Credits:

The author thanks Alice Vernon, his wife, and Rebecca V. Bostick, his sister, for their assistance in turning his ramblings into something that many have said is actually quite readable.

He gives thanks also to Alice, Mark Barron, Peter and Susan Staecker, Herb Herrmann and Hilda Buss for contributing pictures for the Epilogue, all of those pictures in which the author himself appears.

About the Author:

Bob Vernon was a product of the public schools in Lynchburg, VA, and West Palm Beach, FL, entering MIT in September 1959. According to his own recollection, he was completely naïve about the academic rigors of MIT and, as cited in the memoir, knew not the first thing about the sport of rowing.

He looks at his years at MIT as the period in his life in which he “grew up.” He credits his eventual academic accomplishments to the faculty at MIT and his social development to his colleagues in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Most importantly—an underlying theme of A Henley Memoir—he credits his coach and teammates on MIT’s Lightweight Rowing Team for helping him develop qualities of leadership, commitment and perseverance.

Bob was varsity coxswain of the Lightweight Crew during his last two undergraduate years at MIT and Crew Captain his senior year. He was also elected Senior Class President by the student body. At graduation in 1963, Bob received the Admiral Edward L. Cochran Award, presented by MIT “to a fourth-year student in the intercollegiate athletic program, for outstanding qualities of Humility, Leadership and Scholarship.” He is questioning the humility part as he types up these notes.