Say what they will, this man Paterson is stubbornly amusing. Or at least he has difficulty being solemn. A sample: last March, at the Columbia College John Jay awards dinner, Paterson (class of '77) noted how some students had graduated summa cum laude, and others magna cum laude, but he graduated "Thank you, Lordy."
He recalled a dean recognizing him as the first student in memory to go from dean's list to general academic warning in a semester. "When you leave here," the governor says he was told with great gravity, "close the door." Above he is at awards ceremony with Charles O'Byrne, now gubernatorial secretary, and Patrice LeMelle, special deputy secretary of NY state.
Dan Janison