R. Bruce Macmurdo

Upon Boat’s arrival that Saturday morning last October, I was immediately exposed to the Louisiana way of easing into a college football game. About five hours before the game, Boat and Connie and Rusty showed up at my front door with vodka in hand, and after a warm but brief greeting in our front hallway, they immediately went to my kitchen to find some ice cubes so that they could start the party. We spent that glorious day together and went to some pre-game tailgate parties and then the football game and then a post-game dinner. Throughout the game, Boat kept an eye on the scoreboard to see how LSU was faring in its SEC match-up that afternoon. We talked about our lives since Yale and getting together on future football weekends each year, one weekend in Ann Arbor and another weekend in Baton Rouge. We were hoping that Michigan and LSU might play each other in a bowl game someday, and it almost happened. But for a late season USC loss last November, LSU and Michigan would have played each other in the 2007 Rose Bowl.

On Sunday of that weekend in Ann Arbor, all of us — Boat, Connie, and Rusty — toured the University of Michigan campus. It was a beautiful fall day, and the leaves were just beginning to change color. Boat and I talked about our Yale classmates, and we mutually observed how many of them had passed away since graduation. Recognizing our fragile hold on earthly life, we vowed to make the most of our friendship over the years to come, and I pledged to visit him in Baton Rouge someday on an LSU football weekend. It was not a question of if, but when. We took several pictures together at various points around the Michigan campus.

Shortly before Boat’s departure that afternoon, I had a spontaneous impulse and asked him to come out to my driveway and take a picture with me at the back end of one of our cars. The car’s Michigan license plate reads “YALE 71.” At the time, we had already taken quite a few pictures, but I thought it would be special to take a picture by the YALE 71 license plate. Boat was very obliging, and I knew it would be a nice way to end Boat’s visit to Ann Arbor. After taking the picture, we hugged, and he drove off with Connie and Rusty to the airport. I remember thinking how much I had enjoyed the weekend with Boat and our reminiscences of Yale and our Yale classmates. I never thought it would be the last time we would ever be together. The YALE 71 picture with Boat will always be one of my treasures.

When I think of Boat, I think of a person who was never too busy to sit and talk with you on any subject. He was never too busy to be your friend. He was genuinely interested in people-their families, their work, their friends, their activities, their passions. He was a good listener, and he put you at ease when you were talking to him. It was so relaxing just to talk to him. He was like a human rocking chair.

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