He was never Langdon, he was always known as Buck
Meeting him in ‘59 was the greatest stroke of luck

Just out of the Navy, starting toward my Ph.D.
He just a little older on the Psychology faculty

I had an assistantship at the Youth Studies Center
I met him there; he would became my mentor

I wish I could recall now just how that came to pass
It was nearly three years later before I took his class

In basketball and tennis we gave each other hell
Who came out on top was just too close to tell

But in academics it was Buck far ahead of me
He was a model of the scholar that I hoped to be

I began to take courses in experimental psychology
I saw then I’d been climbing the wrong academic tree

Too late to switch programs so I finished in between
Not a viable candidate for any job I’d ever seen

That’s when Buck pulled the rabbit from the hat because
His alma mater was looking for a guy trained like I was

I visited Evanston and said what they wanted to hear
They made me the offer and I stayed for my whole career

One may truly say that I had more than my share of luck
And the source of that good fortune was a man I knew as Buck

How do I express in words what he did for me in sum
Buck gave to me what he saw that I just might become