"Laurent," I will always remember with fondness our first night in Paris! We were both so happy and excited to be there! You took me along on the subway up to Montmartre where we began a night's stroll through the sparkling City of Lights back to the Latin Quarter. What a wonderful night I will never forget! RIP, Dear Friend. (Submitted by Karen Keserich Schapiro)
Lawrence Murphy was a French major from Far Rockaway on Long Island. When our 25-year class reunion rolled around in 1994, for the directory he wrote: Still combatting racism and bias-related crime among New York’s youth, a challenge indeed! But then he died on September 20 of that year.
Steven Jacobson
I knew "Laurent" casually through our freshman dorm, but then he became my roommate on the French Summer Program living with a family in Aix-en-Provence in 1967. I left Oberlin for a year when we returned to the States to be a Vista Volunteer, so I lost touch with him. We reconnected in NYC in the early 1970s. At that time he confided in me essentials about his identity. Once again we lost contact until the 25th Reunion when again he confided in me about his pending death. Laurent was a dear soul whose openness with me meant so much. He left us much too soon, and I will never forget him and his struggle. We are blessed that Oberlin gave us such opportunities.