July 14, 1941

Over at No Left Turns, the blog for the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, Peter Schramm, Executive Director of the center, reminices on the life of Harry Jaffa, who will turn 93 on October 7th.  Here is Dr. Schramm on Jaffa:

The Old Man has said that July 14, 1941, was an important day in his life for two reasons. First he "reported for salaried employment for the first time in my life." The second reason is this: "But on that morning at breakfast in the boarding house in which I had become an inmate the night before, I found myself looking into the eyes of the most beautiful and wonderful girl I had ever seen. I made a date for that evening and never looked back." He got the job in Washington because he passed the Civil Service Exam in Public Administration.  He passed that exam because he took public administration classes which he loathed and found infinitely boring. He only stayed with the courses at the recommendation of his professor, Frank Coker. Jaffa writes: "This advice turned out not only to be good advice, but the foundation of every good thing that has happened to me in all the years that have followed. I remain grateful to Coker, but even more alert to the mystery of the ways of Providence, which often proceeds by the most inauspicious indirection to accomplish its ends."

Jaffa's gratefulness to Providence and Professor Coker stems from the fact that he encountered Leo Strauss while he was taking classes to try to pass the Civil Service Exam.  At that time, Strauss taught at the New School for Social Research in New York.  That first encounter lead to many others, and Jaffa's life henceforth would never be the same.