Paul Halmos as Graduate Student

I first encountered Paul Halmos when he and I were both undergraduate students at the University of Illinois, both majoring in philosophy. We were together in several undergraduate philosophy classes in the years 1933–34 and 1934–35. He certainly impressed me and other students in these classes by his remarks in class and out, and by what I considered to be his “elegant European manner. ”I was born and raised in Illinois, and he was the first European I had ever seen. This “European behavior ”was for me excessively polite. He once, at a later date, characterized the difference in our codes of politeness by summarizing our ways of asking directions from a stranger as follows. He would formulate the request as: “Pardon me, Sir, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to inform me where I might find…, ”where I would say: “Hey, where’s…”? He also dressed more elegantly than we ordinary “Illini. ”It was not at all unusual for him to appear in class in pressed white flannel pants and a jacket of similar elegance. But even more striking than his clothes was his intelligence, which he did not show off but which stood out very naturally and appropriately in philosophy classes. At that time both he and I had the intention of attending graduate school in philosophy. He graduated in 1934 and attended graduate school in philosophy at Illinois in the year 1934–35. For some reason that I never understood he was not well accepted in the philosophy department that year. It is inexplicable to me because he had the knowledge, the talent, and the will to do well. My own tendency is to blame the philosophy department for his failure and I think that the subsequent history of Halmos and of that department bear me out.