Robin Williams was his generation's best jester

Robin Williams was born in 1951, and I in 1953. Due to his rapid-fire wit, his zany antics and his overabundance of comedic talents, success came quick for him, more so than it did for others of our generation.

In 1978, when I was trying to teach English composition to seventh- and eighth-graders in Lodgepole, Williams starred in his own television show, Mork and Mindy. Instead of learning to appreciate a poem’s text, my students would chant “na-noo, na-noo” – Mork’s nonsensical catchphrase. Each week on Thursday nights, Mork cast a spell on America’s junior high students.

Mork and Mindy was a...