Ping-pong roast
| Photo: Seth Restaino |
At a recent symposium honoring former Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Director Jonathan Dorfan, dinner guests were treated to a course of the unexpected. Over the clinking of silverware, as attendees finished dessert and listened to a speech by former SLAC Communications Director Neil Calder, came the incongruousclick clack, click clack of a ping-pong game in progress.
Curtains parted to reveal a ping-pong table and former Olympians Khoa Nguyen and Whitney Ping hard at work demonstrating what Calder called “the fundamental structure of Dorfan's personality:” his ability to make quick decisions and think on his feet; his iron will and timely attack; his tremendous tenacity and stamina throughout long rallies; his impenetrable defense against constant attack; and his integrity and sense of fair play.
While Calder expounded on Dorfan's qualities, diners gasped and chuckled as ping-pong balls zipped through the air, only occasionally missing their mark and just once flying into the audience and bouncing off a dinner table.
Earlier in the day, in the first speech of the Let's Celebrate Jonathan symposium, David Dorfan had proclaimed his brother to be “unroastable.” This proved to be very much the case. Although Calder tried his best to lampoon his former boss for his “really very enormous” ears, “grotesquely large” teeth, and “small, squinty” eyes, each of these criticisms soon revealed itself as hidden praise. Dorfan's large ears, Calder said, only emphasize his willingness to listen; his big teeth only draw attention to his friendly demeanor and ever-present smile; and his small “but beautifully formed” eyes only enhance the extraordinary vision of this one-time South African Youth Table Tennis Champion.
Kelen Tuttle
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