Fitting Tribute

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I received the issue of The Harvard Crimson containing your article on Professor Joseph Francis Fletcher (1-5-83) this morning. I wish not only to thank you for your extreme kindness in sending it to me, but also to tell you how much I was touched by your tribute to a man whom I have known as a student, a colleague, and a friend for a quarter of a century. Joe Fletcher was, without exception, the most brilliant student whom I ever taught at Harvard. Those of us who have devoted our lives to teaching always entertain the hope that we shall live to see our students go beyond ourselves in their achievements. I can truly say this of Joe Fletcher. Although my retirement--mandated by the system--was involuntary, I withdrew from my teaching after thirty-nine years of service to a great University in the knowledge that there was a younger colleague prepared and ready to pursue well beyond the restraints of my own capabilities certain facets of the work in which I had been engaged. He is, indeed, all that you have said that he is. We all hope that his chemotherapy and radiation treatment will bring about a remission of his ailment, even a complete cure. Your article is a magnificent testimony to a great man. Francis W. Cleaves   Professor of Far Eastern Languages,   Emeritus