Friends recall Howard Dean’s intensity, worldly ways

[pruner]

Mary E. O’Leary
Register Topics Editor
10/12/2003


NEW HAVEN — Howard Dean came to Yale a year older than most of his colleagues, a little more worldly, better traveled and just generally ahead of the curve.

<snip>

Classmates, contacted across the country, remember his stamina and the intensity he brought to those late night bull sessions on Old Campus during freshman year and later at Pierson.

<snip>

"He was political, but he certainly wasn’t thinking about being a political office holder, let alone a president," said roommate Ralph Dawson, 54, a lawyer with Fulbright and Jaworski in New York.

While the Oval Office wasn’t on his radar screen, Brooks, as the Pierson master, said Dean always had leadership qualities.

<snip>

One of the other things that made Dean stand out was his request freshmen year to room with African Americans.

Dawson was one of those roommates.

"That was not something I knew at the time," Dawson said. "I think that it’s good that he did that. I learned a lot from him, and I think he might have learned a thing or two from me." He said Dean was never a "patronizer. If you happen to be a person of color, you don’t feel that he is dealing with you in any special kid gloves kind of way," Dawson said.

<snip>

http://www.newhavenregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10306602&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=6

[goldilox369]

1. I Love Howard Dean...

and now that i know all that stuff i love him more. he's just a good guy. i hope everyone sees that.

[newsjunkie]

2. I love him too!

He has given me new hope that we still have people brave and qualified enough to drag us out of this mess Bush has mired us in. He would be a great president OR VP.

[DrFunkenstein]

3. That Sho Nuff Beats Joining The Civil Rights Movement

Or the anitwar movement, or basically anything other than some good skiing.

Although Howard was right in the middle of one of the most turbulent times in American history, he chose to sit on his principles. Or rather ski down them.

[Jim Sagle]

4. That post wuzn't nuthin' but shit.

[Closer]

7. It's from

a Kerry supporter.

Would you expect anything less?

[Jim Sagle]

10. I don't think all Kerry supporters are like that. I used to be one.

If Dean tanked, I'd be one again.

But Dean won't tank.

[Eloriel]

5. Yeah, he chose to go skiing

after the Army doctors REJECTED HIM at his induction physical. Gave him 1Y status.

And you know it.

Eloriel

[AP]

11. He could have done a lot of things besides going skiing...

And I like the message it sends to the kids too. You want to be President? Here's how you do it: Bull sesions all night long at Yale...1Y status...skiing in Colarado...then high paying Wall St job, thanks to dad...don't like that? Reinvent yourself again...Columbia for 10 credits of science courses you didn't get at Yale...Medical school...carpet bag off to Vermont...that isn't doing it for you?...reinvent yourself again...

What IS the motto of that life story?

[dkf]

14. This is the story of someone who found purpose in life.

This is someone who has always treated others well, who does not judge people based on their race, or their background, or their income, or their class. This is someone who is interested in people, who deliberately asked to room with someone not like himself so that he could get to know other people.

It's about someone who is fun and full of life and energy and guts.

You probably think the only thing worth doing during that time was going to fight in Vietnam.

I think that it is so much more affirming that my candidate landed up saving lives instead of killing Vietnamese adults and children who were basically fighting for their right to rule themselves.

I find it even more impressive that he decided he needed to help more people than he could reach as a doctor.

This man is driven by a need to improve everything around him. He doesn't suffer fools gladly and he has high expectations of people. That is why his favorite line is "we can do better than that".

[polpilot]

16. Good genuine post. The above Kerry backers prefer pro-war Bush

backing Kerry and are VERY impreseed by politicians' public pontificating of which Kamo Kerry is King!!

Dean '04...The New Democratic Leader of The NEW Democratic Party.

[artr2]

6. Bye Dr,

you just made my ignore list

[KaraokeKarlton]

8. Sure, every blue blood rich white kid in the late 60's

REQUESTED to have black roommates. Some people choose to protest and complain about what's wrong with things. Others choose to actively do something to change the status quo. Dean is one of the others. Rather than get involved in protesting, Dean chose to volunteer to tutor poor kids from the projects and wanted to room with blacks because he respects and values diversity. He wanted to be part of the solution to the problem, not just another person who talked about the problem.

How would Dean's blue blood peers react to him sharing a room with black kids? This shows just how Dean's upbringing is irrelevent to the kind of human being he is. He may have been born into money, but he's as down to earth as a person can get.

[AP]

13. Does anyone think it's weird that he told Yale to give him black

...kids for roommates?

It's great that he did. But, I still think it's weird. I'm reluctant to criticize Dean about this, because there's probably an innocent version of the story.

Like, if you heard from someone you knew that Yale had a policy of grouping black students together, I could understand a white student calling up Housing and telling them that he'd like to get in on that. At the other extreme, however, is the presumptuosness of rich, white kid telling Yale to help him engage in a little social experiment.

Ok, Ok, I'm sure the truth is at the innocent end of the spectrum, but I can't shake the weird feeling.

[brook]

15. I don't think it's weird.

In high school, I informed my parents that I was opting out of Catholic school. It was in my best interest. Social isolation isn't healthy. It creates dittoheads and their ilk.

[Rose Siding]

9. What a great anecdote this is!

Snip>
During their time at Yale, the college had a good football team, although the quarterback in their senior year was shaky.

At one game he overshot a wide open receiver by about 10 yards, and while everyone else just groaned, Willing said Dean stood up and pointed to the guy from atop the bleachers. "That’s inexcusable," he declared.

"It just struck me as such an endearing and extremely blue chip kind of thing to say — and indeed, it was inexcusable," Willing said.

[gully]

12. Thanks, Great Story...

"At one game he overshot a wide open receiver by about 10 yards, and while everyone else just groaned, Willing said Dean stood up and pointed to the guy from atop the bleachers. "That’s inexcusable," he declared." ;) Sounds like Dean ... he he.