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Editor's note: This page contains letters that weren't published in the print version of the magazine or were cut for space. Praise for Prof. Bacon Your March/April Issue of Stanford caught my eye and interest immediately with its picture of Dr. Harold Bacon and his friend/correspondent. The article properly portrays the humanitarian nature of my former teacher, mentor, and friend for many years. As a local high school teacher and leader in California mathematics circles I always found Dr. Bacon to be helpful and professional at all times. He was one of my advisors at Stanford on my doctoral dissertation along with Edward Begle and Larry Thomas. Later I was to become his son Charles' teacher in his high school Advanced Placement Calculus sequence. I'd like to cite an example of Dr. Bacon's thoroughness and careful attention to his subject matter and his students. I called on him in his office one time while he was engrossed at his blackboard with a very detailed and complicated figure. "Sit down, Larry while I finish this. I'll be right with you." When he had completed his task and gave his attention to me, I asked what he was doing. He said "I'm just practicing getting this figure right so that I am sure it will all fit on the board when I give my lecture in projective geometry next hour." I submit not many full professors were as careful and meticulous as my good friend Harold Bacon. Lawrence D. Hawkinson, MA '50, EdD '67
As a past student of his, I was deeply touched by the article ("The Prisoner and the Professor," March/April) on math Professor Bacon's relationship with the convict, Rudolph Brandt, a math devotee. I fondly remember Professor Bacon's pride in drawing a gigantic, freehand, near-perfect circle (his trick was to start at the bottom). Even today, I relate how his exams always separated the merely smart students (who, like myself, got B's) from the creatively intelligent who extrapolated their learning to solve the one truly difficult problem on the test (and got an A). His courtly manner and unfailing courtesy was appreciated by all. Now we know, as we always suspected, that his heart was even bigger than those circles he drew. Raymond C. Oleson, '72
Jellisons article about the relationship Prof Bacon established with Rudolph Brandt has a timely message for us. I began working in prison ministry at San Quentin two years ago and have since expanded my interest academically as well. The main message from this piece to me was a man willing to put aside any personal feelings to help a fellow man at the bottom of his life. The rewards were obvious-both to Dr. Bacon and society as a whole. My experience in San Quentin and as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam has taught me the practice of warehousing prisoners for years, then releasing them with nothing but stigma and expecting them to behave themselves according to the rules is categorically unrealistic. This is why most of them wind up in corrections again. Prisoners regardless of what they have done are human beings. If we release them at this difficult time in their lives as we will do for most, we have to be ready to follow Bacons example-reach out our hands to them as individuals and lift them up. "Three strikes" and similar legislation nationwide is making this a Sysiphian task. William W. Butler, '63
I have just finished reading the March/April issue of your magazine from cover to cover. This in itself is unusual, as I normally only have time to skim the contents of previous issues. I enjoyed every article, but particularly your cover story on Professor Bacon and the Alcatraz convict. I am a member of the Class of 1933. As a freshman I got a job as busboy at the now long gone Stanford Union Cellar (50 |