On a whim, Romolo Del Deo '82 sent a letter to his House master in 1979, looking for some makeshift studio space in Adams House so he could escape the cramped room in the Carpenter Center that he shared with another student artist.

The response from Adams House Master Robert J. Kiely '60, according to Del Deo, was "stunning": a key to the front door of Apthorp House, the Kielys' campus residence, and a room in the basement Del Deo could use at his discretion, 24 hours a day.

What made the response so surprising, however, was that the two men--one a sophomore visual and environmental studies concentrator and up-and-coming sculptor, the other a father of four and professor of English just six years into his term in the House--had never actually met. "I didn't know who he was at all--all I knew was that he was encouraging the arts," Del Deo says.

Kiely's only stipulation of the deal, Del Deo recalls, was that the young artist keep the master apprised of his progress. And over the five years that Del Deo would utilize the space and become closer to the Kiely family--first as a House resident and then as a House tutor--he would draw up a letter to Kiely with details of the week's work and leave it on Kiely's desk.

This sort of enthusiastic responsiveness to students, current and former House residents say, is the essence of the Kielys' tenure in the House--which will come to a close at the end of this academic year when Kiely and his wife Jana conclude a quarter century of service.

Willing to intercede on a student's behalf virtually whenever necessary--from securing art space, to helping curb discrimination--many say the Kielys, in an unobtrusive way, created a House atmosphere of tolerance that allowed a tremendously diverse, and often eccentric, group of students to flourish.

"Now that I'm older and look back, it was incredibly brave," says Del Deo, a self-described "perfect stranger" who worked in Apthorp late into the night, now an internationally known sculptor. "It completely changed my undergraduate experience. It was amazing that he did that for me."

In the Beginning

With such a rich history in the House, many say that for all practical purposes, the names Adams and Kiely are interchangeable--each one having come to represent so much of the other.