The recent US News and World Report just ranked U of C as
tied for 4th along with Columbia and Stanford. It is still one of the best schools in the country
and the world.
Most people know that I attended the College of the
University of Chicago. It was one of the
better decisions I ever made. But the
credit belongs to my brother Peter. He
was an education major in the early 1950’s.
He was going to be a HS History teacher.
Good thing he decided to become a lawyer instead. His tolerance for
stupidity is less than mine. His college
years coincided with the Hutchins years at U of C. His innovations with the College curriculum
were innovative and exciting. So, when I
started looking for colleges 10 years later, he suggested that I look at U of
C.
The brochures they sent resonated with me deeply. I applied and got in with a scholarship. Harvard rejected me and told me that I
shouldn’t think that a college education would not be helpful. The arrogance of that statement really amazed
me and shocked the Vice-Principal who had become a mentor. I could have gone to Princeton. Their recruiters came to THS and brought in
the top guys in the class; but I wasn’t interested. I knew that I didn’t have blond hair and lots
of money. I would not fit in. So I walked out of the room.
Attending U of C was a really wonderful experience. The concept of a core curriculum was my idea
of a college education. The Humanities
and Social Sciences requirements were great. The faculty was great. I had some really wonderful teachers. Ned Rosenheim taught Hum I and I got up early
for 2 years to be in Donald Meicklejohn’s Soc I and II classes. History of Western Civ with Karl Weintraub
and History of England with Charles Gray were superb classes. Even the priests on campus were special. Father Mac was a Jesuit lawyer and Father
Lambert was the first black ordained in the Chicago Archdiocese. They were amazing priests who kept people in the
Church during College. On Holidays I even
traveled up the Cathedral of the Holy Name to attend Mass by the Cardinal with
their full choir etc.
We did not live in “dorms”
I lived in a house—Chamberlin house with about 60 guys. It was in BJ a collection of 8 houses built
in the Gothic style. The dining rooms
were enormous mead halls with open beam ceilings and oak paneling. The tables were long and each house
appropriated their own. One sat in the next
open seat in the house table. There were
lounges with stone fireplaces that one could walk in and grand pianos, oriental
rugs and leather sofas and chairs. We
had a maid who cleaned our rooms each week and a house man who took care of
garbage and mopping the floors. The maid
was a tiny Irish middle-aged woman, named Ellen O’Hara and the houseman was
Burley.
The people on my floor become good friends and I learned at
least as much from them as I did in class.
As a group they were incredibly knowledgeable about music. I learned
a great deal from them. They also
dragged me to my first ballet and my first opera. The ballet was the Bolshoi’s Swan Lake; the opera was Turandot from the Met. These led to season tickets at the Lyric
Opera and other ballets, the greatest of which was Nureyev and Margot Fontaine
in Romeo and Juliet in the Sadler Wells production designed by Sir Fredric
Ashton. Actually, I had seen Nureyev
before at the Lyric in Prince Igor. They
announced that a dancer, who recently defected from the USSR was dancing. It was Nureyev!
I attended the Lyric for 7 years (through Med School) and
enjoyed it immensely. I saw great
artists performing the operas.
We had the opportunity to attend the installation of G. W.
Beadle as the new Chancellor of U of C.
There were representatives of hundreds of major universities from around
the world and they marched into Rockefeller Chapel in full academic regalia in
the order their university was founded.
The initial marchers represented the University of Bologna and Upsila!
I just wish that Med School was as wonderful an
experience. For Med School I probably should
have gone elsewhere. However, as a
pre-med student we were taught that the greatest achievement we could do was
get in to U of C Med School. So I applied
and got in the at the first meeting. I
withdrew any other application and signed on.
No comments:
Post a Comment