Brothers Reunite

All nine of them were huddling around the wide velvet couches like a football team reviewing the game-winning play.  Then, they broke up to line up like soldiers in front of the fireplace and posed for a picture. One slight problem, the gentleman who volunteered to take the picture didn’t realize the camera wasn’t on, so I quickly intervened.

After they saw that I knew how to work one, they all began handing me their own cameras. It was clear that this was a momentous occasion and they all wanted their own copy of the picture to prove that this reunion, with wives in tow,  actually did happen.

There was a chemical engineer, social worker, nurse, art professor and more among them. They were a sacred brotherhood, bound together for life by the glorious memories of college. University life has a way of creating fast friends and memories that last a lifetime. All of them attended Washington University together in the 60’s and haven’t seen each other since.

Doug was the ringleader, who had decided to convene the team for a long-overdue reunion.They all lived together the same dormitory – “Terry Hall, it was called. And then we moved into apartments together and we even had our own home brewing operation,”  Doug joyfully recalled. His fondest memory was watching the University of Washington win the Rose Bowl in 1961 “They played against Wisconsin and they just walloped them! It was unheard of because Minnesota and Wisconsin, they were all much better teams.”

After college, the group scattered to Wisconsin (no one in Milwaukee though), California and Minnesota. Some stayed in the Washington. “So how did you all end up here at the Pfister?” I inquired. John, who now lives in East Troy, recommended  that everyone meet and stay at The Pfister. “We thought Milwaukee in March might be nice and I thought these guys would really enjoy the Pfister.”

“I learned it had all this history and art – and it went through renvoations, it’s a very Inspirational building.”

“We gasped when we walked in the room. It’s like we’re young again, it’s like going back in time.”

People were chiming in with their own views of the Pfister experience.

They were rushing off to dinner at Karl Ratzsch’s, another Milwaukee landmark. They were clearly making their own University of Washington history right here in the Pfister lobby.