The passing of Bill Selden ’34 (From the Editor, Oct. 21) chopped into my daily routine and prompted my first letter to PAW. As the son of a professor/dean of the graduate school at Northwestern University, more than once I opened our door and took coats from Selden and his wife. Later, on such occasions, I would offer him a cocktail — the standard libation for faculty in the early 1950s. With some sternness and perhaps a twinkle for this teenager, he would reply unfailingly, “No, thank you, I don’t need one.”
A few years later on campus, at a party at my new eating club, I dashed the Selden dictum — but groggily heard it next morning. More than a half-century later, his remarkable longevity, productivity, and fidelity to Princeton (noted months ago in PAW) respectfully remind this alum of Bill Selden’s steady declaration.