1940

This is our second annual hurricane report. Last year it was noted that most of us on Cape Cod survived Bob with little damage to houses and boats but with many broken trees. Sam Williams reports that most of our classmates in the Vero Beach area were in the northern states during the summer, so they missed Hurricane Andrew. Sam contacted his condo manager at Vero Beach, who said that they missed the brunt of the storm and suffered little damage there. I tried to reach one of our classmates in Naples but without success. Anyway, the news reports indicated that damage was centered mostly in Homestead and the Everglades, so we hope the Naples group are all OK.

Jack Fitzgerald, a sort of military historian for his Marine Corps friends, was sent a clipping about Lt. Frederick Eaton setting his plane down in New Guinea on February 23, 1942. Because of the relatively good condition of that plane, a museum curator at Papua, New Guinea, is hoping to restore it. Is Fred still in 1942 condition? From Denver, SeymourWheelock reports seeing Dick Campbell and Bob Welborn but not Bob Perry or BruceEspey. Sey was standing in the footprints of Lewis and Clark at the headwaters of the Missouri River before Labor Day while six inches of snow were falling.

Stet Whitcher sent a thoughtful, detailed report on some of the interesting ideas at the recent Alumni College study of Islam and the Arab World. Many western misconceptions were corrected. Now Stet has a much better appreciation of the history of the Arab world, its various cultures, and its role in science, literature, art, and architecture. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today (even in the U.S.). Stet maintains that it is of vital importance to our future to have a better understanding of the Muslim world. This topic would make an excellent choice for alumni club seminars.

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