1940

The American Foreign Service Association recently gave high marks to President Carter for six of the non-career foreign service officers whom he has chosen as U.S. ambassadors to nations around the world. One of those identified by the association as "exceptionally well qualified and likely to add to the overall effectiveness and creativity of American diplomacy" is our own Howie Wriggins.

Howie was picked from his position as a professor of political science at Columbia to become America's principal representative to Sri Lanka. This lush island nation, formerly called Ceylon, changed its name in 1972 to underscore the independence it gained 30 years ago.

And in going tack to Colombo, Howie returns to the land where he spent the years 1955-57 as a young scholar observing Ceylon in preparation for writing his first book, Dilemmas of a New Nation, which the Colombo SundayObserver has called "one of the finest books on this country." Also during that scholarly stint, underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation, his daughter Jennifer was born there. For these and other reasons, he told a Colombo newsman, he has been unable to forget that "beautiful country."

Although not technically a career foreign service officer, Howie has had plenty of experience in the ways of government and foreign policy, having served as an advisor to President Johnson and on the National Security Council as an expert on the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. As one of those who moves back and forth from academe to government with some frequency, he also has served on the State Department's Policy Planning Council and as chief of the foreign affairs division of legislative reference'service of the Library of Congress.

According to wife Sally, Howie "is enjoying himself, and this is a fine place to be." Howie is currently on a leave of absence from Columbia University.

Another honor for a '4O from academe has been accorded Page Smith, history professor emeritus of the University of California at Santa Cruz and co-director of the William James Association. He is one of 13 American writers winning a 1978 Literary Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The awards, each accompanied by a $3,000 stipend, were presented at the annual induction ceremony of the Academy Institute on May 17, in New York City. The awards are given "for distinction in literature to writers who, without respect to their age, give promise of important work to come."

Page's books to date include, A New AgeNow Begins: A People's History of theAmerican Revolution, The Historian andHistory, Daughter of the Promised Land:Women in American History, and a two-volume biography of John Adams, which won the Bancroft Prize.

Speaking of the good life, Harry Howard has decided to enjoy the gardening and nursery work he's fostered as a hobby these many years by taking early retirement from his positions on the board and the management executive committee of American Can Co. He will continue as director and serve as consultant for the firm, but now he will have more time to work around the gardens of his home in Greenwich, Conn., and to do whatever else he'd like to do.

303 McNutt Hall Hanover, N.H. 03755