1946

It was good to hear from Bill and Patti White of Wilmette, Ill. Bill is treasurer of Consolidated Foods in Chicago and reports that son William T. III '80 has just started in a training program at the Continental Illinois National Bank. Rev. George Razee had the happy occasion of performing the marriage service for daughter Caroline Anne to Randal Kevin Bilodeau at St. John's Episcopal Church in Bristol, Conn. Sorry not to be more prompt in reporting the good news.

Charles Whitmore of Plainville, Mass., has been named vice president of Westcott International Construction Corporation, a whollyowned subsidiary of Westcott Construction Corporation, after 25 years of service. He now is establishing an office in Amman, Jordan, to administer that company's ongoing contracts in the Mideast.

Good news about long-time former associates in the printing business. Bill and Cathy Beckwith of Chester Springs, Pa., are moving to Lancaster, Pa., where Bill has been named executive vice president and general manager of the Intelligencer Printing Company. Bill has had a successful 33-year career in the graphic arts business including 28 years as an executive for R.R. Donnelley & Son Company, with managerial assignments in Washington, D.C., and in California and as vice president of publication sales for Donnelley in Chicago. Later he served as national sales manager for Triangle Publications and World Color Press in Philadelphia. The Beckwiths are leaving their horse farm called Chesterfield Farms, but will find Lancaster a familiar place where they have many friends: Bill has spent a lot of time in and around Lancaster in his earlier printing experiences. Son Bill is an account executive for Effective Graphics, Inc. in Los Angeles, daughter Linda is a secretary in Phoenixville, Pa., and daughter Wendy works for an airline firm in Hartford, Conn.

The Anchorage Daily News announced that former lieutenant governor Lowell Thomas Jr. has purchased the Talkeetna Air Taxi Service and plans to work full-time ferrying mountain climbers and sightseers to some of North America's highest mountains. As main owner of the firm, Sonny will be carrying passengers to Mt. McKinley, Mt. Hunter, Mt. Foraker, and other great mountains of the Alaska Range. He started bush flying over 20 years ago while filming an episode for his father's famed television show. "Flying has always been my first love, even over politics, and now I'm going back to one of those things I've postponed for a long time," he said. "Mountain glacier flying," he added, "is the most appealing and adventuresome of all flying it puts the pilot to the maximum test." I'd guess so. He reports that business looks encouraging considering the 600 or so climbers who now try a Mt. McKinley ascent every year, along with a steady clientele of sightseers. Before election as lieutenant governor on the same ticket with Governor Jay Hammond in 1974, Sonny had served two terms in the Alaska senate.

On January 6, Ed and Molly Scheu were interviewed on the radio upon returning from a visit in the Soviet Union. The Scheus were guests of old friend Thomas J. Watson, U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, and spent ten days with the Watsons in the official residence in December. The connection goes back to the days when Ed served as Watson's navigator, and they sailed together over a 15-year period. Ed, an avid flyer, also has flown with Watson and they have shared experiences as balloonists. Their Soviet visit was not controlled in the conventional way by Intourist and interpreters that they provide. The Scheus traveled with diplomatic plates and were aided by a Finnish woman interpreter, married to an American in the embassy, who was free to express her feelings. Ed points out that it is against the law to go into Russian homes and mingle. Soviet citizens are not allowed to enter hotels. They saw Russians being removed bodily from hotels.

Americans can go in hard-currency shops where goods are available, but the Russians are not allowed. Citizens must wait in long lines at the stores where they are allowed to trade.

Ed reports that it is important to differentiate between the masses and the "nobility" of party members and intellectuals, who can dress well, go to special stores, ride in black cars, and push to the head of the line where the average person spends hours waiting. Large numbers of people just walk the streets as their only means of getting privacy and freedom. No one seems to work very hard there. Everyone is guaranteed a job; no one is trying to move things along or to sell you anything.

The Scheus do not think the people are anti-American, but that they are paranoid about security and rise up if they believe you are after information. Did the Russian people know anything about Afghanistan? Apparently not, as it was played down, particularly in relationship to the Olympics. The people really do not seem to know what is going on.

Ed sums it up by saying that while he and Molly enjoyed the cultural side, they were pretty depressed about political issues and in particular about the U.S.-U.S.S.R. relationship. He reports that the Embassy staff seems convinced that the Russians are dedicated to domination and cannot tolerate invasion of thought. It appears unlikely that we can talk them out of their intentions toward domination, such as in the Afghanistan situation. While the staff had higher hopes, Ed reports about their discouragement and the pervasive conviction that American naivete must change. They feel that we must continue the arms race in conventional weapons tank . for tank as strength is the only thing the Soviet leaders seem to understand and respect.

Thanks, Ed, for sharing your first-hand observations and the views of those realists who deal with these matters.

Hayes Hill Etna, N.H. 03750