Henry Devereaux and Jacob Rose’s Friendship Reshaped by Jacob’s Promotion

William Henry Devereaux, Jr. and Jacob Rose’s friendship, formed over decades as colleagues at West Central Pennsylvania University, is strained when Jacob’s rise into administration places him inside the machinery of layoffs and advancement. Their long familiarity allows for frank, even insulting exchanges, but it cannot keep institutional choices from reaching into their private bond: Jacob compiles a termination list that includes his best man, then offers William Henry Devereaux, Jr. a deanship that could compromise them both.

A Long Friendship and Familiar Candor

The two men remember arriving at the university in Black September 1971, and their friendship has lasted long enough for each to recognize the other’s habits beneath the performance. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. knows Jacob as an old friend, but also as a man capable of becoming an administrator; Jacob, in turn, understands that William Henry Devereaux, Jr. can be provocative without fully grasping why he behaves that way. Their closeness is visible less in sentiment than in the ease with which they challenge one another. Jacob calls out his friend’s arrogance and recalls that people had been calling him an arrogant prick even twenty years earlier. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. answers by accusing Jacob of obedience to authority, suggesting that he has learned to heel when ordered to make a list.

Their barbs are sharp because neither needs to explain the history beneath them. The exchange is not a detached quarrel between colleagues: each can invoke the other’s past and habits with the confidence of someone who has been present for years. But familiarity also makes betrayal more legible. Jacob’s decisions cannot be dismissed as the anonymous work of an administrator when William Henry Devereaux, Jr. knows the person making them.

Friendship Under Political Pressure

The university’s labor conflict forces the friendship into a political test. Herbert Schonberg asks William Henry Devereaux, Jr. to support the faculty union, arguing that the English Department has more votes than any other department and that its chair could rally colleagues. He also makes clear that William Henry Devereaux, Jr.’s friends, including Teddy Barnes and June Barnes, have already aligned themselves with the union’s position. The appeal is therefore both a request for help and a warning that neutrality may leave William Henry Devereaux, Jr. isolated.

William Henry Devereaux, Jr. does not readily accept either side’s claim on his loyalty. He asks whether he can reject both camps, while Herbert warns that remaining a rogue could amount to a death wish. Against this backdrop, an earlier threat from Billy Quigley sharpens the personal stakes: Billy claims that he will vote with Finny and the union faction to recall William Henry Devereaux, Jr. unless the latter helps him. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. recognizes the threat as a lie, but the surrounding alliances make clear that friendships and departmental power are becoming difficult to separate.

Jacob’s own position changes the meaning of his old friendship with William Henry Devereaux, Jr. He has compiled a list of four names for termination, and one is his best man. When the two meet, Jacob asks why William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is terrorizing his niece, Blair, in class. Their familiar teasing briefly takes over, but it quickly gives way to the list and Jacob’s career. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. suggests that Jacob has become a player by writing down four names. Jacob replies that the list was only the easy part of what he had to do. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. refuses to believe that it was easy, privately recognizing how difficult the choice would have been because he had considered making such a list himself.

Jacob’s Promotion and the Offer

The meeting reveals that Jacob’s decisions have reshaped the institution as well as the friendship. Dickie Pope is out, and Jacob is in line to become CEO. Jacob confirms the promotion, while William Henry Devereaux, Jr. asks whether it is truly what he wants. Jacob says it is, though the admission carries some sadness: to him, the move marks the point at which a former outsider becomes part of the institution. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. understands the appeal of a chance to exercise influence after years of being subordinate to lesser men, even as he sees the irony of their old rebellion becoming institutional authority.

Jacob offers William Henry Devereaux, Jr. the position of dean of liberal arts. The offer is tempting: he imagines the two of them in power and recognizes that a promotion would provide a wider field for his disruptive instincts. Yet he also sees the cost to Jacob. Appointing a friend to a plum position would look like favoritism and defiance, and would damage Jacob more than other personnel decisions. Jacob makes the bargain more concrete: William Henry Devereaux, Jr. would lose his secretary, Rachel Williams, whom Jacob intends to take for his own office; the department could elect Paul Rourke chair, after which Jacob and William Henry Devereaux, Jr. could take turns abusing him.

William Henry Devereaux, Jr. refuses the deanship. His brief thanks follows a long silence, and Jacob reacts with anger, asking why his friend chooses to be a fly in other people’s ointment. The rejection is not presented as an easy or purely selfless decision: William Henry Devereaux, Jr. has entertained the prospect of power before putting the fantasy aside. He declines because he believes accepting would make Jacob pay too high a price, not because he is untouched by the offer.

Reconciliation and Institutional Aftermath

The argument does not end their friendship. William Henry Devereaux, Jr. apologizes for trying to hurt Jacob’s feelings and admits that he does not know why he has been doing it. Jacob waves away the apology on the strength of their twenty years of familiarity, saying he knows his friend does not understand his own behavior. They exchange congratulations: William Henry Devereaux, Jr. says Jacob will make a good CEO, and Jacob answers that William Henry Devereaux, Jr. would make a good dean. The exchange leaves the refused promotion between them, but not as an unspoken rupture.

The subsequent faculty vote shows the reach of Jacob’s promotion beyond the two friends. After Dickie Pope is dismissed and Jacob, a familiar and respected figure, becomes CEO, the faculty vote overwhelmingly against a strike, despite the union’s position and the interests of those, including Finny, who face the coming budget cuts. The vote does not resolve the moral tension in Jacob’s choices; it shows how a change in leadership can alter collective action. For the friendship, the outcome is similarly unsettled. Jacob has become an administrator who makes consequential decisions, while William Henry Devereaux, Jr. remains unwilling to accept a promotion that would bind him to that power. Their bond survives through candor and apology, but it now has to accommodate the fact that they occupy different positions in the institution they once entered together.