This afternoon just by chance I found myself holding the first issue of Rice News, one of my favorite Rice publications of all times. It’s only online now so I don’t look at it very often but when it still came out in print I read it religiously, cover to cover, for its news of what my colleagues were up to and the schedule of campus lectures.
The first issue was published after commencement in 1991, which was celebrated as the centennial of the charter. Part of the festivities was an alumni panel that turned up a very interesting nugget, courtesy of retired English professor George Williams, ’23. I’ve talked quite bit about the parking lot that ran right up against the administration building for decades but I’d never stopped to consider that this created the potential for mayhem:
As soon as I read this I stood up, walked out of the library, and headed for the cornerstone. Sure enough, there’s a nice nick taken out of one edge:
Curiously, one of the few pictures we have of the perpetrator shows him waiting for a trolley. Might not be a coincidence.
Bonus:
