The Delbancos were married on a Sunday three days after their commencement. Dawn Delbanco also teaches at Columbia as an adjunct professor of art history and archaeology.

Andrew Delbanco says the atmosphere during his undergraduate years was markedly different from that of his brother's, Professor of Medicine Thomas L. Delbanco '61.

"When my brother came to visit me and saw women in the Houses, he almost flipped out," Andrew Delbanco says. "In his day that would have been punishable by expulsion."

"In that sense, I guess we were a pioneer generation," he adds.

But he also reminisces about lost traditions that today's undergraduates will miss. In a fate similar to that of The Tasty, Delbanco's favorite hamburger joint, Elsie's, was replaced by a BankBoston ATM on the corner of Holyoke and Mount Auburn Streets.

"I can no longer keep up the pace of playing squash at 11 at night and going to Elsie's for hamburgers," Delbanco says. "I can't do that anymore, and it's a great shame that no one else can either."

Andrew Delbanco recalls Harvard fondly, but adds that he feels fortunate to be teaching in Manhattan.

"Living and teaching in New York is a constant reeducation," Delbanco says. "Columbia does not have quite the sanctuary quality of Harvard, but it's location in New York keeps me in touch with intellectual currents and the excitement of contemporary society."