President Bush nominated Harvard Law School alum Alberto R. Gonzales to serve as the first Hispanic U.S. attorney general Wednesday, just one day after the controversial John Ashcroft stepped down from his post as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

Conversations with Gonzales’ friends in the Harvard Law Class of ’82 revealed a portrait of a bright, fun-loving student—the highly motivated son of two Mexican immigrants who overcame steep obstacles to reach Harvard.

He regaled his classmates with stories of his rise from humble origins—his family did not own a telephone until he was in high school—to the apex of Ivy League academia.

Gonzales enlisted in the Air Force after completing high school, and he was sent to the Point Barrow base on Alaska’s Arctic coast.

As he later recounted to Law School classmate Paul J. Karch ’78, Gonzales protested to his sergeant that “all people do here [at Point Barrow] is drink and gamble—and I don’t like either on of those.”

The sergeant advised that Gonzales enroll in correspondence courses. The instructor in Oklahoma to whom Gonzales mailed his assignments was so impressed that he called the military to recommend that Gonzales be admitted to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

After two years at Colorado Springs, Gonzales transferred to Rice University in Houston—after which he headed to Harvard to pursue a J.D. degree.

As he later told Karch, Gonzales and his first wife arrived in Cambridge in the fall of 1979 without having arranged for an apartment. Just days before class started, the couple had yet to find a place to live—and they ended up renting a unit in housing projects near Fresh Pond.

“Their second or third day there, somebody steals their car,” recounted Karch. “They were a couple of nice kids from Texas having a hellacious time in Cambridge.”

But within a few months, Gonzales had eased into the swing of Harvard life. He and Karch donned white shirts and shorts and frequently played squash at Hemenway Gym. “I still resent him a bit because I taught him how to play squash...and he was such a good athlete that he just clobbered me every time we played for three years,” recalled Karch, who is now an attorney in Wisconsin.

Gonzales starred as a shortstop on a recreational softball team—and his lateral agility sparked classmates at his 20th Law School reunion to quip that “Al could go to his left better than anybody we ever saw, but apparently he hasn’t done it since.”

According to Karch, Gonzales didn’t broadcast his political views. “He had a very ready smile and he was very agreeable—but not a real talkative guy,” Karch said.

“He was quiet, but he did seem like he was a person of substance and integrity,” said Law School classmate Mark B. Helm ’78, a former Crimson editor who is now an attorney in California.

“He’s someone I would describe as down-to-earth, who did not have a particular ego,” classmate Christopher G. Caldwell said. “He enjoyed Friday night beer busts,” added Caldwell, who is now an attorney in California.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1982, Gonzales rose through the ranks of a prestigious Houston firm to serve as legal counsel to George W. Bush during his first term as Texas governor.