“I failed a year in high school. And then I got into Williams by telegram three days before my graduation from high school. I had previously planned to become a pilot in the Navy. The Navy had applied for an ROTC scholarship for me at Miami of Ohio, where I’d fly in Vietnam after my sophomore year and so that was all set and then three days before graduation I got into Williams. By junior year, fall, which was just before going to India, I got my grades and essentially I had an A+, an A and an A, every possible highest grade and Gaudino then said to me, he said, “I think it’s O.K. now to tell you that you got into Williams under a Carnegie Grant where they took some kids who didn’t really qualify academically and you’re one of those.” And we both smiled and left it. It seemed logical to me. I didn’t know how I got in.

–Bill Loomis '71