Circle of Patriotic Friends at Harvard Law: Two Die, Leaving Another Twice Widowed
In the span of six years, tragedy ended the lives of two best friends at Harvard Law School who were considered oddities because of their patriotic interests. Now a third classmate who married one and then the other is twice widowed, and other grads are re-evaluating their own career choices.
The Boston Globe has the story of the group’s common bond. Cynthia Tidler joined the CIA with her first husband, Helge Boes, an undercover operative who died in Afghanistan while training in 2003. Last year she married their common law school friend, Michael Weston. He died in October.
“Their choices—made out of passion, patriotism, and an urge to live an unconventional life—intertwined their fates,” the Boston Globe says.
Weston, whose father is a partner at a Los Angeles law firm, wanted a different path. He enlisted as a grunt, rather than pursuing a career as a military lawyer. Boes, a German American who grew up in Berlin, lived with Burmese freedom fighters before going to Harvard Law School. After graduation, he started out at a Washington, D.C., law firm, but took a pay cut to join the CIA.
Former classmate Rob Simmelkjaer, now a vice president at ESPN in New York, told the Globe how the deaths have affected him. “To see people who could have done anything making that kind of sacrifice, it is hard not to look inward and ask, ‘What kind of sacrifices are you making?’ ’’
