Osler's Razor

Until law school, I don't think I had met any Mormons. Roger was the first, perhaps-- straight from undergrad at Brigham Young University. He had an intellect you had to respect, was funny and kind, but I didn't know quite what to make of the Mormonism. I remember once during first year, Jon Nuechterlein and I sat on either side of Roger. As we went into class, we resolved not to discuss any of the details of what had been a fairly raucous weekend over Roger's head, in deference to what we imagined might be his sensitivities. We sat down, said nothing, and then Jon offered to get me some coffee. Snap!

In third year, I got to know Roger much better as we shared duties as teaching assistants, teaching first years legal writing. He was a great partner: hard-working, smart, funny, and a natural teacher. I really enjoyed it.

After law school, I lost touch with Roger. It was kind of a shock (when I tracked him down a decade later) to find that he had become the Director of the LGBT Project for the ACLU of Illinois-- a great, important and worthwhile job.

After that, he has had some other important jobs--law firm partner, general counsel for a university, singing as a member of the Vancouver Mens Chorus--but it is clear that what he has mostly been about is parenting. All of this is well-documented in his blog, which is a great read-- Roger is and always has been an evocative writer, with the rare quality of being both vulnerable and authoritative. His kids are lucky indeed!

Roger lives in a place I know: Bellingham, Washington, the town where my grandparents lived and where I spent a summer working in the pea fields around town. I've got a very good reason to get back there; of all the people I went to school with, Roger is one of the folks I most want to catch up with.