I have just finished reading with much enjoyment the January/February issue (one of your best yet) only to realize it has been fifty years since I earned my Brown PhD. Brown and Harvard were an impressive introduction to the U.S. university world and the Ivy League. Their ethos has never left me. They were fascinating times that saw the election of John F. Kennedy, the first freedom rides, the first man in space, the sit-ins at Kresge’s, and the ongoing and still unresolved debates on the validity of the ROTC programs. We even learned to make Boston beans.

Getting to know my fellow students was also a wonderful experience. This February I watched the Super Bowl, sharing a beer with Don Galbraith ’65 PhD, me in Auckland, him in Connecticut. What a game, after I had watched the Ravens win earlier in the week. The game was a reminder of my own rugby-playing days and my days coaching the Brown rugby team, who were the cochampions of the Eastern Rugby Union in 1961.  

Much of my enjoyment of the United States in those early 1960s originated in the warmth with which the people of Providence and Pawtucket welcomed me and my family to their lives and their lifestyles. We had a life outside the University as well—another Fulbright benefit—which helped us understand better the way U.S. society worked and played. Who could forget Newport or Cape Cod in the summer, New Hampshire in the fall, the Providence spring flowers, or its winter snows? So, Brown University, the United States and its people, I salute you and I thank you very much.

Denys P. Boshier ’63 PhD
Auckland, New Zealand
dboshier@wave.co.nz