This looks like it could be a police lineup, doesn’t it?

I found this undated photo in a folder called “Faculty–Groups” and was intrigued by the fact that no matter how closely you zoom in, you can’t tell what they’re holding. Trial and error leads me to this conclusion: those three shifty looking fellows in the middle (Ron Sass, Bill Martin and Allen Matusow) are the first winners of the George R. Brown Certificate of Highest Merit Award. This is what they give you when you’ve won the Brown Teaching Award so many times that you’re automatically retired from the competition. It must have been taken in 1986.

I believe only four others have won this award since then: Dennis Huston, Frank Jones, Rich Smith and Stephen Klineberg.

I don’t care who you are, that’s pretty good company.