As I said yesterday, there were balloons all over. There were people all over too, spread across the lawn, up on the balconies on Lovett Hall, even in the oak trees. It looks like a hot and windy day but I can’t account for the man in the hat carrying a coat:
Among my favorite images in the Woodson are procession photos, which give me the chance to see so many people I love. Here right up front is Katherine Tsanoff Brown, behind her in the Harvard regalia is geologist Carey Croneis, who would have been Chancellor Emeritus at this time after serving as provost for many years. He would pass away only a few months after this event. For the life of me I can’t call up the name of the guy next to him, but behind them are a couple of trustees so it must be someone important:
Here’s the man of the hour, Norman Hackerman, walking next to the Chairman of the Rice board Malcolm Lovett, Sr. In front of them are Frank Vandiver, who looks absolutely delighted to be escaping the office of Interim President with his head still attached to his shoulders–more on this later–and Herb Allen, looking quite pleased to have selected a president without causing an uprising:
I’ll end with another odd one: Norman’s wife, Gene, undaunted by either heat, wind, or sun. Right off her shoulder is Mary Lou Margrave with a fur piece around her neck!
Bonus: A reader up at A&M sends this, wondering if anyone here can explain it. The lettering at bottom left of the billboard with the alien says “VADA.RICE.EDU” Beats me, but . . . well, they’re artists, you know?
In the balloon photo, with white hair and sunglasses, is Sandy Havens’ wife. I think maybe her name is Helen (unless I’m conjuring up “Helen Hayes”!).
Yes, that looks like Helen Havens to me.
It’s definitely Helen.
Juli (Sandy and Helen’s daughter) says Tommy Bible on the left and “one of the Anderson twins” on the right.
Re. The man in the hat: it looks to me more like he’s carrying a piece of cloth, like maybe a tablecloth? It looks too unstructured to be an overcoat… but he’s also carrying a chair. Given the informal dress of the students, it seems odd that a man in full suit and tie with matching hat would be assisting with the set-up. A puzzle!
Sure looks like Helen Havens among the balloons. And the woman to Gene Hackerman’s left looks like Jeannette Walters, the wife of G. King Walters (Physics)
Old article about the billboards: https://news.rice.edu/2014/01/21/turning-billboards-into-artworks/
Wow! Thanks so much! Artists!
It’s a raincoat, and they are migrating to a shady spot, with their chairs.
A Confederate flag planted in the lawn…
Near the left edge of the photo, the woman wearing a red shirt and holding two light blue balloons looks like Susan Bielstein.
Directly behind the fellow wearing a tie and looking at Susan is a woman wearing a light-red sleeveless dress and holding a yellow balloon who looks like Dawn Pennington.
I’m pretty sure the barefoot, long-haired guy next to Mrs. Havens is Tom Bible. He went barefoot a lot, and was the most amazing whistler I’ve ever known; he could whistle in 3-part harmony! He was in Weiss. I have no memory of attending this event myself, but I had to have still been there since Hackerman signed my diploma as Pres.
Katherine Tsanoff always had great hair. So did Gene Hackerman, in a different way.