A man I worked with at MIT’s college radio station¹ wrote to me recently. He mentioned he was now an MIT professor. I shared my stories of MIT Kindness, to encourage him to show the same kindness to his students.

Listing these stories made me realize that kindness and empathy produced my degree. Thanksgiving isn’t the only time for giving thanks. I try to do it every day. I am thankful for these generous people who made my degree possible:² Yes, these are repeats, which doesn’t reduce their wonderful grace.

• * The T.A. whose pity pass for second term calculus ³allowed me to meet graduation requirements. If only I could find and thank her.
• * Prof. Will Watson and the faculty of the Sloan School.  Watson’s “pass” when I had earned an incomplete, gave me the units required⁴ for graduation. Since 1974 I thought the granting of my degree was a close-run thing. Recently, I have been asked to consider that Dean Pounds was pulling my leg.
• * Prof. Anthony Sinskey ⁵ who told me I was in the Twilight of a Mediocre Academic Career. He was right, and he thus helped me choose my life path.
  
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  Footnotes

1. 1. Then WTBS, now WMBR. ↩︎
2. 2. I played a small role. ↩︎
3. 3. 18.02 ↩︎
4. 4. 360. MIT doesn’t do hours, but units, which account for homework and lab time as well as class time ↩︎
5. 5. My freshman advisor ↩︎