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A few weeks back I posted about the death of Jarvis Thurston, former chairman of the English Department at Washington University, husband of the poet Mona Van Duyn and a longtime friend of my family.

Yesterday Wash. U. hosted a small celebration of Jarvis' life, featuring eulogies by Dan Shea (former English Department chairman), Mark Wrighton (current WU chancellor), William H. Gass (emeritus philosophy professor), William H. Danforth (former WU chancellor), Shirley K. Baker (vice chancellor for scholarly resources and dean of the university libraries) and Kathryn Davis (English Department writer-in-residence).

The highlight of the event, held in a small room in the Department of Special Collections in Olin Library, was Bill Gass' remembrance of Jarvis, which I managed to record.

(Temporary) caveat: Please forgive the cruddy audio quality. I will have someone who actually knows what they're doing try to up the volume and smooth out the sound.

While you're listening, here's a link to my previous Jarvis Thurston post.

And here's one to the obituary that ran on Wash. U.'s site.

-Tom Finkel