Snapshots of My Father, John Silber

Here is a well-illustrated memoir of John Silber (JRS), written by his daughter, Rachel Devlin. Silber entirely transformed Boston University as its president, and he was the controversial, yet intellectually formidable, candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He was also the father of seven children. Whenever Rachel meets people, they want to hear what he was like as a father and they want to tell her about things he did or said. This memoir is her clear-eyed vision of this authentic man of principle who had a drive to achieve great things. Rachel discusses the family influences in his formative years; she looks at her family members and JRS’s trajectory from Texas to Boston University and what life was like there; and she describes the later years, the hardships he weathered, and his continued accomplishments while out of the public eye. As the title implies, each chapter is like a snapshot taken from a daughter’s perspective, peering into the past she saw.