To the Editor:
Holbrooke was BDH editor 1961-62. Typical of the towering problem solver he was to become, he made a major change at the paper that was to have lasting effects. He recruited women reporters.
Pembroke was still a separate entity in those days and had its own newspaper, the Pembroke Record. Women who wished to write for a campus paper reported for that publication. But Richard had a problem — not enough reporters. So he decided to open the Herald's staff to women. He knew well that he was going to get pushback, but he didn't care.
I signed up and was the first woman on the BDH staff. Though no one on the Brown campus was particularly troubled by this change, the Record staff was outraged. They called me to a meeting, and I remember to this day it was an emotional affair, but I held my ground.
Holbrooke was as driven as BDH editor as he was to be in all of his subsequent missions. But the heart and the power of the man was clear before he ever left campus.
Susanna Opper '62
To the Editor:
A remarkable diplomat and negotiator, Richard Holbrooke '62, was my freshman roommate at Brown University in 1958 and had, by that time, already acquired many of the skills he used so well in his 40-year career as a State Department diplomat. R.I.P.
His family reported the last words he said to his doctor before going under were, "We've got to end that war in Afghanistan." So appropriate for the U.S. chief negotiator in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Nathan Clark '62
