What better person to consider George W. Bush’s drunk driving arrest than Jim Koch ’78, founder of and pitchman for Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams beer? That, at least, was the perspective of a Boston drive-time radio show, which invited Koch to be a guest soon after the revelation was aired at the beginning of November.
Koch didn’t condemn Bush for the offense or the choice to conceal it. But he may have regretted being on the show. For the hosts demanded that Koch reveal his deepest, darkest, most shameful secret, one that he had never before confessed in public.
He paused. A long dead-air radio pause. Then, in a voice familiar to thousands of tipplers and teetotalers alike, Koch began.
“On June 8, 1978,” he said slowly, “I got my degree from Harvard Law School.”
Koch did not, however, reveal that he also has degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Business School. Don’t worry–the secret’s safe with us.