Gentleman and a Scholar

I was very pleased to see the Princeton Portrait that featured my late classmate, Robert Francis (“Bob”) Engs. I knew Bob pleasantly but not as well as I would have liked.

I was not surprised to learn that Bob did not like being regarded as the representative of a racial minority. Bob was a gentleman and a scholar, and he was fully entitled to be viewed as the able and unique individual that he was and not as a specimen of a particular ethnic group.

Bob’s views about race provide an interesting contrast to those of President Eisgruber, who apparently desires to have all applicants for admission to Princeton sorted into various racial groups, to be favored or disfavored on that basis.