Gentleman's
Time with Joshua Tremblay
During last weekend’s inauguration festivities,
I stood determined to have Gentleman’s Time with
a distinguished trustee or alumni, and I was not disappointed.
Last Thursday, in a meeting between student and trustees,
alumnus and trustee Paul Eckstein jokingly noted that
he enjoyed the paper, but was afraid that were he ever
to be interviewed he would be called a “nerd”
like President Oxtoby was in a previous Gentleman’s
Time. Through our subsequent interactions, I did my best
to convince him that it wouldn’t be so, seeing as
how he was a lawyer and not a chemist. This may or may
not have been a lie at this point, but a gentleman knows
how to exploit these sorts of claims in the pursuit of
journalistic excellence present in such publications as
this. Besides, I decided that all bets were off when he
teasingly asked if my suit was rented.
Paul Eckstein was head of the Presidential Search Committee
and serves as the most senior partner at his prestigious
law firm in Phoenix. A classier-than-what-is-normal-for-me
venue was needed for this event, so the seminal Blackwatch
was out of the question. Mr. Eckstein, his wife Florence,
and I went to The Press when the inauguration dinner
on the quadrangle was beginning to wind down. This impressed
me in that I really enjoy a drink now and again, but
all previous Gentleman’s Time participants had,
with good reason, declined the drink. The Press was
busy that night, so to sit at a table we were required
to order at least an appetizer. All in all, there was
a glass of wine for the lady, two pints of Sierra for
the gents, spring rolls, and a Caesar salad—a
formidable array of culinary pleasures.
Before I had a chance to ask any questions, Mr. Eckstein
quickly posed one for me. “So, what are three
things you could change about the College?” he
posited. I was expecting to do most of the question
asking, so I was momentarily stumped. After some thinking,
I proposed my first change, after which the conversation
never stopped. We never arrived at the third thing I
thought could stand to change at the College, which
was probably because between my first item, second item,
and all the tangential issues and anecdotes in between
we had spent the good part of an evening.
Our discussion wandered into what got Mr. Eckstein
so enraptured by Pomona in the first place- a love of
William Faulkner. Speaking from the position of Southerner
in Relative Exile, I was impressed to find a trustee
with such a honed literary taste. He and his wife vibrantly
exclaimed how they had passed my hometown on their alumni
river cruise up the Mississippi, and how they later
rented a car and sought out the little backwater towns
from their favorite Faulkner novels. Since they could
obviously afford the other alumni trips that gallivant
through Europe, traverse Antarctica, or chase solar
eclipses, the Eckstein’s had chosen a relatively
glamour-free trip through the South to chase their literary
passion. Despite their trustee status, the Ecksteins
are still down to earth Pomona kids who would rather
chase proverbial geese through a make believe Yoknapatawpha
county then run around like snotty rich folk—and
it is much appreciated by a country boy like me.
Mr. Eckstein said was worried about diversity of thought
on the campus. He lamented that Republicans on campus
were probably stifled on campus amidst the sea of liberal
voices. I was initially worried that despite taken a
thorough beating with the Pomona liberal stick that
he had soured somewhat in his old age. However, with
a quick laugh he retorted that he had always been a
strong supporter of the Democratic party, but still
worried about how conservatives would fare. Having a
trustee that worries about a fair political balance
but still endorses his own political beliefs is a real
gift to the college, I thought.
I appreciate Mr. Eckstein for supporting the Stonehill
Grant and the media studies program as a whole. I really
appreciate it when a serious discussion about the implementation
of the alcohol policy is speckled with anecdotes of
dragging pony kegs up to the third floor of Clark III.
I appreciate Mr. Eckstein for taking the time to really
interact with students over the weekend, and furthermore
I appreciate him being honest with me about campus issues.
Most of all, on a weekend with no free beer to be seen
on campus, I really appreciate him buying me a pint
of beer.
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