Monthly Archives: May 2020

This week is normally one of my favorite times of the year. I love both the bustle of commencement preparations and the annual downshift into summer. Commencement will be virtual this year, which is, I suppose, better than nothing but … Continue reading →

One more thing about Alan McKillop, and an important thing it is. This is a short excerpt from Larry McMurtry’s Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen:Reflections on Sixty and Beyond: “The teacher I wasn’t outreading, and the one, consequently, whom … Continue reading →

The women of the Semper Fidelis Club had good reason to ask that Alan McKillop be the man to choose the volumes to be added in Stockton Axson’s honor to the Rice library. McKillop came to Rice in 1920, just … Continue reading →

With the help of loyal readers Mike Ross ’70 ’74 and Marty Merritt ’85 (and a much needed  visit to the Woodson this morning!) we have a solution to last week’s Semper Fidelis mystery.  In Lovett’s files I found several … Continue reading →

Looking through my collection of Rice library bookplates this morning I noticed this unusual one: I don’t remember scanning this and in fact it looks more like I hastily snapped a picture of it with my cell phone. Where I … Continue reading →

Two days in a row I have something nice to talk about. A couple of weeks ago I put up this post with a couple of happy freshmen at the RMC piano in early fall, 1962. In the comments Grungy … Continue reading →

As long as I’m digging around in my Houston stuff I may as well share one last small thing that I think reveals quite a lot about his character. It’s a thank you note, sent to the couple who were … Continue reading →

Still thinking about President Houston I remembered this picture from his formal inauguration as Rice’s second president in April, 1947. He’d already been on duty for a year and the changes he brought to campus were proving popular and effective. … Continue reading →

I thought at first this was Galveston but on closer inspection it looks more like the bay, which was a very popular destination at the time. That’s our first math professor, Griffith Evans, at right with his little lads Georgie … Continue reading →