Lipkin criticized Harvard because homosexuality was never referred to in any way in his classes. Lipkin has since learned that some of the very faculty members who taught him were gay.
"It makes me very angry," Lipkin says. "I had no role models who were gay. They didn't send me the message that one could be a person of great accomplishments and be gay."
Lipkin, who taught at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School for 20 years, now works at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a research associate. He is currently developing curricula for high schools in gay and lesbian literature.
A lucky few were able to graduate and proceed "according to schedule," developing their interests as undergraduates into professions.
Robert D. Levin '68, now a professor of music and a concert pianist, came to Harvard having studied music extensively in Europe.
In 1966, F. John Adams, director of the Glee Club asked Levin to complete an unfinished fugue from Mozart's Requiem mass. This led Levin to complete two other of Mozart's 50 incomplete pieces for his senior thesis in music.
"If it were not for my Harvard thesis, a very important part of my life would probably be missing," Levin says.
Since then, Levin has completed many more of Mozart's incomplete works, including the Requiem mass, which Mozart died writing.
"Next year," Levin wrote, "I shall celebrate my twenty-fifth reunion by moving to Cambridge to become a Professor of Music at my almamater."
Harvard Changes
Anyone comparing Harvard 1968 to Harvard today will doubt less be struck by the changes The College has undergone, especially the increased student diversity and coeducation Members of the class of 1968 comment on the changes at Harvard, though, with both satisfaction and displeasure.
James V. Baker '68, who was a star athlete at Harvard in track and cross country, qualifying for the Olympics in track, laments the fact that athletics aren't as well funded or as popular as they were in his time.
"I regret that some of those (athletic) programs are having a harder time now," Baker says.
"I was on a varsity team, and I ate lunch at the Varsity Club," Baker says. "We used to always fly wherever we went."
"Athletics aren't attracting the numbers they used to," Baker says.
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