While serving with fellow alumni as “Marshall” yesterday (September 1, 2014), I met some of the Harvard freshmen students who now live in Wigglesworth, the dormitory where I once lived.  In particular, I talked with the four residents of A-11, the very spot of my living with three other first-years.

However, we were not there during the first semester of 1947.  Harvard already had too many freshmen to accommodate all of us in the dormitories.  As a result of this overcrowding, most of us who came from families based near Cambridge had to wait till the following semester for Harvard housing.

So, in January 1948, I took up residence with two other Bostonians, Bob and Tom, along with Walt, a classmate from Washington, D.C. as I recall. The first two have died already as I presume our companion from the national capital has also.

The four new residents of A-11 proved delightful to talk with as we did while waiting to march toward a giant tent set up to protect all of us from the sun and perhaps rain.

The only resident of my former quarters was first named Stone. Later when I looked up his name on the football squad I discovered him to almost double me at six-feet three-inches tall and weighing two hundred and seventy pounds.

I have since written him a letter asking for him to share with me the names of his confreres and their email addresses. He has not rushed to reply.

Both he and the other three did hurry to inform me of what they seem to consider most important about A-11.  It was the place where, in his own freshman years, Bill Gates dwelled. They had received from the college a list of all the students who have lived in that room. Of all the names, that of the famous Microsoft founder stood out.

I kept to myself the fact of having shared with Gates departing from Harvard after sophomore year.  Had the students discovered this similarity it would almost surely have not drawn me in their estimation any closer at all to the fame they feel toward that other erstwhile A-11 er.