I saw Mel is 1985. He was extremely disgusting. Obese, walked like a duck. And I too remember the food stains. But what I remember the most was him walking up to the girls, who had never met him, and embracing them like they were his children but definitely in a pedophile sort of way. The staff really did worship him and when you saw him, your first reaction was...okay, so where is he? And then they point him out and you're like... The fat guy who looks like he just fell out of the ugly tree? I listened to him talk for about five minutes before deciding he was clueless, making shit up as he went along. Everything sounded like "...and the fish was THIS BIG!" And everyone went oooh and ahhh on cue. Pathetic.
It was just as bad when Dan Earle suddenly became director. He was coming up to RMA and they made about forty of us walk down the driveway and pick up all the branches and pine cones, remove any rocks large than a marble, so his Highness would have a smooth entry. Everything got polished spic and span, like some God was arriving. Same for Mel when he showed up. Yet I had met Dan prior to his ascending the throne and was not impressed then either. It would be like praising Caroline Wolfe or Randy Eide. Pathetic people with nothing original coming out of their mouths except made-up crap.
Mel breezed in to town, spew a bunch of nonsensical psychobabble at everyone, then poof, he was gone. And I don't remember a single student feeling like it was a wonderful day that he had blessed us with his presence. I think everyone was just glad he had left and the tension and feeling like a shit storm might happen any minute was over.
Yes, big, ugly, foul smelling like he hadn't bathed in a week, big bushy 1970's mustache with a gut that made his thin black shirt bulge. Not even a suit and tie. Just black slacks that looked like he had swiped them from a Goodwill store, ass crack showing every time he moved. A black tee shirt, bulging at the waist, belly showing, with mustard stains on it like he couldn't wait long enough to get to the wonderful buffet line that was RMA's feeding trough, so he robbed a hot dog stand on the way through Bonners Ferry. Just a really foul human being. What little hair he had wasn't combed. And his face looked like he had just tried to run a marathon. Sweaty, grimy. The guy was really and truly disgusting.
The reason you don't find pictures of him is probably because nobody would want a keepsake. Look at a painting by Dan Earle. Same grotesqueness. His artwork is probably the closest thing that can truly come close to the horror that was Mel Wasserman.
