UVM men’s basketball team in the Spring 2003 edition. We have been enjoying Bruce’s view of the team for quite a few years. Sally McCay’s pictures for “Vermont’s Trip to the Dance” were outstanding, especially the ones on the title page and the cover.

David Pearl ’53
Burlington, Vermont

And two more for Roberson
What a great article about Kevin Roberson! I live in California now and follow Cat hoops religiously, having once been a student manager for the basketball team in the late 1970s. Being far away from Vermont, however, did not prevent me from having the privilege of seeing Kevin play. The Cats played in a tournament in San Francisco in ’90, and I also visited the friendly confines of Patrick on journeys to Burlington. I also got to meet Kevin, and he was as genuinely nice as TB (Coach Brennan) reported.

And now Kevin’s legacy has come to fruition. The Catamounts have broken the spell and have made it to the NCAA Championships. It was a great thrill for me to follow the team to Salt Lake City on March 20, and to see an exhausted team fight valiantly against a very difficult opponent. I’m sure Kevin would have loved to have been in the stands with former players such as Barry Stone, Joe Calavita, Mark Madden, and Chris Kappes (and former student managers, like me) to cheer loudly for TB and Jesse and their latest charges.

The Lion will always be with us in spirit, and as long as the America East Conference exists, he will be remembered as a player of great intensity, integrity, and talent — the conference’s Most Valuable Player award bears his name.

Go Cats!

Gordon H. Smith ’80
Pleasanton, California

Hey, it’s me
Never expected to see this, but I think the short guy this side of the fountain, heading toward Waterman, is me. (Look Back, p. 47, Spring 2003.) This 1973 photo would have been my junior year. The shadows are early morning shadows (sun hasn’t melted the fountain yet — ah, those Vermont springs!), so this would likely be the breakfast trek from Converse Hall to Waterman dining hall, an event I rarely missed. The gentleman in the gray coat is, I think, a friend who I remember by first name only as Paul. And the legs and arms behind him, if the short guy is indeed me, would likely be my roommate Carl Johnson.

Kevin Reese ’74
Orleans, Massachusetts

Davison Farewell
Your tribute to Bill Davison on his retirement from the Art Department brought back vivid memories of bonding with a lithography stone. Bill stood out among the teachers I had at UVM because he was able to approach the students’ work with a certain amount of humor while still treating it seriously and with respect. He was a friend, but also maintained an appropriate distance that made his teaching more effective. I wish him a happy and productive retirement.

Helen Rosenberg ’74
New Haven, Connecticut

Differing view on Iraq
Congratulations to Kevin Foley for his excellent interview with Professor Alnasrawi in the spring issue. If the person being interviewed had not been identified, I would have concluded the views expressed were from one of Saddam’s representatives at the UN or a spokesperson for French President Chirac.

Professor Alnasrawi states: “War is not an answer.” But it appears that peace, under Saddam, was not an answer for the Iraqi people who, for decades, lived in fear of being tortured, executed, shredded, or buried alive if they did not conform to Saddam’s guidelines for “political correctness.”

We are indeed fortunate the professor was not around in the 1700s suggesting decades of negotiation, and advocating inspectors be sent to Fort Ticonderoga in the interest of peace under the continued domination of the crown.

Thank goodness the Green Mountain Boys decided to risk their lives for freedom rather than devote their time to printing “No Blood for Tea” protest signs for peace.

Ron Ross ’52
York, Pennsylvania

Photo inspires poetry
{Editor’s Note: Seeing Professor Emeritus Littleton Long pictured in the Winter issue inspired one alumna to poetry.}

upon first opening my alumni mag
I walked from Redstone, dreaming through dry leaves
or snow or mud. In ’55. You taught.
I wrote on Royall Tyler’s play, believed
you ancient. Perhaps all freshmen ought
to think their profs stand one inch from the grave,
but now your photo shows, you’re fit and brisk,
still tending trees and apple-cheeked. You have
long youth, Professor Long – I risk
a hats-off even though it’s somewhat late.
Your English group – Betty, Muriel, and Sam –
a frisky bunch. They let me graduate
for loving novels, poems, plays – I am
in debt. Fred Marston? All of you inspired.
“Old” teachers burned. Green kids like me caught fire.

Margaret A. Robinson ’59
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Professor Long’s Update
Thank you for forwarding me Mrs. Robinson’s flattering sonnet about the English Department in the old days. Many readers will recognize her title’s allusion to Keats’s famous sonnet, “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer,” but I wonder how many will remember, as she does, past teachers in the English Department, “Muriel, Betty, and Sam”?

Fred Marston and Muriel Hughes are long dead, Sam Bogorad died more recently, and Betty Bandel (now 90) lives still on Cheesefactory Road, South Burlington.

It’s refreshing to know that one has not been forgotten, despite the passage of many years.

Littleton Long
South Burlington, Vermont