“Well, I think a lot of people who were among those — many, not everyone — who were moved by Bob’s teaching and by his compassionate life found that to be one of the great personal and intellectual experiences of their lives and they wanted to somehow continue this and to do things in a forum which would continue some of Bob’s ideas about education. I think it’s a good thing. People who are critical of it would say, “Well, there are a lot of other people around here too. Why aren’t there foundations for…?” We’ve had some wonderful people in the philosophy department, for example. “Why isn’t there a fund for Nathaniel Lawrence?”

In terms of my own life, OK, I can think of three people who have been very instrumental to me in my understanding of my life, my value of what I’m doing. One of them was a teacher at Yale Divinity School named Richard Niebuhr, the brother of the famous writer. Another was a man that I’ve just written a festschrift for at his death and that was Taki Yagiashinore, who was Buddhist but open to my Christian understanding and the several times we have lived in Japan has been a mentor to me. And the other is Bob Gaudino.

Bob never thought that my riding a bicycle was a good thing, particularly as I got older. I said, “Well, Bob, because I’ve had some balance problems my great doctor said ‘John you should get back to riding no-handies,’” and Bob said, “If you ride no-handies what’s it going to be like when your hands are off and you bump into another bicycle or bump into a tree or bump into a car? You’re not even going to be able to steer and get out of the way.” And so Bob was very practical, “Get over riding no-handies!” So while Bob was alive I did. But now I’m back doing it. I’m still now at 87 riding my bicycle.

–John Eusden,
Former Chaplain, only recently left his longtime Williamstown home, and Zen garden, for an assisted living facility in Maine