Letters – Fall 2016
Paul Danish's summer issue column about how the UMC grill came to be named after Colorado cannibal Alferd Packer (above) elicited a proposal and a question. Danish responds.
Packer Grill
Longmont, Colo.
Columnist Paul Danishresponds: I don’t rememberthe grill being calledthe Packer Grill informallybefore ’68, but it is certainlypossible someonewas doing it. When theUMC opened in 1954,it was referred to as theIndian Grill. When thespace was expanded andremodeled in 1964, thename was changed to theRoaring Fork. It kept thatname until it was formallyre-branded after Packerin 1968.
Music at Folsom
As one of the head equipment managers for 鶹Ѱfootball, I had the assignment of being inside the team house during the 1977 [Fleetwood Mac] concert. Somehow I interacted with the stage hands.They needed or wantedsomething and I was ableto solve their problem. Theyinvited me to ‘come out’ andeat lunch with them. Wewent to the west side of thebuilding after I locked upand sat at tables with someother people. Everyonetalked and laughed andhad a good time. Behind usout in the stadium the nextact was performing. Whenlunch was over and we allstood up to return to our duties,only then did I realize Iwas lunching with the stageguys and the members ofFleetwood Mac!
Doug Adams (Ѱٲ’78)
Skaneateles, N.Y.
I must confess, I lovedyour article [“Returnof the Dead,” Summer2016]. You all rock!
The year that The Whoplayed [1982], I snuckback stage to captureboth Pete Townshend’sand John Entwistle’ssignatures! I made afake badge, got throughsecurity and hung out formost of the show back inthe concrete locker roomarea with the band support(trying to look like I wassupposed to be there).
When The Who camebackstage for a break, Ihad to reveal my unauthorizedpresence to askfor autographs, got twoin the food area and waskicked out before gettingRoger Daltrey’s. The restof the show was great fromoutside the stadium.
James F. Dawson(ArchEngr’82)
New York
Editor’s note:The Who played FolsomField twice, in October1982 and August 1989.
Luckiest Guy
I just went through yoursummer issue and wantedto mail you to say how muchI love your magazines.
I graduated 鶹Ѱin 1976as a grad student in architecture.I had just gottenmarried in New Hampshire,and my wife Kathy and Ileft for what she called ourthree-year honeymoon inColorado. They truly werethe best years of our lives.
My undergraduateschool was Boston College.I always tell people thatI am the luckiest guy inthe world to have gone totwo of the most beautifulcolleges on the planet. Wetailgate at the BC footballgames, and there’s thisrecent 鶹Ѱgrad who showsup every once in a whileand we debate about whichcampus is prettier and healways tells me that BCdoesn’t have the mountains.We do have ChestnutHill, I say. I guess he wins.
Anyway, they are bothgorgeous. Go Buffs.
Gary Meehan(MArch’76)
Goffstown, N.H.
Communicators of Yore
Congratulations to Dr. LoriBergen on her role as foundingdean of the new Collegeof Media, Communicationand Information and to EricGershon for his outstandinginterview [“Inquiry,” Summer2016]. I was privilegedto earn an M.A. in communicationwhen Dr. Thorrel Festwas chair of the department.He was a pioneer in communicationcourses at NORADand a personal friend of VicePresident Hubert Humphrey.Other outstandingprofessors at that time were:Drs. Martin Cobin, WayneBrockreide, Don Darnell andMargaret Robb.
I enjoyed doing asabbatical in the late ’60sand again in 1981. At thattime Dr. George Matterwas chairperson and wewere both from Salem HighSchool in Salem, Ore. Hewas an outstanding debater,and we both (now in ourearly ’80s) played on thehigh school football team.
Marvin L. Langeland(MComm’70)
Salem, Ore.
Photo courtesy University Memorial Center