The Frost Identities
Back in March we published an archival photograph of Robert Frost, c. 1948, meeting with 13 undergraduates in Baker Library. Our request for help in identifying the students has had over 25 responses some from people in the photo and some from friends, faculty, or family. In one case three people claimed to be one guy! We even got two different IDs for Russ Blackwood '49, whose identity was never in doubt.
Some of our correspondents also reminisced about attending the Frost seminars. Fritz Schmidt '45 wrote about his friendship with the poet, developed over doughnuts and cider, and highlighted by Frost's gift to the young collector of three inscribed first editions. Ralph Nash '50 described the wide-ranging nature of the meetings with Frost, "a complete iconoclast with no reverence for anyone or any institution a truly free spirit ..."
Alan Grant '43 found Frost "a fascinating individual whose wit, humor, and poetry readings were highlights in my post-WW II undergraduate days." Neil McMahon '52 recalls Frost as "natural and warm, the theatricality of his public performances absent." Norm Weissman '46 claims that as the photo was being taken Frost "was singing 'My Father was the Keeper of the Eddystone Light,' followed by several of his gently bawdy and unpublished poems of which he was quite proud." Chet Palmer '49 remembers Frost's "deep, raw bass," his readings of his masques, the one-on-one sessions in which students were asked to present something they had written and, Frost's dog, a large one that would lie by his master's chair.
Following the numbers in the key, with self-identifications indicated byitalics, here are the nominations matching names to faces:
1. Philip Charron '50 Dick Davidson '50 Fred Frassinelli '47 Richard N. McKee '50 Chet Palmer '49
2. Leonard Frey '49
3. Alan Grant 43 Clark Judge '46 Cornelius McMahon '52Ralph Clarke Nash Jr. '50 Gil Shattuck '48
4. John Krick '50 Fritz Schmidt '45
5. Paul Barnico '49 Woody Klein '51 Gordon Winkler '48
6. Connie Carstens '52 Jim Winter '47
7. Roland Becker '49 Russ Blackwood '49 Jack Martin '49, '50, '52
8. Paul Deneke '49 John Meehan '50 Norman Weissman 46
9. Foxy Parker '48
10. Dave Raynolds '49
11. Kenneth Hurd '46
12. Phil Chamberlin '50 Bob Fitch '49 Mike Payson '54
13. "Smitty" Smith '??
