From the Archives

My campus job was at the Reserve Reading Room from 1971 to 1975. It was in the old room on the first floor that is pictured in PAW before it moved to larger quarters on A level. A mysterious man in plaid shorts and purple tennis shoes used to sit on the bench in front of the desk — legs crossed, silent, just thinking for hours. Everyone knew him as the guy in the purple tennis shoes. Years later, PAW arrived with his picture on the cover announcing his Nobel Prize — John Nash *50. My husband and I looked at each other in amazement and said, “That’s the guy in the purple tennis shoes!”