MUNSON FETED BY STARS AND STRIPES Colonel Merton E. Munson, Land Relations Officer in Bavaria and an alumnus of the Oklahoma Chapter was recently featured in "Profiles," a column devoted to leaders in Sta1·s and S tripes. The articles is as follows: The former speaker of the Oklahoma State Senate, experienced in the delicate of art of keeping talkative politicos in parliamentary order, today finds himself in another tight-rope waiker's job. As land relations officer for Bavaria, Col. Merton E. Munson provides liaison between the Bavarian government and the Army. The 49-year-old officer graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929
KALAMAZOO
YOU
This article originally appeared in The Indianapolis Star Magazine on February 14, 1954. The story was written by Mr . Richard S. Simons. The story is republished in THE TRIAD through the courtesy of The Indianapolis Star. W. R. Breneman mixes numerous subjects, humor, cartoons, and gimmicks, and comes out with a lecture that has become an Indiana institution.
Dr. W. R. Breneman, Indiana Univer sity zoologist, is the man who compresses 3,000,000,000 years into 50 minutes. He does it each year under the title, "Kalamazoo to You," one of the most popular lectures ever to b righten an I.U. classroom. As a campus institution, its fame rivals Home-Coming Day or the law-medic battles. Adding to his role as zoologist, Dr. Breneman invades the fields of history, geography, philosophy, geology, archeology and botany. He spices the entire package with injections of humor, pitched to the college level, and tickles the senses with humorous cartoons expertly done. Gimmicks such as model toys increase the interest. Applause, in volumes that would make a political speaker gleeful, interrupts delivery and follows its ending. From start to finish, the lecture is pleasant, painless and popular. COLONEL MERTON E. MUNSON THE SPEAKER keeps his presentation fresh with annual revisions to include new theories and concepts. As efand a Bachelor of Laws in 1931. Then he practiced law in Lawton for eight fective as it is, he feels that it can always be improved. years. He dipped a tentative toe into Dr. Br.eneman 's lecture always comes politics just two years after his graduaimmediately before Christmas. The unition, found the water fine, and jumped in. Munson served as a member of the versity long ago began to penalize stuOklahoma House of Representatives dents heavily for cutting classes precedfrom 1933 to 1936 and the Senate, from ing vacations, but this is no problem 1936 to 1939. He was speaker of the here. Instead, space must be found for Senate, pro tempore, in 1936. Munson the listeners, who this season crowded entered the Army as a reserve officer in the 500-seat Chemistry Auditorium to 1940 and commanded the 344th FA Bn, overflowing. Only about half are en90th In£ Div, in its battling up the Italian rolled in the class. Dr. Breneman uses the simple device boot. In the bitter fighting Munson of correlating time to space. He presents earned: the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster ; Purple Heart with Cluster, the the entire story of evolution so graphiBronze Star and the Croix de Guerre cally that no student can leave the room with Palm. After the war, Munson was without an indelible picture of man's development and his minute role on the assigned to the legislative and liaison division, office, chief of Staff, Washington. immense stage of time. The route from Kalamazoo to IndiHe arrived in USAREUR in October 1952 as head of the department school anapolis fits exactly on the scale of 200 system. In December 1953 the colonel years to the inch. The cities and landwas named commander of the Darm- marks also fall at the proper locations. stadt Detachment. He held this post unBefore starting the trip, D r. Brenetil Jan. 5, 1954 when he was transferred man, a solidly built man in his 40s, to the liaison post in Bavaria with headwaxes philosophical in a short introquarters in Munich. duction. 78
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Indiana Acacian W. R. Breneman's cartooned lecture, "Kalamazoo to You," has become an established campus institution at Indiana University, where it draws a standing room audience.
Man, he indicates, can best understand himself when seen in perspective. "A zoologist views man as a biological upstart, a Johnny-come-lately to this planet, who, biologically speaking, isn't dry behind the ears yet. Furthermore, the zoologist sees man as ·one who is not giving due attention to the lessons he might learn from Mother Nature. "The zoologist believes," D r. Breneman continues, "that we can ask Mother Nature for the necessary facts." Then, borrowing that famous line from "Dragnet," he adds, "All we want are the facts, Ma'am, just the facts." ASSUMING that planetary existence began at Kalamazoo, Dr. Breneman finds that the earth's crust formed at the Indiana line, the first carbon chains at Goshen and more complex carbon chains at Warsaw. At best, the earth here was populated with viruses. A crawling crust of protoplasm appeared at Wabash and clusters of sponges-the first animals-at Peru. Jellyfishes, a big step £orward on the life scale, showed up at Kokomo. Displaying a knowledge of Indiana highways, D r. Breneman called attention to the straight road south to Westfield. "Organisms made time here," he explains. "Th·e trilobites appeared and lasted as far as Martinsville. Corals, crustaceans and the first invertebrates also came into existence." Mollusks appeared near Indianapolis. Bringing Shortridge High School into the lecture, he drew quick applause from Shortridge graduates, but squelched this by adding that "as yet there are no animals with backbones. ShortTHE TRIAD