Paul Tryon (not verified)

Forty-Five Years of Friendship

Carl and I were roommates as undergraduates in Mexico City in the 1960s, and all in our group of “language junkies” knew he was the most likely to pursue a career in some area of language study. His passions then were chess, opera and Latin (Professor Bolaño e Isla called him "el latinista"). There were discussions long into many nights as we fretted over some unattested etymology, should this or that word bear a written accent, or how we might contrive new ways to belabor the use of the moribund Spanish future subjunctive. We all got good and tipsy the day we learned Menéndez Pidal had died. And there were the bookstores, the Bar Chapultepec, and the neighbors’ cringing as Di Stefano’s and Corelli’s notes challenged the integrity of the walls.

Teacher, inspiration, dear friend: We are all the richer because you stood among us.

Paul Tryon