Anonymous: I was an acquaintance of Jos' at Pomona. I just wanted to send along a note saying that still I go to the Web site whenever I am feeling slothful or uninspired. I don't know how many times I've read those college essays, just marveling at Jos' wonderful way of looking at the world. What a great son you had. He's still pushing people like me to live good lives.

To a relatively shy and somewhat short-of-stature person like myself, Jos was both intimidating and inspiring. I'm only a year younger but I think whenever he saw me he would bellow "Young Mr. Anonymous!" or something similar. I suppose, relatively speaking, I was very young when I was at Pomona.

We were friendly with the same people but did not spend a lot of time together -- but I do remember those times that have been memorialized on the Web site. Endless conversations on dingy couches in whatever dorm living room happened to be open that night, Jos expounding at great length with exuberance that I envied. There was lots and lots of laughter. I realize now what a rare thing that was, even for Pomona -- a bunch of people just sitting around shooting the breeze about whatever topic popped to mind -- for hours and hours and hours.

My cohorts would thrash me for revealing this, but Jos was also something of a rival. I was a member of a certain secret society Gwen mentions and I knew very well that Jos had long ago figured out that I was a member. None of us was very smart at keeping secrets. He was, of course, too delicate to call me out directly because maybe doing so would have spoiled it for him -- knowing that this mythic Pomona secret society was in fact comprised of a bunch of regular kids whom he knew, and there wasn't actually a whole lot of myth to it. I do recall with some embarrassment my name being on the poster Gwen mentions.