Roger and I.

Today, tomorrow in the States, July 15th, 2007, is my grandpa's 90th birthday.
I had originally planned to have this be a nice, well thought out, long piece about him, but as soon as I started writing it, it just didn't work out, so I decided to most of it with pictures.
This is a picture of the two of us, probably about 2 years ago, in front of my old house, which, when I went back to look at when I was last in Portland, was completely different!
I just wanted to show I ripped I was. I am probably in better shape now though!
This is a picture of, from left to right: half of my mom, Yuki, the Japanese girl who lived with us for a while, me, and grandpa. This picture means a lot to me, because I was really interested in Japan thanks to my grandpa. He was an interpreter after World War 2, and thanks to that, I have grown up with Japan being in my house. I have his old text books, which are VERY interesting to go through.
This is a picture of Me, Grandpa, and my dad. I don't know much about Granpa's family, but I am at least the second son of a second son, both of which here Art History Majors at Harvard. I wish I could continue that tradition!

Considering how much I love and take after my Grandpa, I am ashamed at how little I know about him. Despite all of my interest in urban planning and architecture, I didn't know until a couple of months ago that he studied civil planning at MIT under I.M. Pei, was close friends with Walter Netsch, and for some reason, I always associate him with Frank Lloyd Wright. He has a picture of FallingWater in his study, and we went to Taliesin West together several years ago.

This poor attempt of a blog post doesn't begin to do him anything near what he deserves, so I will end it.

Grandpa, I love, and wish that I could be there to celebrate with you. I will see you soon.

Happy Birthday,

love

Peter