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In the fall of 1959, John and I were only two of a rather large group of Notre Dame friends and acquaintances who commenced graduate studies at the University of Chicago, John in English, of course, and I in pursuit of my M.B.A. By and large, however, I don't have as clear a memory of life here as I did about Notre Dame. Perhaps one of the chief reasons for this was that my parents lived in the western Chicago suburb of Oak Park, and I usually went home over the weekend. Also pertinent is the fact that I was good and sick of going to school in general by the end of my time there. I can testify that Bellairs had to work his tail off during the two years we were both on campus, and he didn't participate in any formal extra-curricular activities during that time.
The only other story I have to tell about John's University of Chicago years doesn't concern John at all, but one of his professors, one of the heavy hitters in the English Department at the time (I wish I could remember his name, but I can't). The story is too good to die with me, but its only relationship to John is that the professor had recovered sufficiently from the experience to tell it to his class, and John had passed it on with relish to me. Many years previously, the professor, then a young instructor at the University, was invited to a luncheon that was also attended by the mother of the notorious Nathan Leopold, who was one of the participants in the famous Leopold and Loeb thrill murder of Bobby Franks in the 1920s. Their murder trial of course was the last case defended by Clarence Darrow and was the subject of the book and movie Compulsion. Even after the murder the Leopolds continued to be major benefactors of the University. Needless to say, the murder case was a taboo subject with Mrs. Leopold. The professor was well aware of this, but he noticed that throughout the luncheon, Mrs. Leopold became progressive colder and finally quite frigid toward him. The professor was rather upset by this and later asked a friend why this might be. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that throughout the luncheon you addressed her as Mrs. Loeb!" replied the friend.
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