Thursday, October 29, 2015
Jim and I were good friends at Yale and had many friends in common in Bingham Hall as freshmen and later, Berkeley College, including Glen Homan, Russ Sale, Marty Purvis, Rob Wood, George Lazarus, Henry Jones, Mike Payne, Jeff Bader, Lanny Goldman, Charley Stuckey, Tom Sargent, and Barry Lepley. That was about fifty years ago when Yale was still all-male and one could have many male friends.
Jim liked to play poker and I did not, but that was just about the only thing we didn't do together. Sports were big then--Brian Dowling and Calvin Hill scored on the gridiron and Bill Bradley (visiting from Princeton) on the hardlourt. And, Jim liked art history (especially Vin Scully's lectures, I seem to recall), and movies, including the new foreign films then finding their way to the U.S. (perhaps mostly for their 'skin', as we called it). And pizza -- what is now called 'New Haven style pizza'.
We also shared a sports car for a while. I owned it and Jim borrowed and parked it. Once, he borrowed it see a girl but didn't tell me that the girl was in North Carolina! In the spring of '68 we drove the car to Hanover, New Hampshire to watch the finals of the NCAA Swimming Championships at Dartmouth (Don Schollander anchored Yale's winning 800 meter relay team in a dramatic comeback).
Loyal followers of Sally's--never patrons of Pepe's--we'd often split a medium sausage or pepperoni, but one night we were hungry and each had our own. And then, we each ate a second one.
After Yale, we kept in touch--meeting each other's families and occasionally seeing each other at a Yale-Harvard game or a reunion of the Class of '67 ... and once, with Kathi and Megan, a reunion at Sally's Pizza. Later still, we'd get together at a Yale-Columbia basketball game and afterwards, share a Chinese supper while discussing life and sports, and reminiscing about Yale. Jim was a great guy and I will miss him.
Jim Quinn
