Earlier this summer, I went in search of a tree.
It wasn’t a difficult journey—I knew where I was going—but when I set off, I wasn’t exactly sure what I would find. It was a cool, overcast afternoon in early July, and as I made my way westward up College Street in the direction of Procter, I started to pay particular attention to the various trees I passed: I saw stately maples, majestic spruce, billowy willows. I wondered, as I neared my destination, what will the amur chokecherry look like? However, as I made my way behind Proctor, past the tennis courts, and onto the access road that runs down toward the Robert A. Jones ’59 House (RAJ), I walked right past the tree I was looking for. Standing in front of RAJ, home of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, I checked my notes and discovered that the tree was actually next door, in front of Perkins. So I backtracked, and from the road I spotted the young, 15-foot tree. And my first thought was, huh.
I was underwhelmed. And I felt guilty for it. You see, I was looking for the chokecherry because I wanted to see the tree that was planted this spring in memory of Varian Fry, and I expected something, well, grand.
A member of an American committee formed to assist people fleeing Nazi persecution during World War II, Fry was dispatched to Marseilles in Vichy France in 1940. During the course of a year, he led a courageous, undercover effort that saved the lives of more than 1,500 European Jews, many of whom were artists and public intellectuals and included the painters Marc Chagall and Marcel Duchamp, the writer André Breton, and the philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Yet for most of his life—he died in 1967—Fry was never properly recognized for his heroism. That began to change, though, in recent decades; he’s since been honored in Jerusalem and Washington, Paris and Marseilles, where a square was named in his memory. Felix Rohatyn ’49 was in Marseilles in 2000, serving in his official capacity as the American Ambassador to France, when the Place Varian Fry was dedicated. But Rohatyn brought more to the occasion than ceremony, he brought history, for as a young child he and his parents also fled the menace of Nazism, fleeing through Marseille on their way to Portugal, Brazil, and ultimately, New York. Rohatyn has said that he doesn’t know whether or not Fry had a direct hand in his family’s escape; if he didn’t, someone close to him may very well have.
In early May, Rohaytn was on campus to present the first Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn Global Citizenship Award, and he chose to honor Varian Fry. That day, a tree—the amur chokecherry—was planted in Fry’s memory. A few months later, I walked toward the fruit tree, and my initial opinion quickly changed. With its bronze-colored, birch-like bark, it was beautiful, and I realized that come spring its branches would bear not only fruit but also snow-white flowers. This tree that at first went unnoticed, could, over time, turn into one of the most magnificent trees on campus. —MJ