Letters

Boody’s Home for Knowledge

Thank you for the Ask the Archivist’s article on Azariah Boody (“What Secrets Does the University’s Painting of Azariah Boody Hold?”, Fall 2019). My father, George Dutton ’38, had taught me a few songs from when he was in a University singing club.

The first line of one referenced Azariah Boody’s cows:

O, Azariah Boody’s cows were sleek and noble kine
They wandered o’er verdant fields where grew the dandelion.
And when they drove the cows away
To build a home for knowledge
They took the color from the flow’r
And gave it to the college.

The article lets me better understand this old song. I wish I had noticed the Boody portrait in Rush Rhees when I was a student.

Alan Dutton ’75

Austin, Texas

For those who want to hear “Dandelion Yellow,” Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian, points to the University’s Soundcloud account, where a recording of the YellowJackets singing that and other Rochester songs can be found: https://soundcloud.com/urochester/sets/songs-of-the-university-of-rochester".

From Rochester to Purdue

How good to see cooperation between Rochester and Purdue on research to develop a semiconductor chip that may help lead to a quantum computer (“Electron by Electron,” Fall 2019). With a BS from Rochester (1946) and a MS and PhD from Purdue (1949 and 1956), I am a much less important product of the institutional connection.

Owen Gailar ’46

Fresno, California

The writer is a professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Purdue.

Remembering a Classmate

Sadly, I am writing to remember W. C. Brian Peoples ’55, my former roommate and a Psi Upsilon fraternity brother. Brian, who died in November, was also a soccer team captain and played varsity tennis.

He and his wife, Peggy, were quiet but effective donors, along with our classmate Nat Wisch ’55, a University life trustee, and his wife, Helen, and with another Psi U brother and life trustee, Roger Friedlander ’56.

As an example, Brian’s contribution to install the University squash courts are remembered with only a small plaque at the courts.

Brian was a brilliant pure math student who whizzed through college without working too hard.

Since his father was a partner in one of the biggest accounting firms in New York—Peet, Marwick, and Mitchell—he had a solid background and became a partner himself in the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson. He was a nationally recognized arbitrator in their breakup dispute.

He will be greatly missed.

Edward Letteron ’55

Sharon, Connecticut