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Brilliance twice recalled  

They came to the Harvard Club the other day, to sit beneath the three great chandeliers in the great room off Commonwealth Avenue to remember a great man: Julie Richmond.

Dr. Julius B. Richmond, who died last July, lived 91 years because he had so much to do. And if he had lived another 91, he still wouldn't have had enough time.

All those neighborhood health clinics, in places like Southie, Roxbury, and Dorchester, in places like Mound Bayou, Miss., the ones that help people who don't have any money, they exist because of Julie Richmond.

The 25 million poor kids who got their bodies and minds fed over the last 40 years through something called Head Start did so because of Julie Richmond.

He was more than this nation's surgeon general, more than a gentle doctor, more than a fierce intellect, more than a distinguished professor. He was a mensch, and countless Americans are better off because of him.

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