Note: Big Jimmy's son and daughter want to express how much they've been touched by everyone's "kind words" about their father. Please go on down to the links and find out how to sign the guest book!
...He was not what most of society would call "cool" or "heroic." He weighed something like 400+ pounds. XXXL shirts would not fit him. He wore a plain brown uniform that, along with his dark brown hair, got drenched with sweat when he wheezed his way up and down the stairs.
But for many years, he was the guardian angel of the MIT undergraduate dormitories East Campus and Senior House. He was a night watchman who stopped to talk and gossip with the students. He'd remember your name and greet you and want to know how you were doing - really know, not just the usual hey-how-are-you-see-ya-bye, but how you really were, and hey-don't-worry, and you'll-be-ok. He enjoyed yakking with students, perhaps a bit too much and a bit too long - but in addition to dishing out the latest Institute dirt, he'd warn people about recent dormitory thefts and dangers. He liked "his" students so much, he'd try to buy hall logo clothing (which wouldn't fit). He was also genuinely concerned yet polite - he'd get a female student to check in on another female student who wasn't feeling well. He'd talk reassuringly with the upset student who had failed an exam. He would especially leap into action when rumors spread of a depressed student who was last seen muttering about suicide - and he was the only night watchman likely to hear about it, because he was the night watchman who stopped to talk and listen. Sure, sometimes he could seem too talkative, but we knew he was special, and that we were lucky to have someone like that on "our" side.
When the university tried to move him across campus to somewhere else, the protest was loud and insistent: Keep Big Jimmy at East Campus - and the university relented. When someone had the idea of nominating him for the James N. Murphy Award, we students rallied and got him one, and he was the only recipient that year to get a small standing ovation of cheering students. (And you could see the tears in his eyes!)
The MIT News Office reports on the nominators' words from 1991:
Yes, I do suspect that he saved at least a few lives over the years, directly or indirectly - and in large part because he earned the students' trust in a way very few outsiders ever could.
Thinking of East Campus, it's hard to picture it without Big Jimmy's voice echoing down the hall, or his familiar form pausing by the lounge or leaning by an open doorway....
A couple years ago, back when I was unemployed, I happened to drift by my old dorm. It had been roughly 10 years since I'd graduated, 10 long, crazy years since I had lived in those buildings and hung out with fellow students and the night watchman. Well, the new students at my dorm didn't know me (naturally), but Big Jimmy did remember me, wanted to know (really know) what was going on, and then was eager to get me certain job contacts (that I didn't really want!). But that was just the sort of person he was - a bit too nosy, a bit too gossipy, but always willing to do anything for "his" students. True heart of gold, and utterly unforgettable.
I will miss our dormitory guardian angel.
Eri Izawa
She also writes: "if you guys were wondering about how my dad got the
meat the way he did.... he used to work for a meat packing plant on
mass ave in dorchester. he made lots of friends there. he knew quite
the few who had questionable backgrounds."
`Currently, the news of his passing still seems almost unfathomable,
because he was truly an institution that many can not even picture not
being there when they think back upon their time in EC and Senior Haus.
Even now, I can neither, nor ever will, be able to think back upon him
and not smile, at least just a bit...'
`perhaps some of you have seen old crusties putting their empty soda
cans on the wooden molding in the hallway. i know i still do, out of
habit. stupid crust, forgetting where the recycling bin is...
`back when big jimmy was the nightwatch, he'd walk around
the dorm, every night, with a giant garbage bag, collecting empty
refundable cans off the moldings on most of the halls. you could tell
big jimmy was coming onto the hall within 2 minutes because you could
hear the bag of cans clanking in the stairwell. once he was on the
hall, it was hard to miss him, but the sound of the cans was the
early-warning system for people who needed to tool [study] and
couldn't afford to sit around and shoot the shit with big jimmy for 20
minutes.
`when big jimmy collected enough jimmy-cans, he'd buy roughly his
body-weight in frozen food, load up his pickup truck, and distribute it
to the halls that left their cans out for him. the jimmy-food that i
remember most often was the ultracheap frozen pizza in a garish orange
box. horrible for you, and so fake that the cheese sometimes didn't melt
well, but tasting damn near amazing at 3am.
`...he was a good man, and i miss him.
`PS "hey listen, i gotta go"
rei (at) MIT (dot) edu.
Tributes, Links, and More Information
Captured from email:
[15 minutes later]
"mm hmm, MM HMM, haha ha-- know what i mean?"'
© 2005 Eri Izawa. Image copyright unknown, but I think I
originally remember seeing it at East Campus long ago...?