The white tents are nearly pitched and the West Campus grass beneath them is already dead. That can only mean one thing-Alumni Reunion Weekend 2007 is nigh!
What better opportunity to see what we students are working to someday achieve-successful lives, remarkable accomplishments, perhaps some financial success and (hopefully) loving families.
But have you ever wondered about the alums who never make it back to their reunion weekends? What of the Dukies whose fates have borne them farthest "on life's broad sea?" Let's turn for a moment to those "other" alums and recognize a few of the oddest, craziest and naughtiest students who have ever donned Duke blue.
Headlining our list is a name that Triangle natives may recognize-two-time "staircase murderer" Michael Peterson. Convicted in 2003 of beating his second wife to death at the bottom of a staircase, Peterson is now serving a life sentence at Nash Correctional Institute. But 42 years ago, Peterson was still riding high as the 1965 editor of The Chronicle and president of his fraternity, Sigma Nu. After being inducted to Duke's most prestigious "secret" society, the Red Friars, Peterson served in Vietnam, churned out of a couple of best-selling novels and ultimately ran for mayor of Durham. Every bit the upstanding citizen, he even wrote columns for The Chronicle and the Herald-Sun.
But it wasn't until Peterson had committed his second murder that the public discovered how eccentric his lifestyle really was. For one thing, Peterson was "very bi, and that's all there is to it," although he later claimed that his wife knowingly worked long hours at Nortel so that Peterson, who was a househusband at the time, could engage in nightly trysts at the YMCA. But the jig was finally up when police discovered that Peterson had beaten another woman to death in nearly the same way 16 years earlier. Fool me once.
Peterson's son, Clayton, also made this list. Though not as noteworthy as his father, the younger Peterson tried to firebomb the Allen Building back in 1994. Clayton, who had "declared war on the University" following a ban on kegs and bonfires, made his statement by depositing a gasoline-filled pipe bomb in an Allen Building closet and then lighting the fuse. Faulty wiring prevented the bomb from actually detonating, but Peterson still pleaded guilty in exchange for a 49-month federal prison sentence. But this kid is no dummy; since his release, he graduated first in his class at North Carolina State University and even earned a master's degree from Johns Hopkins.
Baron Maurice Jeffrey Locke de Rothschild never bombed the Allen Building, but he did manage to bamboozle administrators, many students and most especially the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon during his nearly two-year tenure at Duke in the late 1980s. You see the baron-who was known for "driving expensive cars, buying champagne for frat parties, befriending top University administrators, and boasting about his famed European banking relatives"-had a secret.
He wasn't really a baron, nor was he a Rothschild. His name was Mauro Cortez and he arrived here from El Paso, Texas intent on conning his way into Duke as a "continuing education" student. He did such a good job of fooling administrators, fellow students and most especially his fraternity brothers that they ignored the fact that Cortez spoke little French and drove a Honda CRX. It took two years for Cortez's debts to catch up with him, time enough to steal more than $6,400 from Duke-and embarrass Duke's status-obsessed culture before a national audience.
What Duke list could be complete without a bona fide Duke descendent on it? Next in today's assortment is Angier St. George Biddle Duke (college nickname: Pony), a 1959 graduate. Pony holds the dubious honor of creating an entirely "new field of litigation:" he is the first Washington, D.C. playboy to ever lose a lawsuit to his secretary for giving her gonorrhea. It is only thanks to Angier's pony, Time Magazine reports, that "a VD victim of either sex [can] haul the responsible partner into court."
Last but not least, we have Dr. Tony Mills-HIV-positive physician, leader to California's extensive S&M community and gay porn star extraordinaire. Mills, who attended both undergraduate and medical school here at Duke, initially left the South for San Francisco to study developmental cardiac physiology. Those plans must have been put on hold, since 13 years later Mills had already risen to prominence as the 20th annual International Mr. Leather. Photographs confirm that Mills' chain does, indeed, hang low, even if he spends most of his time these days being an HIV-positive doctor who treats HIV-positive people.
If nothing else, these Dukies are proof positive that you can never tell where we will end up "on life's broad sea."
Kristin Butler is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every Tuesday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.