Friday bored
In this quarters "News from Hope College" magazine, Spring 2026 or Volumne 57 No 3. Way in the back on page 45 at the top is a picture of a bunch of young students running in front of the Capital in Washington. The caption mentions Hope graduate Lee Bechtel '77, the photo is celebrating Hope's 50th year of the Washington Honors Semester (something I was very very far from).
I mention this only because I got a call this afternoon from my uncle who some present and past posters have met. He worked in admissions at Hope for not much more than a year or two in the very early 70's. It might have even been Ray Smith's first year as the head football coach. He was with the group I'd call the 'old guard' of Hope College many of their names grace various facilities. Bultman, Smith, Van Wieren, Bob DeYoung etc. He left Hope and took a job in admissions at Michigan State which is where he stayed for the rest of career and where he met Bob DeYoung, who later returned to Hope. He remained in close contact with those folks for decades. He mentioned more than once over the years had Hope had today's facilities then he would have stayed and that lack of campus facilities was the primary reason he left. It worked out ok, he did some cool things at MSU.
So the phone call.....
He calls me today and points out this picture, but not for Lee Bechtel. No, he points out the senator smile looking man right in front. That man is former Indianapolis Mayor and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana.
Why was this important to my uncle. Well my uncle was a classmate of Mr Lugar at Denison University in the 50's, and as he goes on in his story, Lugar was one of two students (both Freshman btw) selected by the University to debate a couple traveling students from Oxford University in England. What about, he can't remember but he's sure the two Denison students won the debate. Mr. Lugar went on to study at Oxford Universtiy and later entered politics serving almost 40 yeas in the US Senate.
This whole interaction is an improvement for my Uncle as it wasn't to long ago I would have received a letter in the mail containing a cutout of the photo and a hand written note describing everything above.
He lives 8 miles away.
Cool Story bro!
As a bonus I forgot I did receive a newspaper cutout article not even 3 weeks ago from my uncle about the new MSU football coach. It was an article printed in the Chicago paper about the scandal at NW and his redemption.
and bonus........ it was sent to my uncle by his former colleague in Evanston.
Bonus, Bonus. They actually sent the exact same article to each other at the same time.
In this quarters "News from Hope College" magazine, Spring 2026 or Volumne 57 No 3. Way in the back on page 45 at the top is a picture of a bunch of young students running in front of the Capital in Washington. The caption mentions Hope graduate Lee Bechtel '77, the photo is celebrating Hope's 50th year of the Washington Honors Semester (something I was very very far from).
I mention this only because I got a call this afternoon from my uncle who some present and past posters have met. He worked in admissions at Hope for not much more than a year or two in the very early 70's. It might have even been Ray Smith's first year as the head football coach. He was with the group I'd call the 'old guard' of Hope College many of their names grace various facilities. Bultman, Smith, Van Wieren, Bob DeYoung etc. He left Hope and took a job in admissions at Michigan State which is where he stayed for the rest of career and where he met Bob DeYoung, who later returned to Hope. He remained in close contact with those folks for decades. He mentioned more than once over the years had Hope had today's facilities then he would have stayed and that lack of campus facilities was the primary reason he left. It worked out ok, he did some cool things at MSU.
So the phone call.....
He calls me today and points out this picture, but not for Lee Bechtel. No, he points out the senator smile looking man right in front. That man is former Indianapolis Mayor and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana.
Why was this important to my uncle. Well my uncle was a classmate of Mr Lugar at Denison University in the 50's, and as he goes on in his story, Lugar was one of two students (both Freshman btw) selected by the University to debate a couple traveling students from Oxford University in England. What about, he can't remember but he's sure the two Denison students won the debate. Mr. Lugar went on to study at Oxford Universtiy and later entered politics serving almost 40 yeas in the US Senate.
This whole interaction is an improvement for my Uncle as it wasn't to long ago I would have received a letter in the mail containing a cutout of the photo and a hand written note describing everything above.
He lives 8 miles away.
Cool Story bro!
As a bonus I forgot I did receive a newspaper cutout article not even 3 weeks ago from my uncle about the new MSU football coach. It was an article printed in the Chicago paper about the scandal at NW and his redemption.
and bonus........ it was sent to my uncle by his former colleague in Evanston.
Bonus, Bonus. They actually sent the exact same article to each other at the same time.
Both JCU/Grinnell want to turn you over a bunch, Grinnell will take more 3's and try to get to the foul line. 30 FT attempts pg for Grinnell. JCU pressures you and runs a quick shot offense for lack of better wording.