Preparing to write numerous pieces for the digital magazine means I have quite a few interviews to conduct — so, for a person with terrible penmanship and sketchy fast-typing accuracy, making audio recordings of my longer interviews allows me to capture the conversations and engage fully with my interview subjects.

Typically, once I transcribe what I need from the interview, I delete it from my cell phone. But there are a number of them that I keep — usually always for sentimental value. During this round of writing/interviewing, I did a quick scan of the dates of the recordings. One of them happened on the morning of July 15, 2021, when I called Dr. Les Anderson ’55, Emeritus Professor of Physics, to talk about his longtime friend and colleague, Dr. Whit Hancock, who had passed away the day before (though we would find that out a couple of hours after we talked).

For me, Les was the keeper of Marietta College’s history. Sure, I’ve read the history books, but Les knew the people, their personalities and tendencies, and often-forgotten small things that get overshadowed by fast-moving trends. Les was a student at Marietta College, as well as a student of Marietta College history. He impacted so many students with his eloquent lectures, and also mentored many more with his patience and strong reasoning skills.

Early on in my MC career, Les would walk with me around campus and point out things that most wouldn’t know or care to remember, such as Theodore Bennett locking his classroom door at exactly 8:00 a.m., but clever students scaling the Andrews fire escape to enter the lecture via the open window. He was more than a brilliant mind; he was someone who truly cared about the people in the Marietta College community and the quality of education Marietta provided.

My last conversation with Les was about his latest project: learning and charting his ancestry. Like most people, he was isolated because of the pandemic, but he was also reaching into his family history and creating a record for current and future generations to learn from. He shared some of his interesting discoveries with me that morning and was excited at the prospect of learning more. Typical Les.

Sadly, I didn’t get another conversation with him to learn about his progress. He passed away over the summer — just shy of his 90^th birthday. The Office of Alumni Engagement is planning a special event to honor Les during Homecoming. The event will take place in the Anderson Hancock Planetarium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 21. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating Les’ life and contributions to Marietta.