Every exercise in nostalgia is theraputic for those who share the memories and hopefully educational, possibly boring, for those who don't. Some folks, like myself, often find themselves in particular need of this therapy. John Lovas and I, and many other teachers who where here in the early years of DeAnza College, share a deep pool of common memories, some pleasant, some uncomfortable, but all crucial to a political experience that has changed and formed our lives.

My memories of John are memories of a voice of reason. Whether he was talking in a faculty meeting or standing around a lunchroom table, John's voice could always be counted on to reflect a depth of serious.study and thought. No doubt, I have not always agreed with him, but I have always taken his views seriously. And I have seriously sought out his views.

In the early 1970s the English Faculty at DeAnza College epitomized the optimism of that era. We believed  we could stop the war in Vietnam; we believed we could bring literature and writing alive for all our students; we believed we could change the world into a more intelligent and constructive place. John Lovas was a big part of that optimism. Certainly we have not accomplished everything we set out to do. But I would like to mention one thing that John Lovas did do.

At a certain point in our college's history, the institution saw fit to terminate the Journalism Department. John spent several years of concentrated effort in maintaining and nuturing the voice ("La Voz") of DeAnza College and he did so out of a belief that education without a means of written expression is not an education at all. He and I often talked in those days about La Voz and Bottomfish and about the need for student publications. I would hope that anyone involved in DeAnza's journalism program nowadays would know that, were it not for his unselfish and unstinting efforts back then, there might not be such a program at Deanza College today.

Well, like John, I could go on, perhaps indefinately, telling stories about what we did and didn't do in the old days. Suffice it to say, John was a doer. He talked a good bit, yes, but he acted on his ideas. That sets him apart and establishes a legacy that will enrich DeAnza college for decades to come.

Robert Scott