Four Friends by William D. Cohan

Author:William D. Cohan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books

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FOR HARRY’S SENIOR YEAR AT ANDOVER, he moved to Sunset House, a tiny dorm on the other side of campus from Fuess, run by Gil Sewall. By then, Harry and Sewall had become quite close. That fall, Harry took Sewall’s History of Art survey course (as did I) and excelled in it. “Harry was one of the outstanding students in Art History this fall,” Sewall wrote about him at the end of the first trimester. “He is a splendid young man in every respect.” Harry did well in math, too. “He is serious about his own learning,” George Best wrote, “self-motivated and very competent.” There was more. “It should come to you as no surprise that I consider Harry one of the real standouts in the Senior class at Andover,” Sewall wrote the Bulls, in a letter home. “I have had him as a student now for two years, have been wholly impressed with his performance and invigorating, quick mind, recommended him for the Washington Intern Program last spring, and currently find him the premier resident in Sunset House. Our conversations have been frequent, fascinating and sincere. I have found on several occasions his reactions and fine judgment a good litmus test for my History of Art section. I am even more heartened by Harry’s ability to move in many different groups inside Andover, maintaining cordial relations with all but never becoming absorbed in a clique or particular social viewpoint. Harry is highly independent. He thinks for himself with a brilliant head on his shoulders and his feet ever more firmly implanted in hard ground. It is all this that makes Harry a widely respected character by both students and faculty—a young man with a sensational future indeed.”

But Harry was also still getting high a lot. Marty Koffman remembered going to Harry’s room in Sunset House with Will Iselin and getting stoned. He said Iselin kept spilling the bong water. “Harry was the first Republican teenager I ever met who was seriously Republican,” Koffman said. “Harry was the only guy I knew on campus who wanted Ford to win, which was kind of funny.”

In the spring of 1977, though, something happened to Harry that is still mysterious and difficult to explain. Swett remembered a telling incident in the urban history course he took with Harry in the winter and spring of senior year. The conceit of the class was to study American history by studying the history of her cities. The teacher Ed Quattlebaum took the small class to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to study the old, abandoned textile mills. Lawrence was the next city over from Andover but of course it was a world away from the manicured charm of an old New England town. One day the class was meeting in the Underwood Room, where there was a large projection screen at the front of the room that could be used for slide shows. After Quattlebaum finished his slide presentation, he went around the room asking questions. “There were only about five or six of us in this course,” Swett remembered.

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