Washingtonian15

I'm in my first year in an English Literature PhD program that's one of the most prestigious in the country. When applying, I indicated in my personal statement that I wanted to work with a prominent faculty member whom we'll call Professor B (partly because he is one of only two other faculty who work in my field). However, after I accepted the university's offer, the chairman of the department broke the news to me gingerly that Prof. B is no longer working with graduate students and might be retiring soon; however, he was assigned to me as a firs-year mentor as a sort of consolation prize of sorts. My relationship with Prof. B has been going well so far, but as I advance in my program, I know that the other two professors in my field will be inundated with requests by other students to serve on their committees. Does anyone recommend that I try to coax or convince Professor B to stick around long enough to serve on my committee, or do I just bite the bullet and compete to get one of the other two profs to work with me?