{"id":111026,"date":"2025-07-07T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T05:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=111026"},"modified":"2025-07-07T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T05:34:08","slug":"a-remarkable-person-a-remarkable-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/07\/a-remarkable-person-a-remarkable-life.html","title":{"rendered":"A remarkable person, a remarkable life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Randall<\/a>
The Utah Shakespeare Festival\u2019s Randall L. Jones Theater (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My wife and I were delighted late last night to see this article in the Deseret News<\/em>: \u201cMeet the 97-year-old pianist playing 7 shows a week at the Utah Shakespeare Festival:\u00a0For the last 22 years, Doreen Woolley has played at the festival \u2014 without sheet music, and usually while looking up to greet people as they walk by, all without missing a beat\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She is one of the most astonishing people that either of us has ever met. \u00a0I first came in contact with the Woolley family in the Hinckley Hall dormitory, prior to my mission. \u00a0One of their sons was a dorm neighbor, and he was taking a course in classical Greek, which gave me the idea of doing the same thing. \u00a0(I eventually graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Greek and philosophy.). Shortly after I was called to the Switzerland Z\u00fcrich Mission, he was called to that mission, as well. \u00a0There was a slight confusion about where I would end up; some of the paperwork had me going on to Beirut from Switzerland; Lebanon was under the administration of the Z\u00fcrich mission at that time \u2014 partly, I suppose, because of Swiss neutrality. \u00a0In the end, I never went on to Lebanon, but he did. \u00a0Which, although I love Switzerland and would have been heartbroken to leave it, left me deeply envious. \u00a0(I had studied some Arabic already, though not very effectively, before my mission call.)<\/p>\n

We communicated a bit during our missions and remained friendly thereafter back at BYU. \u00a0After I had graduated, he was there in the Salt Lake Temple for my wedding. \u00a0We afterwards spent time at their home in the Bay Area. \u00a0I headed off for study in Israel and Egypt; he went to law school at the University of Chicago. \u00a0(Just prior to that, he and I played a comically inept game of golf at his father\u2019s country club. \u00a0At least, I<\/em> was terrible.<\/em>) \u00a0In the meantime, I came to know his entire family. \u00a0His father (later a mission president in France) was an M.D., and my friend and I briefly came along to \u201chelp\u201d once while his father served as the resident medical officer for a Latter-day Saint girls\u2019 camp. \u00a0Among other things, too, he and his father took me along on a camping trip up in Northern California \u2014 we were washed out after one long and noisy night in one of the most torrential downpours that I\u2019ve ever seen \u2014 and they eventually introduced me to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland<\/a>. \u00a0On the basis of that experience, I resolved that Shakespeare festivals would be a part of my future family\u2019s tradition. \u00a0Happily, I married a theater major, so that has not been a problem.<\/p>\n

When we go down to Cedar City, where both my friend and his widowed mother now live, we typically get his play reviews before we go. \u00a0(He is a serious theatergoer, and even did some acting at BYU while an undergraduate.) \u00a0And we always try to visit with them at her home and, usually, to go out to dinner with them.<\/p>\n

What the article says about her capacity to play effortlessly without sheet music while carrying on a casual conversation is absolute true. \u00a0It\u2019s one of the things about her that most amaze us. \u00a0It\u2019s perfectly astonishing, and I cannot imagine myself ever being able to do anything remotely of the kind. \u00a0When, sadly, my mother in law (who had taught piano) was beginning to enter into dementia but was still able to go down with us to Cedar City for the plays, one of her favorite things (and one of ours) was to visit with Doreen while she sat playing the piano in the lobby of the Randall L. Jones Theater. \u00a0Doreen was kindness and understanding personified, and she still is.<\/p>\n

My admiration and respect for her is immense, and having her and her family \u2014 including my almost life-long college friend and his siblings \u2014 as influential factors in my life has been one of its greatest blessings,<\/p>\n

\"Laptop<\/a>
It is widely believed among expert observers that accessing the Interpreter Foundation Podcast will likely prove to have been the major purpose of the personal computer. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newly posted today on the moribund and never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n