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I discovered back in December sometime that there was going to be a conference at the University of Warwick; the subject is a bit before my period, and not my specialty (Roman warfare from Caesar to Heraclius) but the thing that stood out is that the keynote speaker was going to be one J.E. Lendon.
It's been well over ten years since I last saw Professor Lendon -- he left MIT in spring 1997, and I'd last taken a class from him in fall '96. I was a fairly typical science-nerdy student who tended to get Bs in humanities classes, and his were no exception. Just before he left, I somehow found myself with too much time on my hands, so went and sat the exam for his survey course in Roman history (which I'd taken the year before) and handed in an exam book full of hack answers to the questions. I never saw him again, so never got to find out whether he'd enjoyed the read. He also never got to find out that, mostly thanks to his awesome Roman history classes, I got set on the course of events that would eventually take me to Greece and make me fall in love with Byzantine history -- when he was at MIT, I was firmly in the computer science department. Obviously there was no way I was going to skip this conference, even though I figured there was only a 50/50 chance that he'd remember me at all -- if he did, it would probably be more for the hack exam than for anything else.
As it happens, when I got there this morning I didn't even have to open my mouth to introduce myself. I got greeted in such a friendly manner that I thought "huh, someone must have warned him that an old MIT student would be here" but apparently no one had. Watching him give his talk was great. I'd forgotten about the bow tie, and I'd forgotten how much he tends to pace back and forth, but I remembered how...lively he tends to get when he wants to make a point. On the other hand, there was no dramatic entrance like the ones that used to accompany his lectures, and there was very much a sense of a speaker among his professional peers (not surprising of course, but not a context I had ever seen Lendon in before.)
I did get to have a short chat with him over lunch, and to meet his wife, and to get introduced to a few other Roman historians that I'm pleased to have met, and to drag the discussion for one of the papers onto the topic of Byzantine military practice, bwahaha. I did confuse his wife for a while, because she thought I was one of his old students from UVA, and she couldn't figure out why she was unable to remember me.
Prof. Lendon is doing well at UVA, but said all sorts of nice things about MIT students and the things he misses about them. I've now been ordered to keep in touch (which I most certainly will), so that when I'm wildly successful and famous in the field (hah) he can claim to have known me when. I even got a sort of casual-acquaintance hug from him when I left. Not bad for reconnecting with someone who used to mildly terrify me.
It's been well over ten years since I last saw Professor Lendon -- he left MIT in spring 1997, and I'd last taken a class from him in fall '96. I was a fairly typical science-nerdy student who tended to get Bs in humanities classes, and his were no exception. Just before he left, I somehow found myself with too much time on my hands, so went and sat the exam for his survey course in Roman history (which I'd taken the year before) and handed in an exam book full of hack answers to the questions. I never saw him again, so never got to find out whether he'd enjoyed the read. He also never got to find out that, mostly thanks to his awesome Roman history classes, I got set on the course of events that would eventually take me to Greece and make me fall in love with Byzantine history -- when he was at MIT, I was firmly in the computer science department. Obviously there was no way I was going to skip this conference, even though I figured there was only a 50/50 chance that he'd remember me at all -- if he did, it would probably be more for the hack exam than for anything else.
As it happens, when I got there this morning I didn't even have to open my mouth to introduce myself. I got greeted in such a friendly manner that I thought "huh, someone must have warned him that an old MIT student would be here" but apparently no one had. Watching him give his talk was great. I'd forgotten about the bow tie, and I'd forgotten how much he tends to pace back and forth, but I remembered how...lively he tends to get when he wants to make a point. On the other hand, there was no dramatic entrance like the ones that used to accompany his lectures, and there was very much a sense of a speaker among his professional peers (not surprising of course, but not a context I had ever seen Lendon in before.)
I did get to have a short chat with him over lunch, and to meet his wife, and to get introduced to a few other Roman historians that I'm pleased to have met, and to drag the discussion for one of the papers onto the topic of Byzantine military practice, bwahaha. I did confuse his wife for a while, because she thought I was one of his old students from UVA, and she couldn't figure out why she was unable to remember me.
Prof. Lendon is doing well at UVA, but said all sorts of nice things about MIT students and the things he misses about them. I've now been ordered to keep in touch (which I most certainly will), so that when I'm wildly successful and famous in the field (hah) he can claim to have known me when. I even got a sort of casual-acquaintance hug from him when I left. Not bad for reconnecting with someone who used to mildly terrify me.
