Letter From Ricky Brewster to Eleanor Snell

Authors

Ruth G. Bauser, Ursinus College

Files

Description

This letter from Ruth "Ricky" Bauser, Ursinus College Class of 1956, congratulates Eleanor Snell on the occasion of her retirement from Ursinus College and remarks on Eleanor's patience and compassion.

Publication Date

1970

Language

English

Keywords

Eleanor Snell, Ursinus College, retirement, Gary Brewster, Ricky Bauser

Disciplines

Health and Physical Education | Higher Education | Sports Studies

Recommended Citation

Bauser, Ruth G., "Letter From Ricky Brewster to Eleanor Snell" (1970). Eleanor Frost Snell Programs, Correspondence and Other Documents. 61.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/snell_docs/61

Transcription

[Dear Eleanor,]

[I intended to sit down at the typewriter and make this a neat and orderly letter. It's faster, easier, neater, and all spelling errors could be blamed on errant fingers. But being a personal, heart-felt letter, long hand seemed the only answer. So, errors be damned, it's what's said - not how neat or how grammatically correct - that counts.]

[Testimonial dinners are wonderful. They're fun to attend - they're a tangible way of paying tribute and saying "thanks" to a fine person. But after the wee hours of the morning the last of the revelers is poured out the door and, normally, the testimony is over.]

[Not so with you, Eleanor! We who were so finely guided and intelligently nurtured by your wisdom and philosophy do not leave our final thanks at the door. Many of us have had our values and ideas molded - though in a very subtle way - by your many hours of patient guidance. Because of your interest, and, yes, compassion - many of us have found a way of life that does not end with the last goal scored or run batted in on the U.C. campus.]

[Fourteen years have gone by since the last time you should have had any effect on my life. But the things I learned in those formidable and vulnerable years have been, and always will be the basis of my life's pattern. Because this is so, there is just as strong an influence on the life of our three sons as there has been on my own.]

[Therefore the true testimony to you, Eleanor, will not be 500 people at a dinner. Rather it will be the 5,000 or 50,000 people whose lives you've touched. And by touching have eased, enlightened or improved.]

[Personally, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.]

[Fondly,]

[Ricky Brewster '56]