1969

I graduated from Western Michigan University in June of 1969. I would have graduated in April but I was two classes short of the required credits, so I attended Spring term. (I played too much my junior year.) That was 50 years ago almost to the day.

I intended to earn a Bachelor’s degree that would allow me to study law after I graduated. Not wanting to waste time getting a degree that would lead only to a degree that required more education before landing a job, I decided to work on a teaching degree while working towards my “dream job” as an attorney . I earned a double major in English and Social Studies.

In the Spring of 1969 I took the LSAT, applied to a couple of law schools, got accepted, and changed my mind. I found my time as a student teacher to be rewarding and decided to travel that path. I believed that I could always go back to study law. I never did.

Don was the first guy I met at Western. He was from Wisconsin. He was walking out of room 605 in Eldridge Hall as I was walking in. My parents and two sisters were with me. We exchanged pleasantries and he was off. We were roommates that first year and remained friends throughout college and beyond.

Eldridge was a new dorm so many of the guys on our floor were freshmen or transfers from other schools. There were four dorms in the new complex known as Valley III. Eldridge -Fox housed the guys and Harrison-Stinson housed the girls. We shared a common dining hall but most of the time remained segregated. Guys could stay out all night, but girls had hours. The girls had to be back in the dorm by 11:00 during the week and 1:00 on Friday and Saturday. Guys roamed freely while girls signed in and out. It was a perfect world to be a guy.

I loved my time at Western. I made a lot of new friends, joined a fraternity my junior year, and had a great life. Living on the west side of the state was dramatically different than living in the suburbs of Detroit. Kalamazoo was a college town with lots a great things to do. What I liked most was the easy access to things I wanted to explore. One of the things I enjoyed most was driving over to Lake Michigan.

During my senior year I became President of the University Student Center Board. The Student Center Board organized most of the activities that were held in the Student Center -AKA “The Union”. I considered myself Western’s President Miller right hand man. I was responsible for activities within “The Union”,  and he was in charge of the rest of the University. While it’s true that we never formally met, we were both BMOCs. I even got to ride in the Homecoming Parade. He didn’t.

My parents, my sisters and my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Harry Mac all came to my June graduation at Waldo Field. There were several hundred students graduating that June day. Each graduate had his cheerleaders in the stands. Pomp and Circumstance played as we marched. I heard a single voice over all of the other voices from the crowd as the band played. It was my dad, yelling “Rob, Rob!”

I was the first of many family members from both sides of our family to attend college and graduate. He was proud of me.

Parents want more for their children than they have themselves. I expect that he felt like I was on my way to a different life than the one he had. While he used his back to make a living, I had the opportunity to use my brain. And for that I will always be grateful.