What an enjoyable story on “Spirited Entrepreneurs” [Spring 2017]. It’s great to see that UB alumni are deeply involved. As a beer lover myself, I particularly enjoyed the Brewer’s Roundtable.

I am enlightened by this thoroughly researched article with a lot of information, and I am happy to learn that Buffalo is rising again.

I was amazed to read the article about Buffalo brewing and see the picture of a box labeled “Medicinal Whiskey.” I have four pints of the whiskey with the original box. My father was a doctor in Buffalo (his UB graduating class was 1914), and I believe he purchased these four pints at a pharmacy on Elmwood Avenue near West Ferry Street. The whiskey actually went into the bottles in 1914 and none of them has ever been opened.

After reading the article about Willie Evans [“Thank you, Willie,” Spring 2017], I had to comment. I was a year behind Willie in school, but we ran into each other frequently at Clark Gym, since Willie was on the football team and I was on the track team. He never missed an opportunity to say, “Hey Dave, nice job in the 100 or 220 the other day.” I will always remember Willie as a great athlete, but more importantly, as a wonderful human being.

The rarest bird in the forest—great article on a great human being [“The Wright Path,” Spring 2017]. We miss him here.

The writer is assistant director of athletics development at UB.

In the first paragraph of the president’s column [“Preparing Global Citizens and Leaders for a Complex World,” Spring 2017], President Tripathi extols the virtues of “ideological and cultural diversity.” In the sixth and seventh paragraphs he lists the visitors to the campus. The partial list: the Dalai Lama, Toni Morrison, President Obama, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Eric Holder, Roxane Gay, Samantha Power, Theda Skocpol. Everyone is from the political left. That this list exists in an article highlighting “ideological diversity” is ironic.

Editor’s response: Thank you to Dr. Diggs for pointing out the asymmetry in this list. In fact, UB has had the honor of hosting experts representing a wide range of perspectives, including Karl Rove, Robert Gates, Laura Bush, David Brooks and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Regarding “Engineering History” [Winter 2017], there was one other UB graduate working on the New NY Bridge: me! I am a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, having previously served as the Waterways Management Division chief assigned to Sector New York. My responsibility was to coordinate the commercial vessel traffic transiting the Federal Navigation Channel underneath the bridge, while the construction project was ongoing.

Editor’s response: Thank you for sharing! Many UB alumni played roles in this massive project, beyond what we could cover in our piece. It’s been a pleasure to hear from several of you.

Your article about the American historian and UB alumnus Richard Hofstadter [“American Forecaster,” Winter 2017] is a wonderful tribute to him. I took his seminar as an undergraduate student at Columbia. He was a remarkable teacher and scholar who was most supportive of his students’ pursuing their study of American history.

UB HEALS, a student-run street medicine program depicted in our Winter ’17 issue, has won two prestigious grants allowing it to expand its work serving homeless people in Buffalo: a $9,000 Medical Student Service Leadership Project Award from the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and $5,000 from the region’s second Pitch 10 Competition. Both grants will go toward purchase of a van to provide a private space for clinical consultations and to store medical equipment.