Jonathan Scott Briggs

FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Professor Pistorius’s Gallic shrug as he finally gave up hope that I could ever be a serious student of French literature. Jane Goodall’s visit and lecture, especially the “overtime” Q&A. She agreed to extend the Q&A when we had to quit the lecture hall, so we repaired to a classroom and spent another two hours with her. What a treasure she was and is . . .

WILLIAMS CLUBS / ACTIVITIES

Outing Club ski instructor

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

Nature Conservancy, Sea Education Association (Woods Hole, Mass.), Friends of Alta

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

I have a feeling that many of our 50th bios will start off with our families rather than our careers, in marked contrast to our 25th bios. Certainly, the arrival of grands has something to do with that, but I’d like to think we’ve become a bit wiser as well as older and have come to realize the relative unimportance of our earthly strivings and the central importance of loved ones.

I had a fascinating and fast-paced career, publishing the top computer magazines from the onset of the PC revolution and winding up as president of the company (Ziff-Davis), but events conspired to make it both possible and desirable to semi-retire at a young age—as in 47—and events then also conspired to deliver the opportunity to be a close to full-time Dad when our fifth child, Lucas, arrived in 1999.

So, since Williams, I have now had 25 years of an all-consuming job and 25 years of a focus primarily on family and following the creative muse. It’s a no-brainer as to which has been the more meaningful, and which will produce the more lasting legacy. I still have a good deal of pride in what we were able to achieve in the working world, but a great deal more in the wonderful human beings my children have become. They are an accomplished and loving band, and have delivered nine grandchildren to boot!

I was hugely fortunate to meet Mayke when we were both quite young and thus have spent pretty much our entire adult life together. Besides the wonder of raising five kids, we’ve lived in a lot of interesting places (Paris, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Munich, London, Washington, DC, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Little Compton, R.I., and Alta, Utah) and have spent meaningful time in a great many more. We are very different, which makes it just that much more interesting, and truly are each other’s partner in life—I cannot describe how grateful I am for that.

We now divide our time between the steep and deep of Alta, Utah, and the ocean community of Little Compton, R.I. With a daughter and family moving to Paris, we are very much looking forward to spending a couple of months a year in the City of Light, which will also afford us the opportunity to spend more time with Mayke’s family in Germany. Voltaire’s Candide got it right long ago . . . il faut culitiver notre jardin.