Bruce Wertin was my roommate in college at Southern Illinois University. We were kind of thrust together as the quarter was starting, we both needed a place to live quickly, and a two bedroom apartment became available.
We could not have been more different. I am a meat and potatoes kind of businessman and deal maker from the advertising field. Bruce was an international type person who spoke French. It could really get funny when our friends showed up at our apartment and met each other. It was a colorful, and fun experience for all.
Some years later I ran into Bruce working as a bartender in a Chicago bar when we were both struggling to start our careers.
I have never been to Europe, and Bruce brought an international flavor to my existence. Bruce had the intelligence and gentility to work in the American Embassy in Paris. "Style," was a something Bruce knew how to create, and when he laughed his whole self just lit up! :) Bruce had a way of holding a cigarette that made me feel like I was in a Maurice Chevalier movie!
I am proud to have known Bruce Wertin, and wish our lives had crossed paths in later years. Bruce was a gentleman in the literal sense of the word.
Disco, polyester, Nixon and Watergate, equal rights, the "new right", the rise of terrorism . . . oh what a decade. Not much was resolved but a lot happened!
In the far past, we had paintings of family members - most usually these were reserved for the well off. The era of modern photography began with the daguerreotype, in 1839. Since the advent of photo...