“There was this French woman. What’s her name? Collette. I don’t think he was serious about her but at the same time I know that she was, and he, somehow or other, I think it’s that whole thing about distance and intimacy, I think he flew from it and yet he wanted it. It was a pretty intense thing for him. I remember one time he said, “Oh wonderful, you and Carla are getting married, I’ll get married to Collette and we’ll have a house together.” I think it was just this sort of romantic image that he had. “Oh,” he said, “you’ll have the first floor and I’ll have the second floor.” I said, “Come on, Bob, we’ve got to think about this. I’m not even married yet.”

–John Resenbrink,
University of Chicago graduate school classmate and early Williams College faculty colleague