belief me, you can be glad you didn't go to rpi in the 1850s. i read his love letters, i read his words in praise of his beloved old dog, billy sunday. i traveled to the pretty little town in western pennsylvania where washington i grew up and which remains, astonishingly, pretty much as it was when john roebling built it in the 1830s. i walked across the ohio river and on the battlefield at gettysburg. i went to cold springs cemetery where washington and emily are buried. on her gravestone he had three words inscribed, "gifted, noble, true." it has been a wonderful journey. i have built my own bridge, i hope, from the past to the present day. has been my companion for three decades because i am inspired by his tenacity, by the strength of his spirit. if a problem was put in front of him, he would not rest until it was solved. his life was, in many ways, a privileged one, but it was also one marked by brutality and scarred by wars of more than one kind. nevertheless, he persisted always. when i have felt discouraged, he has given me courage. whe