Former U.S. Senator William Proxmire turns 90 today. He was the graduation speaker for 1973. The Maverick Wisconsin Democrat was famous for a couple things. First, he like to bestow "The Golden Fleece Award" to parts of government he considered wasteful. No one was safe from his aim, not the military, not left-wing academic researchers, not NASA. Secondly, shortly before he visited TESC, he started getting hair transplants and was quite public about it. This hair thing set him apart as something of an eccentric, which might explain why the students asked him to be the grad speaker.

In addition to speaking at the ceremony, Proxmire was available in one of the lecture halls for a Q&A session. He praised Evergreen's experimental approach. I remember he disappointed us a little on one topic. A student asked him a very simple question, "When is it going to happen?" And we all knew what that meant without any further qualification. When was Nixon going to be removed? Proxmire sort of smiled and went into a long explanation why the impeachment process should be avoided if possible. Of course, this was only a month before the existence of the Watergate tapes became known. And Spiro Agnew was still the Veep-- the thought of President Agnew seemed even worse than Nixon.

Today Sen. Proxmire is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and is seldom mentioned, which is a shame. Happy birthday, Senator.