AC_1965_Web

25 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z C O M U S COMUS PATRICIA ‘PAT’ [WENTWORTH] & LOUIS ‘LOU’ The desert botanist, with her husband, in her desert. THEN AND NOW 4 J.D., Vanderbilt (Lou) FAMI LY 4 Two sons, Christopher and Lou III 4 Seven grandchildren ADDRESS 4 Phoenix, AZ CONTACT lcomus@fclaw.com POST-ANTIOCH ADVENTURES OF PATRICIA “PAT” WENTWORTH COMUS AND LOUIS “LOU” F. COMUS, JR. W E M E T O N co-op jobs in Washington, D.C. (both at The Washington Post ) in the spring of 1963. Our budding item-hood was enhanced by canoe outings on the Potomac from Jack’s Landing in Virginia and free band con- certs around town (several at the Watergate before there was a ho- tel).The high spot of our six months there was Dr. King’s March on Washington.We missed his “I have a dream”speech,Pat working all day at the Post and Lou on assignment atop the Washington Monument calling in photo-ops to the city desk. Back toAntioch, and then on our next co-op jobs (Pat in New Jersey and Lou in New Haven), we eloped. As hall advisors, this wasn’t working, so we visited Dean Dawson, who told us that he would not ask us to leave Antioch if we would tell our parents that we were married. So we did—ouch! But then, two score and ten years ago, Pat graduated in four years (it took Lou five). This young married couple took the hope we gathered from Dr.King’s commence- ment speech and ventured forth into the world to make a difference. Notwithstanding our Antioch “training” during the early years of the civil rights movement,we headed south to Nashville,Tennessee,where Lou would attend Vanderbilt Law School. We both worked hard, Pat at the Methodist Publishing House where she was able to feed, clothe, and house us on an editor’s salary, while Lou scrambled to maintain his tuition scholarship and pursue a career in law, determined during an Antioch co-op job at the Cleveland City Planning Commission. With Pat’s constant and strong support, Lou served as Notes Editor on the Vanderbilt Law Review and finished high enough in the class to permit him to interview at several large law firms in New York, finally accepting a position as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell. Thence our move to Staten Island to establish New York residency for the bar exam, the births of our two sons, and the commencement of law practice in lower Manhattan. Pat su- pervised what social life we could muster, given Lou’s long hours at the office and commuting, and she was able to get our young family off to a good start. Lou’s commute seriously interfered with our ability to enjoy New York and its music and arts as we would have preferred, and even- tually wore us down, resulting in our move elsewhere. Our nationwide search for a bet- ter place soon landed us in Phoenix where Lou was hired as an associate at Fennemore, Craig, von Ammon & Udall, the oldest law firm in Arizona. Within a year, Pat started studying the flora and fauna of the Arizona desert in order to better equip our- selves and our young sons to safely enjoy our new natural surround- ings. She pursued these and related studies at the local community col- lege and continued this interest at Arizona State University. She soon began her work of many years at the Desert Botanical Garden as a docent and a member of the research staff (paid and unpaid), which included assisting on a book on agaves by the preeminent author in that field. She assisted on a research project on the effects of questionable agricul- tural practices on the desert and its native plants.And, most importantly, she was a co-editor of A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert , which quickly became “the Bible” for a number of college courses in the southwest as well as at the Desert Botanical Garden and all the parks, preserves, and national monuments in the area. She is only now finishing co-editing a much-revised and updated sec- ond edition of A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert , due out in the fall of