CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
The blurred figure on the right had a lion cub-like spirit animal on his shoulder (see the enlargement, and a non-blurred photo of the man showing his shoulder without spirit animal present). From Virginia Commonwealth University's 1973 yearbook.
You've heard of the "loose characters whom the theatre tends to attract" (Laurie Magnus). This might be one. From the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's 1973 yearbook.