Richard William Drost – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard William Drost

28 Fairmont Ave

Cambridge, MA 2139

rick@rickdrostsongs.com

617-460-0682

Spouse(s): Beverly Conroy (1990-2000)

Education: Yale BS Math 1969, Brown MS Math 1974

Career: Mathematics Instructor, Federal City College, 1969-71; Software Engineer, Cambridge, MA, 1973-2015

Avocations: Singing, Choral and Folk; Guitar and Piano; Songwriting; Racket Sports; Photography

College: Branford

Balance: This one word now keeps coming back when I think about how to live well: being mindful of preparing to sustain it, becoming aware when I’m losing it, figuring out how to regain it. Yale prepared me for keeping balance.

Majoring in mathematics has kept me questioning for other ways of looking at a problem, and kept me from falling prey to certainty addiction. Yes, it would be so nice if a particular pretty thought were true, but how do you prove or disprove it? Discuss and discover.

I was able to immerse myself in English and French literature and poetry, Chaucer and Shakespeare through Eliot, Stevens, Verlaine, Rimbaud—this enriched my language. Books, which had always been a refuge, excited my imagination, gave me the habit of reading for relaxing, for getting a break sometimes from the gerbil wheel my career put me on. This, coupled with music, gave me a foundation for songwriting, which has been an outrigger to “career” throughout my life, and is now my pursuit in retirement.

After my bursar job in Freshman Commons, I landed a service job at the Computer Center, helping scientists get familiar with the (then) big machines, punch cards, programming, seeing where errors were likely to be made and how to avoid them. This gave me confidence on a daily basis since I was constantly trying to solve tough problems on the academic side. With guidance from folks at YCC, I wrote some utilities for a new operating system. This yielded my career in software engineering, and showed me that you can serve by just listening, even if you don’t know all the answers yourself.

Although I was musically active before I got to Yale, I really learned how to read vocal music in the Glee Club, and with them was able to sing in sacred spaces. The daily fellowship of singing in a small group, the Augmented Seven, prepared me for a lifelong hobby, and now that I’m retired, for another “career” as a singer/songwriter, and gave me lifelong friendships. Touring Russia, the U.K. and South America with the Yale alumni chorus in the early 2000s took this kid from outside Buffalo to places he wouldn’t have gotten to on his own. Last year I finally released an album of my songs, some written while at Yale (pictured).

I discovered squash at Yale. Joe Rossomondo gave lessons at Payne Whitney, and could run me ragged left-handed, even when I thought I was getting the hang of it. Squash taught lessons in patience and humility, and working to becoming more aware of everything around me. I’m still playing.

I reflect gratefully on what Yale has given me, in the years there, and since, that has helped me keep in balance. Academically, the options were broad, even outside of pure academics. Students, faculty, mentors all helped me dig deeply enough into each pursuit so that it was permanently woven into my life.