At the University of Missouri one night last week, some 500 students stood outside a small, red brick house yelling their heads off: "We want Monkey Wrench! We want Monkey Wrench!" Finally a white-goateed man appeared in his doorway, waving his arms and nodding his head. After more than 40 years of teaching history, Professor Jesse E. Wrench, 70, was retiring, and his students had come to pay their respects. "My gosh," said he, "I don't know why you're honoring me. All I've done is to have fun all my life."
As generations of Mizzou's men well know, the professor was...