Pryor Scrapbook Dr. Joe, 1986

Dear Dr . Joe, Pat and Karin Lyon 11 Stallion Circle Rochester, N.Y. 14626 March 16, 1986 Hello, and we trust that this letter finds you and Bessie Mae safe and happy. We must apologize at the outset for becoming so far out of touch. This is a wonderful opportunity to renew our acquaintance after many years of separation. We wish that we could be with you and the past and present Petit Jean staffs for the reunion. We know that the day will be a joyous occasion indeed. Unfortunately, the road from Rochester to Searcy is long and the time is not convenient for us to be with you in person, but we shall be with you in spirit. Karin and I have so many memories of our Petit Jean days -- my freshman year (21 years ago,where did they all go?) when I was working part time for Uncle Russ in the Publicity Office and as the assistant on the Petit Jean, Then the next three years when I was head photographer. Time has erased the painful memories of the exhausting days before deadlines and left some of the fondest memories of our lives. As I look back through the books we produced in 66 - 69 I'm impressed with how many of my memories occurred at night; that's when I took the pictures I'm most proud of, that's when I spent countless hours in the darkroom processing and printing pictures with my able assistant who is now my wife (oops, you weren't supposed to know), that's when I went on countless club outings and sporting events recording our lives for posterity, and that's when I watched Harding in the quiet and solitude that brought peace and satisfaction at the close of the busy days. We must also have been our most creative at night, judging by the section division pages in Tom Milton's book ('66), the Forward and final pages of Judy Owens' book ('67), the final page of Ann Camp's book ('68) and the opening picture of Diane Hoagland's book ('69). I wonder how we did during the day while we were expending all that creative energy at night? (I do seem to remember that Ron Killen could sleep-or look that way-almost anywhere.) But let me assure you, we were such a dedicated and serious bunch of workers all those nights. As proof, may I refer you to the staff page at the end of the '68 book and to page 96 of the '69 book--can there be any doubt? My final Petit Jean memory is of how hard we all worked to hide the dedication of the '69 book from you. We made up some of the most ridiculous stories and got some of the greatest help from faculty members. If you knew the dedication was to you, you certainly played along beautifully . I hope you really were surprised that day--it gave me a great deal of satisfaction personal l y to have my senior book dedicated to a man I had known, respected, worked for and studied under for four years . No one could have deserved it more. Enough for the memories, let me skim the highlights of more recent years. Karin and I now have three children: Laurie (15),