1949

Driving the roads from Reading, Mass., to Boothbay, Maine, for most of us would probably mean no more than summer and a Down East vacation. For Lemuel Herbert Howe and wife Jean, who say they have taken "... the road less traveled by," the choice has most certainly made a difference.

In a recent letter to our newsletter editor, Bert and his wife describe their love affair with the land and their life "in a log home on a rocky bluff surrounded by tall spruces by the shore of the Damariscotta River."

Forty-niners had their first inkling of the Howe "difference" in our 20th reunion book when Bert listed his occupations as pedlar, farmer, lumberjack, explorer, poet, and fighter for peace. Is it so surprising then that when he and Jeanie sat down to list all the experiences they liked that it included "love, fresh air, rain on the roof, woodsmoke, early-morning blueberry pancakes, snowshoeing, young people, forests, birds" and more?

In summing up his activities, Bert (he now calls himself Lem) says, "We are in an ongoing experiment in creating our own economy, nonpurist in any sense; we produce (are in fact solar peasants), do wood carvings of birds, write, barter, earn money by odd jobs for essentials such as health insurance and taxes and liabilities for which we cannot barter or exchange. We do not worship money and will not take on any responsibility of a supervisory nature.... The peace of mind is marvelous. No, this is not a hermitage. We have friends we never knew we had, looking us up and trekking in. We have no phone and no electric lines. No loss, there are libraries in the area."

In the early sixties the North Carolina legislature banned any Communist, including visiting Soviet professors, from speaking within the state. That act provoked Jordan (Bob) Kurland, then a professor of Russian history at the University of North Carolina, to spend half of his time over the ensuring two years fighting the ban in the North Carolina legislature and the court. It was an effort that in 1965 led to his affiliation with the American Association of University Professors as a specialist in academic freedom. The North Carolina prohibition was ultimately declared unconstitutional.

In his present position as associate general secretary of the A.A.U.P. Bob directs an organization of 150 people engaged in investigating and mediating problems of academic freedom, supervising legal work, and trying to keep incidents from becoming issues.

His academic career includes work at B.U., Columbia, the University of Leiden (Netherlands), and a stint as a member of the visiting faculty of Moscow State University for two years. During his Russian tour, Bob did extensive research in the Moscow archives, culminating in a book on Dutch/RussianRelations Before Peter the Great, published in 1969. Bob married Anita Kurland in 1947 and they have four children, three of whom have attended Dartmouth. Their eldest son, Harold, graduated in 1973, is a lawyer, and is married to a doctor. Stuart graduated in 1977, is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and is working on his doctorate. Sheila graduated in 1979 and is living on an island in Maine and is married to a lobster fisher. And Jonathan is in the eighth grade. Anita spends two or three days a week as a volunteer at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and Bob claims she has become an aeronautical expert. He continues his work in history and is an active member of the American Association for Advancement of Slavic Studies.

A few quick quotes from my volunteer '49er clipping service (a little dated as I am writing this in 1981). Freshman Republican Senator Slade Gorton was credited with a key vote in the AW ACS sale.... It took 44 years, but Peter Pianezzi recently received a full pardon for a murder conviction in 1937, thanks to the efforts of San Francisco attorney Quentin Kopp.... And, lastly, Ed Nickerson, writing to a member of the Dartmouth administration, commented that while he hardly ever gets to Dartmouth football games his daughter will make one this year as a member of the Cornell marching band.

A belated "Happy New Year." Vail.

Islamabad, Pakistan, was a Dartmouth gathering-place recently for Ronald Spiers '48(center), who had just arrived in town as the new U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan; JohnAdams '61 (left), who was in Islamabad as a member of a State Department inspectionteam; and Bob Jones '46, cultural attache at the Embassy. They're looking at the (then)latest issue of this magazine.

2 Cornfield Road Simsbury, Conn. 06070