[leephillips]

Once KV’s brother Bernard, who was a well-known atmospheric scientist, came to the Darthmouth physics department to give a seminar. We had these on Fridays on various topics. A murmur went through the audience as we realized that, next to Bernard in the front row, sat Kurt. The department chair got up to introduce the speaker, but cut short his introduction to ask Kurt to introduce him. KV half-stood up, half turned around to us, and simply said, “My brother Bernard knows what he’s talking about. I think you should listen to him.”, or words close to that. Then he shut up and sat down.

KV refused to distract our attention from his brother. He knew that if he got up to address us that we would want him to keep talking, so he didn’t. He deliberately minimized his presence as much as possible. Nevertheless, the respect he had for his brother's expertise was palpable.

This was my only encounter with Kurt Vonnegut the person, and it made a powerfully positive impression on me.