Posting for the first time in a while because I learned at Gush, though only for one year after college and it was just after Reb Aharon stopped giving shiur regularly. Everyone who ever learned at Gush considered themselves Reb Aharon’s talmid. Even though he valued independent thinking and was proud when his some of his closest talmidim disagreed with him on various important issues, they followed his methods and values, which defined the yeshiva to the point that you felt them when you walked through the door.
One thing I noticed at the hespedim was that people who had learned under him didn’t talk as much about his phenomenal bekius as people from other yeshivos. I suspect this is because we took it for granted. At Har Etzion there were lots of brilliant masmidim with good memories who could quote from the rambam you were reading as you read it from the book. That’s my Reb Aharon story. He built a yeshiva where those people were normal and yet the first year am ha’aretz who needed the book was still welcome and 100% part of everything.
writersoul: You’re in good company. Reb Aharon also used to switch back and forth between Israeli and Litvish accents. “Aval tzrichim lir’ot mah b’emet katuv b’teysfiss.”
Sam2: I don’t know how famous that story is outside of a very specific circle. The stories I find most inspiring are all the times that he was mistaken for Rav Amital’s gabbai and didn’t mind.