Although I've had virtually no personal communication with Roy since we graduated, like everyone else, I've followed his career. But we actually go back a long way.

In 1956, when I graduated from the University College at NYU, where I had been coeditor-in-chief of our college daily, I was offered a job as the first editor of a new weekly newspaper in Yonkers, N.Y., the Home News of North Yonkers. The pay was terrible even then--$45 a week--and for that I refused to work more than four days a week. It turned out to be four 10- or 12-hour days. I kept that job until the following spring, when I could stand it no longer.

Who became the next editor? Why, Roy Aarons. The Martinelli brothers, who owned the paper, said they were delighted with him. As it turned out, I guess they knew real talent when they saw it.

Stephen Aug