Correspondence course

I greatly appreciated Brian Doyle’s essay on Francis Sweeney, SJ (”A Paper Life,” Fall 2006). In 1958–59, I had the benefit of being in his rhetoric class, where he endeavored not only to teach good writing but to civilize a gaggle of young men who were largely from around Boston and who’d had little exposure to fine writing and the arts. I treasured the opportunity to meet with Robert Frost and other men and women of letters he brought to campus. I would guess that somewhere in the files that Mr. Doyle researched there are letters from former students through the years, mine included.

Robert W. Magner ’62
Arlington, Virginia

In my senior year, I had a work-study job as Francis Sweeney’s assistant in the Humanities Series office. He would dictate breezy letters to Susan Sontag or Alec Guinness, and I would take them down in longhand. While Francis made a few phone calls, I typed them on the IBM Selectric. When he reviewed my work, every “tsk” denoted another typographical error.

Francis usually arrived at the office late in the morning. With nothing much to do beforehand, I read the old correspondence files, the same ones that were the subject of Brian Doyle’s recent article. I felt like an archaeologist uncovering Tutankhamen’s tomb.

Jack J. Crowe ’82
Oak Park, Illinois

I was recently cleaning out my attic and came upon my dog-eared paperback copy of The Immortal Poems of the English Language, from freshman English. After 40 years, I can still recall substantial portions of some of the poems Fr. Sweeney required us to analyze and memorize (“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. . . .”). I thought it a waste of time, but came to realize not too many years afterward that exposure to them was a valuable gift. I remember Sweeney, when faced with a student who was not prepared, dramatically raising a hand to his brow and admonishing, “If I had my health, I’d flog you.” Classic Sweeney.

Tom Falwell ’68
Arlington, Massachusetts

As one of Fr. Sweeney’s many assistants over the years, I had the pleasure also of delving through his files. I am not tall and the piles in his room were not short.

Since Fr. Sweeney’s death my memories of him have been blocked by two of my final visits with him. In one instance, I went to see him early in his stay at the hospital. He tried to maintain his poise, but shortly into the visit he became upset, asked me to leave, and said I should not have come. It was difficult to see him not well. I visited him once or twice after this at Campion Center, the Jesuits’ retirement home, never staying long. On the last visit, I helped him write a letter, in my own longhand. Working on it revived the comfortable back-and-forth we had when I was in his employ at St. Mary’s Hall. As I was leaving, Fr. Sweeney called to me from across the room. I stopped in the doorway and turned. “I am proud of you, Colin,” he said.

Fr. Sweeney died several weeks later. Since then, my memories have toggled between his grandfatherly praise, given at Campion, and his upset state, in the hospital. Mr. Doyle’s article has cut this loop and brought back how much I enjoyed the excitement of searching through his correspondence, finding letters from the names mentioned in the article, and wondering what other letters lay beneath the next layer of paper. Fr. Sweeney’s friendship colored my experience at Boston College with a cloth of gold.

J. Colin Sullivan ’96
Charlestown, Massachusetts

I got to know Fr. Francis Sweeney by cataloguing and inventorying his papers as an archivist in the Burns Library. There is something a bit eerie in seeing a person’s life captured in neatly indexed and archived folders.

After processing the Humanities Series papers, I shelved those gray boxes in the stacks, and I remember an odd sort of feeling seeing all 65 of them there. It was like visiting a cemetery where the intellectual life of an individual is laid to rest. I have processed papers of other faculty members, but it never felt quite the same as working with Fr. Sweeney’s papers. The individual letters are so full of life and color, they seem to want to be read and researched.

Edward Copenhagen
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mr. Copenhagen was an assistant archivist at Boston College from 1999 to 2006.

Laugh therapy

I was delighted to see Paul Lewis’s “No Kidding” (Fall 2006), on the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. It brought back delightful memories of training with humor therapist Loretta Laroche in 1993 at Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Institute. My humor therapy book, The Dis-Appointment Book: A Humor Therapy Guide to Conquering Disappointments, was published in 2006.

Amy Shapiro, M.Ed. ’77
Gloucester, Massachusetts

Both sides

Alan Wolfe’s call for a “civilizing politics” (”A Moderate Proposal,” Fall 2006) would have carried more weight if it weren’t so obvious that he wants conservatives to get more moderate, but sees no need for liberals to do so.

Mr. Wolfe refers to conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I listen to Limbaugh and I read Coulter. Coulter in particular can definitely get bombastic. But why is there no complaint from Wolfe about the extremist voices that come from the left?

Michael W. Lyons, MBA/JD ’82
Norwalk, Connecticut

Alan Wolfe’s essay should be required reading for the newly elected and reelected members of the U.S. Congress, governors, mayors, selectmen, members of city and town councils, and every registered voter. His comment that “moderation in politics makes progress possible” is the nub. The near-complete lack of communication between Republicans and Democrats in recent years has fostered a terrible cynicism among ordinary American citizens.

It is up to Americans to break their shells of political cynicism, pay more attention to the way elections are held, and start a democracy protection movement.

Thomas H. Alton ’80
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Southern exposure

The Works and Days article “The Wrangler” (Fall 2006) tells about South Park producer Anne Garefino ’81. A South Park episode lumped all priests as homosexually active fools, while the pope slept. The program has been unbelievably vulgar.

Rev. John M. Toomey
Medford, Massachusetts

Land plans

Re Ben Birnbaum’s article “Tomorrowland” (Fall 2006): Open green space can be the life of a university—space to walk through, to sit in the sun and relax or read a book or study. Please do not encroach on the Dustbowl by enclosing it with buildings. The Dustbowl is a landmark, and one of the very few open green space areas on campus.

No question, the proposed expansion plans for Boston College are great. But why not move a few of the proposed buildings across Commonwealth Avenue to the new campus?

Joseph P. Keating ’36
Natick, Massachusetts

I’m a lifelong Brighton resident and old enough to remember seeing national- and world-class track and field at Boston College, in particular the BC Relays. Perhaps my question is trivial in the larger scope of things, but where is the new 400-meter track promised when Alumni Stadium was renovated?

John Ellis ’06
Boston, Massachusetts

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