An Inconvenient Fountian

The year I won the Jim Livesay award was the first year for the newly remodeled student union, four years after my father's death. Asked to speak a few words, I decided to try and come up with something funny and sentimental.

"At an event like this, considering the assembled crowd, a lot of you might be wondering what Jim Campbell would think of all this. I think that myself quite often. More than that, though, I think Daddy would probably be asking, 'Why the hell did they spend the money to build a three-story tall water fountain encased in marble?'"

George Harmon never quite forgave me for making fun of his fountain. Four years later, they turned the pumps off forever on the fountain. It seems the architect didn't take into consideration the amount of momentum force falling water builds up after the second story, and by the time it hit the rocks in the fountain below, our falling water was splashing all the way into the bookstore and soiling the inventory. There are plants in it now. Probably a better solution.