I'm pretty sure this memory is real and not the result of a dream. On one night, probably during Fall quarter 1974, many of us waited around the circle at Dorm A for the arrival of Elliot Richardson.

Richardson was, of course, the former U.S. Attorney General who had been fired the year before by President Nixon as part of the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," yet another sorry episode in Nixon's desperate flailing to cover his guilt in the Watergate scandal. As a result, Richardson was one of the few members of the Nixon administration to emerge as a hero to the general public.

Why Richardson was supposed to be on campus in the first place was never explained. And why he was supposed to be visiting the circle at Dorm A is equally baffling. I think it allegedly was connected to a visit with Gov. Evans. But in any event a lot of us were hanging around the circle. I think it was an En attendant Godot situation.

And to add another layer of folklore to this, supposedly Richardson did show up, but it was in the wee hours of the morning.