I occasionally get messages from the English Department at the University of Minnesota, and I wish the last one had been another solicitation rather than this, the obituary of Regents Professor Tom Clayton. There is often some puffery in obits, as the sense is that everyone deserves a good send-off even though most of us are, I guess by definition, in the neighborhood of average. The glowing reports about Clayton are if anything understated. I had him for one class, Classical Epic in Translation (The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid): it was wonderful because of him, he was just a joy to listen to, full of enthusiasm and even more full of knowledge and humor (“wit”). I bet I liked his course more than business majors like counting money. Some of my fellow English majors knew him a lot better than I did, and the way they talked about him, I'm pretty sure they'd have been surprised if he stepped out of a boat and had to swim instead of just walk on the water. Must have been on account of these testimonials that I signed up for "Classical Epic," which otherwise I can't imagine being on my list, and for once I made a good call. Thanks Jongsook, Constance, et al.
I do not remember the earring he's sporting in the obit pic. I used to see him at Gopher basketball games. He was a season-ticketholder for about 50 years. I wonder if he played at Winona High. I know he was a Rhodes Scholar, and one of the attributes they're supposed to possess is "physical vigor," or "athletic interests," or some such phrase as that. (I should know as otherwise I woulda been one myself, ha ha.)
Well, what do you expect: he was 90. One of Augustine's fit and fair.
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