A sedate congressional committee room rang last week with the din of intercollegiate battle. The House Naval Affairs Committee, under the watchful eye of billiard-bald Chairman Carl Vinson, sat, looked and listened. Tiny, ancient, impoverished St. John's College was defending its 160-year-old campus against the predatory onslaught of its huge wealthy neighbor, the U.S. Naval Academy.
Founded as King William's School in 1696, the third oldest college in the U.S. (older: Harvard, William & Mary), St. John's for the last eight years has been the site of robust, red-haired Stringfellow ("Winkie") Barr's noble experiment in education by the world's 100 Great Books....
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