Grad School in Ann Arbor

I returned to Ann Arbor in the early 1980’s to get my Ph.D. in neuroscience. I had left as a 13 year old, when my parents–academics, departed the University of Michigan for Caltech. One of my first memories of my return was being able to demonstrate the savante-like skill of being able, on cue, to point the direction to some landmark (like for example Burton Tower) without actually remembering either quite what the landmark was, nor really any distinct street directions. This was quite entertaining for the locals.

My memories of grad school range from the quiet pleasures of studying in Rackham (at the time, in a state of slow neglect) to trudging through the slush from my house on White Street up to the (now demolished) Neuroscience Laboratory Building to finish an experiment in the “wee hours of the morning” (to quote Sinatra). But there was always the fecund explosion in the Nicholas arboretum of Spring counterpointed by the crisp Fall football Saturdays.

The day I defended my dissertation, my sister came to town. She was living in Cambridge Massachusetts and after the excitement, we reminisced about growing up in Ann Arbor–especially at the historical time when Tom Hayden was starting the SDS and Kennedy announced the Peace Corps from the local train station.

Now her son is about to graduate himself from UofM’s School of Public Policy. And I can’t help but see a cycle that will continue for future generations from our family.