Gifford Combs misses his thirty-third Commencement

A broken ankle snaps a Commencement streak.

Even in the hospital, Gifford Combs celebrated Commencement.

Even in the hospital, Gifford Combs celebrated Commencement. | Photograph courtesy of Gifford Combs

Gifford Combs ’80 took an unfortunate tumble on some steps in midtown Manhattan a week and a half before Commencement, breaking his left ankle in two places. He has been hospitalized since.

Because Combs had attended every Commencement since the spring of his freshman year (except in 1982, when he was living in China), his Weld Hall and Eliot House roommate, David Scheinberg ’80, offered to recruit a team of classmates to wheel Combs and his hospital bed into Tercentenary Theatre for today’s ceremony. Combs decided he’d better stay in bed in New York, where his ankle is on the mend, but the photograph he forwarded shows where his heart lies. And, he reported, his surgeon, John P. Lyden ’61, is in Cambridge this week, celebrating his fiftieth reunion.

 

Related topics

You might also like

The play Spare Parts is a contemporary fable about the quest to live forever.

David Battat promotes alumni engagement.

Plus, veteran higher education leader Thomas Ehrlich reflects on university curricula for his 70th reunion

Most popular

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.

Lafayette’s Unexpected Gift to George Washington: Pheasants

The two birds will be on display at Harvard this summer.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Explore More From Current Issue

A vibrant illustration of a red car parked, surrounded by cheerful people and historic buildings.

Derek Bok donated his car for a good cause.

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

A woman with long, wavy hair wearing a white suit, seated in a bright, modern room.

The Harvard graduate’s roundtable talk show touches on hot button issues from religion to sex.