PORTRAIT

A score and more of years he patiently
Invited, taught, inspired, and watched his school
From scattered rooms enact a miracle
And become a respected university.

Death was unexpected. Colleagues and friends
Were shocked and grieved, and for memorial hung
His portrait: smiling, squinting into the sun,
Human, faithful, warm, where the lobby ends.

Two more score of years, and his son returns–
More buildings, remodeling, more prestige, more size.
He wanders the corridors, searches the libraries–
The portrait’s vanished, the faculty unconcerned.

Now Harry exists in errant memories
And vagrant skills in recycled syntheses.

(37, July 27, l992)

Comments

I think this concerns my Dad’s father Henry Bissel Alvord. He was a professor of civil engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He died in 1939. I found a letter from Theodore Roosevelt to him.

I suspect his nickname was Harry.

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