William Brenner

I joined our class in the 6th grade. Lucky, however, started with Ms. Clay in kindergarten and knew all the words, as I never, ever will, to Rikki Tikki Tombo. (Lucky transferred to Boardman for 9th and 10th grades, and to Wellsville for 11th and 12th.)

To no one's surprise, I attended architecture school, at Miami in Ohio. I married Lucky as a fresh-caught Navy ensign in 1967. After the Navy, I went to grad school at Yale.

A few years later Lucky earned her MSW at Case Western, and I published "Downtown and the University: Youngstown, Ohio" under an National Endowment for the Arts grant:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070713220721/http://cfweb.cc.ysu.edu/psi/downtown-and-university.htm

Our family moved to the Washington area in 1978. Over the years it became our home but when asked where we were from, we often said Ohio, or Canfield.

We have two children and three grandchildren. Lucky worked as a clinical social worker/therapist in private practice. I worked primarily with the federal agencies and Congress on building-related matters and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2008.

As we grew older, Lucky and I were increasingly thankful for the friendships, education, and values we gained growing up in Canfield.

Among the adults I remember with great fondness are, besides my parents, Meade Letts, Warren and Phyllis Freed, John Wolboldt, Herman West, Murray Stone, Myron Ullman II, Gordon Harrison, Ron McGraw, Ed Smith, Jane Paulin, Charlotte Flesher, Laurada Osborn, Don Bishop, and Bud Francis.

Thanks, everyone.

One day in Miss Hearn's biology class, Eddie Neff snuck a dissected fish into a classmate's zip-up notebook. At the end of gym class a few periods later, as about 30 guys sat leaning against the wall below the bleachers waiting for the bell to ring, the fish was discovered. Mac McLaughlin cooly looked down the line and said without pausing, "Neff!"

Eddie's entrepreneurial skills made him a millionaire by his mid-forties. Unfortunately, we lost him to a heart condition in 2000.

By the way, Carol Brennan claims in her class profile that I stole her chocolate chip cookies. To use Washington-speak: I'm sorry, Senator, I have no recollection of that.