A Conversation with Dr. Fong
Q: Did you have a nickname growing up?
A: Bobby was unusual enough. I went through a time trying Bob or
Robert, but my real given name is Bobby. Daddy gave me a Chinese
name; Bobby was the closest American equivalent.
Q: What do you consider your favorite book of all time?
A: Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons.
Q: Do you have a favorite movie?
A: I have eight - Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, Twelve
O'Clock High, High Noon, Chariots of Fire, Man for All Seasons,
Forrest Gump and Mr. Holland's Opus.
Q: What made you want to attend Harvard?
A: John Kennedy went there; it's as simple as that. If someone
had asked me about Yale and Princeton, my question to them would
have been, "What are Yale and Princeton?" After I received the
scholarship offer from Harvard, Mamma went around Chinatown saying,
"Bobby is thinking of going to Harvard." The inevitable response
was, "It's too bad he's not going to Cal." She became so concerned
that she went to the Chinatown elders and asked, "Is Harvard any
good?" They told her if I got the money maybe I should go, but that
it was too bad I was not going to Cal.
Q: If you could invite five people (living or dead) to a
once-in-a-lifetime dinner, who would you invite?
A:
- The Apostle Paul. I would like to ask him about his feelings
toward women.
- William Shakespeare. We don't know very much about him, and
there's a good chance that in life he would seem unremarkable.
- Moe Berg. There's a great mystery behind him. He was a
frontline spy and a backup baseball catcher.
- St. Catherine of Sienna. She was once riding in a cart that
pitched her into the mud. When she got up, she shook her fist at
Heaven and said, "God, if you treat your friends this way, its no
wonder you don't have very many."
- Anne Frank. Her death was the waste of a deeply realized young
life.
Q: What sparked your interest in education?
A: A number of things. I went to college thinking I would major
in pre-med. That didn't work out. I graduated with a degree in
English and at that point, I could have gone to law school or
graduate school in English. In terms of practicality, I made a dumb
decision. I went to graduate school in English because I received a
fellowship. Law school meant I would have had to take out student
loans. But once I went to graduate school in English, the idea of
being a scholar and being able to perpetuate the legacy of
education that was given to me became very important.
Q: You're an avid collector of baseball cards; what's your
favorite card?
A: I'm trying to accumulate all of the Topps cards from 1951 to
the present. I have a substantial set from 1953 on, but I still
need 1951 and 1952. If I had to choose a single favorite I would
choose my 1954 Bowman Ted Williams. In 1954, Topps signed a deal
with Williams stipulating he would be the first and last cards in
the set. It was an exclusive contract. When Bowman came out with a
'54 Williams, Topps sued and Bowman withdrew it from the market, so
it is one of the rarest cards from the 1950's.
Q: What are your top three hopes for Butler's future?
A:
- I would like to see Butler numbered among the top 10 best
master's comprehensive universities in the United States.
- I would like to see us complete a series of buildings that go
beyond what we have done today with performing arts and student
life. We have to address needs in the sciences and enlarge the
library.
- I would like to see Butler regarded as a pre-eminent
institutional servant of Indianapolis. People use the term 'Butler
bubble' in both positive and negative ways: positive in that Butler
is protective and caring; negative in a sense of the Butler bubble
keeping the real world at arm's length. That's a sense of bubble I
would like to dissipate.
Q: What is your favorite thing about Butler students?
A: I find that our students are fundamentally interested in
others. Butler students understand that you don't live for yourself
alone; you live for others. The word "nice" is overused, but our
students really are nice in all the positive connotations of that
word.