George: stories from Harriet

I don’t know if these qualify as “stories”, but they are metaphors for aspects of George’s career at Mount Holyoke.

Kendade, the newest science building at Mount Holyoke, is connected to each of the older ones, including to Clapp Lab, which houses the math/stat department.  In fact, the connector from Kendade to Clapp comes more or less through George’s old office window.

Some years ago, someone noticed water seeping out from under George’s office door.  Something had sprung a leak, and George’s office was inundated, soaking the stacks of yellow pads on his office floor.  No one else would have had so many yellow pads.  No one else’s yellow pads would have been covered in pencil writing — pencil, so soft and gentle in comparison to ink, but so much sturdier.  I think it was Janice who carefully spread the soggy yellow pads all over the hallway on the fourth floor of Clapp, where George’s writing bloomed anew and where his influence remains.