THE JANUS P. 2
AFS Driver Tour
2000 P. 4 Holocaust Survivor Meets AFS Drivers P. 5 Helping the Victims of the Killing Fields P. 6 Tribute to Ray and Marian Mitchell
P. 8 News
Drivers in the
AFS drivers j. Munro, W Chamberlin, Jr., c. B. Tome, j. Smith, F. Balderston, W Cantrall, D. A. weaver, C. B. Squire, and C. P. Edwards stand before the jldgs of a now united Europe at the European Parliament in Brussels.
P. 11 The Galatti Retrospective
EDITORIAL STAFF Eleanora Golobic, Archivist and Editor
Suzanne Sebert, Director of External Relations
Alana Robinson, Designer
AFS World Congress in Belgium
T
he 2000 World Congress was held in October in Brussels, Belgium, close to many historic sites and to some of the powerful political institutions of a newly emerging Europe. More than 180 AFS staff and volunteer leaders from 54 partner organizations attended the Congress. World Congress is an occasion for the leadership of AFS to come together to discuss policies, negotiate the many exchange opportunities they offer, and set the direction of the organization. In the culmination of a year of work and many constructive debates, the Congress in Brussels approved a new strategic plan for AFS.
The presence of thirteen AFS ambulance drivers was a significant feature of the Congress. Life Trustees Ward Chamberlin, Jr. (ME 37, CM 104, IE 59-T), Frederick Balderston (ME 37, CM 100, IE 59-T) and Edwin Masback (ME 37) attended the meetings in Brussels. In addition, Robert Kennedy (CM 75), D. A. Weaver (ME 16, FR 4), William Cantrall (CM 92), Charles P. Edwards (ME 26), Walter Brethauer (ME 19, CM 94, IE 59-T), C. B. Squire (ME 37, IE 57), Charles Barry Tome (CM 45), DeWitt Morrill (IE 7), John Smith (CM 89, IE 59-T), and James Munro (CM 71) were present at the Congress. A highlight of the 2000 World Congress was a visit to the European Parliament. At the Parliament session Wayne Edwards, Chairman of the AFS International Board of Trustees, acknowledged the AFS drivers' contribution and their continuous commitment to the organization. The keynote speaker of the Congress, Dr. Riccardo Petrella, pointed to the implications of the global society, the information society and the knowledge society as lifting the restrictions of space and time in world relations. He warned us not to succumb to merely playing the "market game". He encouraged us to support efforts to provide access to education for everybody in order to avoid a "digital divide" in our societies. While the delegates debated policy the AFS drivers enjoyed a side trip to the beautiful medieval city ofBruges and a cruise on Bruges canal. The drivers also had an afternoon meeting with more than 200 Belgian returnees and volunteers and shared their experiences and goals as founders of the organization.
AFS Driver Tour 2000
T
he World Congress in Brussels was the first stop on a three-country tour for AFS drivers Masback, Brethauer, Squire, Tome, Morrill, Smith and Munro, their wives and friends, and AFS Archivist Eleanora Golobic.
Following the Congress, the drivers joined other AFS Museum for French-American Friendship (see article AFS Vivre Sans Frontiere staff at Fontenay-sous-Bois, cruise on the Seine. Xavier Godet, AFS VSF National Manager joined the group for these activites.
friends for a day in Blerancourt, France, home of the p. 7). They went on to Paris where they visited with the in addition to touring the city and enjoying a dinner Director and Caroline Barjon, Communications
From Paris the group moved on to Germany. Barbel Helmers (AFS 1953-54), long-time staff member and volunteer and Honorary Chairwoman of AFS Germany, and a 1997 returnee Silvan Heintze were in charge of the German portion of the trip. At a reception in Stuttgart's City Hall Deputy Mayor - and AFS student 1963-64 - Gabriele MlillerTrimbusch awarded official City of Stuttgart medals to the drivers. An account of the event appeared next day in the Stuttgarter Zeitung.
Karl-Dietrich Daublin - a retired teacher and AFS student in 1950-51 - welcomed the drivers as they arrived by boat in Heidelberg and helped them tour that famed university town. In Saarbriicken the drivers attended Germany's annual fall conference of AFS volunteers about 350 volunteers from various parts of the country - and presented a panel discussion on the origins and ideals of AFS. They received a standing, cheering ovation! To cap the trip, the drivers spent four days in Berlin, under the guidance of AFS volunteer Deputy Mayor o/Stuttgart Gabriele Miiller- Trimbusch awarding the Jane Helmchen, a long time resident of the city. city medal to AFS drivers James Munro, Ed Masback, Barry TOme,Dick They enjoyed meeting Deputy Foreign Minister Morrill and Walter Brethauer on October 11, 2000. Photo: Andreas Wolfgang Ischinger, an AFS student to the US "Weise in 1963-64, who gave generously of his time to explain the problems of German reunification and other issues. At a dinner with former AFS participants in Berlin the drivers were introduced by Alexander Longolius, an AFS student in 1952-53, long time chairman of the Berlin AFS committee, and the Executive Director of the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation. The Berliner Morgenpost published an interview with Mr. Longolius, Chick Squire, Walter Brethauer and a recent AFS student, Victoria Geier. Throughout the trip drivers met with 575 AFSers and many members of the German AFS board and local chapters joined the drivers for luncheons and dinners. Many thanks to Nils Bauer, Barbel Helmers, Jane Helmchen, the staff and volunteers of AFS Germany for organizing and hosting this outstanding tour. AFS ambulance drivers with German volunteers at the Annual Fall AFS Conference, Saarbriicken, October 15, 2000
Celebration of Life: A Holocaust Survivor Meets the AFS Drivers Who Rescued Her from Bergen-Belsen
D
uring World War II Alice Kern, a Jewish woman from Romania, was interned at Auschwitz concentration camp and then at Bergen-Belsen. Alice survived the concentration camps and was twenty-two years old when Bergen-Belsen was liberated in April of 1945. Alice, a Portland, Oregon, resident, published a book Tapestryo/Hope about her experiences and for the last twenty years she has educated others about the Holocaust. Her ardent wish was to find her liberators so she could thank them. Earlier this year Hugh Gemmell, Colin Gemmel's (CM 92, IE 60-T) son contacted Dr. Geri Senft, program director at the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. Hugh wanted to bring an AFS Dodge ambulance to the reunion of the British Eighth Army in Blackpool, England in June of 2000. He asked Geri for a letter to the U.S. Air Force requesting help in shipping the ambulance. Hugh knew about the AFS participation in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen camp from his father, but he didn't know that Geri's mother was Alice Kern. Geri supplied him with the letter and asked Hugh to bring the ambulance and the AFS ambulance drivers who had been at Bergen-Belsen to Oregon to meet her mother and other Holocaust survivors. AFS drivers Norman Kunkel (IE 5, CM 92-T), Fred Burkhardt (CM 83), Arnold Motz (ME 22) who participated in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen gathered with Colin Gemmell in Oregon. The long anticipated reunion took place outside a Portland nursing home on Sunday, April 30, 2000, the first day of Yom Hashoa, a week of remembrance of the Holocaust.
L. to R: Arnold Motz, Fred Burkhardt, Hugh Gemmell, Colin Gemmell, and Norman Kunkel with Alice Kern at the Portland reunion, April30, 2000
During an emotionally charged gathering, AFS ambulance drivers gave Mrs. Kern the black beret of the British tank corps with an AFS eagle emblem just like the ones they wore during the war and Mrs. Kern presented them with copies of her book.
Helping the Victims of the Killing Fields: An AFS Driver Volunteers Again A lmost four decades had passed since I had been anAFS .r1.ambulance driver (1942-1945) when alongrime friend who was a physical therapist, Virginia Veach, asked me whether I would drive the one and only ambulance at a refugee camp, Khao I Dang, on the Thai-Cambodian border. I prepared myself by earning an Emergency Medical Technician license in Boulder, Colorado, and in 1980 found myself once more at the wheel of an ambulance (not one of our beloved Dodges, to be sure), and also working in the emergency area (sort of an RAP with no artillery sounds). The barbed wire enclosed about 135,000 Cambodian, Vietnamese, and ethnic Chinese, escapees from the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese regimes. Thousands of bamboo huts were bordered by rough-hewn paths and open ditches running with raw sewage. The closing scene of the film, "The Killing Fields", was staged here.
AFS Driver, Forrest Williams with his ambulance in Italy,
A handful of us had volunteered as individuals, working with a number of well-organized relief groups (International Rescue Committee, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and others).
1944. Those who succeeded in reaching the camp often arrived barely alive. Some bore the sorts of wounds from land mines, bullets and grenades that we all saw in the AFS. Most, however, were survivors of extreme dehydration and hunger, dysentery, heat prostration, broken limbs, or a variety of bacterial and viral diseases including malaria and dengue fever. The difficulties of every stage of medical care-ambulance rescues, emergency treatment, crowded wards, and essential surgery-were compounded by the scarcity of diagnostic instruments and the lack of running hot water, and also by the seeming infinity of marauding rats. And yet, encouragingly, in only the three short months that Virginia and I were able to be there, the number of lives saved and refugees healed kept increasing. The daily death toll was dropping significantly. A sudden outbreak of typhoid fever had been instantly diagnosed and contained. The long-run benefits of adequate nutrition and safe water were at last becoming evident. The camp has long been closed, with most of the refugees resettled in other countries. I look back on this all-toobrief stint with the same feelings of special privilege that marked for me my AFS experience-without which, of course, this second opportunity would probably never have arisen.
Tribute to Ray and Marian Mitchell On April 9, 2000, the Greater New Bedford (Massachusetts) AFS Chapter honored Ray and Marian Mitchell of Fairhaven for their years of dedication and service to AFS with a celebratory luncheon. Ward Chamberlin was a keynote speaker at the event. Ray Mitchell (ME 39), served with the AFS in the Middle East, Syria and Italy and became Commander of AFS 485 Company. For his service, Mr. Mitchell was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Civil Division.
Marian and Raymond Mitchell with ward Chamberlin at an AFS New Bedford luncheon honoring their service, April9, 2000.
Ray and Marian Mitchell founded the Greater New Bedford AFS chapter in 1953. Mr. Mitchell served as president of the chapter for several years. At the luncheon the Mitchells reunited with two of their former exchange students, Tony Pinna ofItaly and Rudolf Merten of Austria, and their wives. The chapter established The Raymond and Marian Mitchell Scholarship Fund in their honor.
AFS Spain Salinas Award The board of AFS Intercultura Spain recently established a volunteer award - the Spanish version of the Galatti Award - and named the award in honor ofJaime Salinas, an AFS ambulance driver who lives in Madrid. Mr. Salinas served withAFS Section III in France in 1944-1945. The new award was celebrated with a reception on May 6th at the "Circulo de BellasArtes" in Madrid with lots of AFS Intercultura Spain friends - volunteers, families, teachers, donors, staff - and press coverage. Mr. Salinas attended the reception and spoke to the guests. The first Jaime SalinasAward went to Carlos Bernard and Pepi Munoz, a volunteer family in Murcia, Spain. The prize was a plane ticket to visit anyone of their 12 AFS children! This year the family is hosting a girl from Brazil, their 13th student. Congratulations to Jaime Salinas, Carlos Bernard and Pepi Munoz - and hats off to Intercultura Spain for establishing a very special volunteer award.
AFS Day - Visit to Blerancourt, France
O
n Sunday, October 8, 2000, AFS Vivre Sans Frontiere (AFS in France) and AFS Travel organized an AFS Day at the French national museum in Blerancourt, France. The event brought together over 200 AFS representatives - Paul Shay, AFS President, members of the Board of Trustees, international delegates who had attended the AFS World Congress in Brussels, the Driver Tour 2000 group and staff and volunteers of AFS Vivre Sans Frontiere - and members of the American Friends of Blerancourt (AFB). The visit included a slide presentation by Ms. Anne Dopffer, curator of the museum, a buffet lunch, a tour of the museum and the dedication of a bench in the Blerancourt gardens to Bill Orrick, AFS Vice President (1971-1977) and Director of Archives (1980-1996). Bill Orrick's family came from the United States for the event. The Blerancourt visit served as a powerful reminder of the roots of AFS. Since 1938, AFS has been part of the permanent collections at the Blerancourt museum which is located about seventy miles northeast of Paris. The AFS exhibit includes paintings, books, posters, photographs and documentation related to the AFS history in France in both World Wars. The centerpiece of the AFS exhibit is "Hunk 0' Tin," a ModelT Ford ambulance that served with AFS Section 30 at Soissons, France in 1917.
AFS Archivist Eleanora Golobic and an AFS WWI ambulance at the Blerancourt Museum.
Last year the museum asked for AFS' help to support a greatly needed restoration of "Hunk 0' Tin". A fund-raising appeal to launch the William P. Orrick Fund was organized by Dan Hastings, General Manager of AFS Travel, Marianne Meyer, former Trustee and Ward Chamberlin, Life Trustee. The AFS support of the museum was coordinated with the American Friends of Blerancourt and a restoration donation of more than $10,000 was presented in August to the AFB by Dan Hastings, Paul Shay and Ward Chamberlin. Ford Motor Company matched the donation and will be sending an expert in vehicle restoration to consult with the staff at the Blerancourt museum.
DRIVERS IN THE NEWS Norman
Kunkel's Bergen-Belsen presentation in Brazil In September Norman Kunkel (IE 5, CM 92-T) and his wife Georgie traveled to Vito ria, Brazil, at the invitation of AFS Intercultura Brasil. Kunkel was a guest speaker at AFS Intercultura Brasil'sGeneral Assembly on 8-10 September. Using photos of himself and his AFS unit in action Kunkel spoke about his experiences liberating the former Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in April and May of 1945 and the mission of AFS in today's world.
David Ford (CM 47) was a guest speaker at the AFS United Kingdom General Meeting in York, England, on April 2, 2000. Ford and AFS leaderswere received by the Lord Mayor of York in the City Hall. With Ford and the Mayor in the photo is Elizabeth Wild, National Chair of AFS in the UK. Ford was active in AFS in Cleveland, Ohio, and is an AFS sending and host father.
James McCord (CM 79) and his wife Shirley attended AFS Interculture Ireland's Donegal Chapter reception on October 1, 2000. Guests at the event included leaders of AFS in Latin America who were observing programs in Ireland, Interculture Ireland staff, volunteers, host families and students from Hungary, Italy and the US on Ireland's exchange program. The reception was held in Carrigan, County Donegal. Mr. McCord has been staying in Donegal pan time for the past twenty years.
AFS Drivers at the Eighth Army Veterans' Association Reunion in Blackpool The cover page of The New Crusader of September 2000 featured a photo of an AFS Dodge ambulance and an article on AFS ambulance drivers who came to the 20th Eighth Army Veterans'Association reunion in Blackpool, England last June. AFS was represented at that event by Hugh and Colin Gemmell (CM 92, IB-T), Norman Kunkel (IE 5, CM 92-T) and Bernard Raphael (CM 48). The AFS group had memorable time with the Desert Rats and participated in a reception attended by the Mayor of Blackpool. A display of AFS with the Eighth Army and the left door of an AFS ambulance from 1942 were also brought to the reunion. After being signed by the drivers who attended the reunion the door will be fitted back on a restored ambulance.
Bill Cantrall Visits Casa de la Chinca in Colombia
During Bill Cantrall's visit to Medellin, Colombia (see his report in the sidebar) he and AFS staff member Peter Hagerman visited the children at Casa de La Chinca. AFS works with the former street children who now find a stable home at the agency.
.J\.N INVI'l.Jl :PRO:Jvl IN
'lION
5tJ'S
COLO:Jvl'BI.Jl
By William Cantrall AFS World mzr II Driver (CM 92) AFS-Colombia was celebrating its 40th Anniversaryas an AFS country and wanted an "originalvolunteer" on hand to mark the occasion. Really, - I was told - all I would have to do was meet people and be photographed fOr posterity and give the main, inspirational, one-hour address(which took me two weeks to write), in Medellin, Colombia. Eleanora Golobic of the New York office supplied helpfULbackground material to add to what I'd experiencedmyself The speechwas translated bit by bit en route, by staffersand AFSers in New York, Bogota and Medellin. PeterHagerman, afOrmerAFS International Consultant, was minder, interpreterand tour guide. Being introduced everywhereseemed to be almost my most important function. A major event was beingphotographed with one, two, or ten people. My speech was translated to the audience in short paragraphs by Juan Munera Diaz, a Medellin lawyer and AFSer. Juan's performance must have been terrific, as we got a standing ovation. My favorite line: "Stephen Galatti was not just a genius, he was a great man. And he was not just a great man, he was a genius, at reinventing the AFS. ".Yes, there are internal problems in Colombia which, sadly, have causedAFS Colombia to suspend hosting exchange students. But RosarioGutierrez, the National Director, led a team that worked hard to make the AFS occasion a success.I feel honored to have been able to celebrate with them, and to see the volunteer spirit still working its magic.
ACCESSIONS AND ARCHIVAL EXHIBITS AFS Archives isfortunate to have received a number of personal collections and items relating to the history of the AFS in WWI and WWIJ we are also grateful for donations of new materials on AFS student programs. Listed below are some - but by no means all- of the recent gifts received by the Archives.
Phillip T. Cate, Jr.: His father, Phillip Cate's (SSU 3) diary October 5, 1915 - March 11, 1916. & an ambulance driver with Section 3 on the Alsace front Cate witnessed the battles for Hartmannsweilerkopf and the death of Richard Hall (SSU 3) in December of 1915. The diary also mentions Stephen Galatti. Mr. Phillip Cate also donated an early AFS history Friends of France (1916). Peter D. Noyes: His father, Edwin Miles Noyes's (SSU 28) WWI correspondence including an essay on history of the AFS (ca. 1969). AFS Section 28 served in the Monts sector of Champagne in the summer of 1917. Philip Steers: His grandfather, James Rich Steers, Jr.'s. (SSU 29) WWI records. Steers served with the AFS at the Second Battle of Verdun and St. Mihiel Sectors and joined the Red Cross in Italy after the militarization of the AFS in the fall of 1917. Mrs. Ingrid Wackernagel: Her husband, Frederick W Wackernagel's (ME 37) WWII personal collection. Wackernagel served with the AFS in the Middle East and Italy in 1943-44. This collection includes a canvas stretcher pillow, mosquito netting, U.S. army backpack, leather & canvas field pouch with imprint ''American Field Service Wackernagel", woolen scarf, tourist guides (France, Italy), "Tripoli Times" and "The Eighth Army News" (1943), German and French phrasebooks. The collection complements the previously donated AFS uniforms worn by Mr. Wackernagel. Mrs. Susanne H. Lippincott: Her husband, Donald F. Lippincott, Jr.'s (ME 18) WWII diary. This indexed diary dated July 8, 1942 - March 27, 1943 documents Lippincott's 1942 sea voyage to the Middle East (a ship in his convoy was torpedoed) and his experiences as an ambulance driver in Syria, Egypt and Tunisia. John W Leonard (CM 88): Reference notes to his WWII diary ''A Volunteer in World War II 1944-1945" donated in 1995. Anne Butman: Her father, Earl W Butman's (ME 37, CM 78) WWII correspondence "Being the Rambling Accounting Of A Man in the American Field Service". Butman wrote home during his AFS service in the Italian campaign, September 1944 - May 6, 1945. Includes a clipping "Beverly Soldier in Africa" (N.D.). Ward Chamberlin, Jr. (ME 37, CM 104, IE 59-T): PBS Video "They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II" - a documentary on the life and work of several outstanding American artists selected by the government to record World War II (2000).
Elke J ander (Germany to USA 1956-57): Color photographs Eisenhower at the Washington bus stop ofJune of 1957.
of Stephen Galatti with students and President
Hugh Gemmell: video and photos of the April 30, 2000 reunion of survivors of Bergen-Belsen and four AFS Drivers (the tape also includes Channel 6 /Pordand TV news coverage of the meeting). Also Culture magazine with a reunion article "Tears ofJoy".
We gratefully acknowledge all donations to the AFS Archives. Your financial support has helped our goal of preserving the history of AFS as the Archives through exhibition, publication, research, and acquisition has continued to pass on to new generations of AFS participants and host families, volunteers and staff programming that furthers study of the AFS history.
AFS Web Site - New History Links: The AFS Web page site has been expanded with AFS History Links added to web sites with AFS documentation. You can access the History Links Web page at http://afsweb.afs.orgllinks.nsf/pages/archives
STEPHEN GALATTI AS WE KNEW HIM: THE GALATTI RETROSPECTIVE AFS honored Stephen Galatti, the founder of the AFS Intercultural Programs, with a commemorative exhibit of 22 historic photographs at the AFS World Congress in Brussels. Galatti, a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Field Service during World War I and AFS' Director General during World II was the leading force in the creation of the AFS International Scholarship Program in 1947.
we
The exhibit was accompanied by a brochure "As Remember Him ... " with quotations selected from the many letters we have received about Galatti. AFS Archives is pleased to include "As Remember Him .. " in this mailing of The Janus.
we
We hope that someday there will be a full-length biography of Steven Galatti. As we move toward that goal AFS Archives would be happy to receive additional letters of remembrance from those who knew this memorable man.
Tom Hale's Letter Will be Published by Tom Brokaw
Uncle Marne: The Life of Patrick Dennis by Eric Myers
Thomas Hale's (CM 47, CM 97) April 1999 letter on his service with the AFS will be included in a second follow up volume to Tom Brokaw's bestseller The Greatest Generation. Mr. Hale commented on Mr. Brokaw's first WWII book and was contacted several months later for permission to use his story.
Dennis, the author of Auntie Mame was known in the AFS as Edward E. Tanner III (ME 37, FR 3-T) and was wounded twice during his service in the Italian campaign. An Archives photo of Dennis with AFS drivers from the Evanston area arriving in El Tahaq, Egypt in March of 1943 appears in this new book. An extensive article on Dennis also appeared in the September 2000 issue of "Vanity Fair". Uncle Mame is available in hardcover from St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312246552, $24.95.
Donald F. Lippincott, Jr.'s Diary (1942-1943) Available Mrs. Susanne H. Lippincott has made a copy of the diary of Donald F. Lippincott, Jr. (ME 18) AFS service in the Middle East and will send it to anyone interested for $30.00 (includes postage). Contact Susanne Holston Lippincott, Haddonfield Commons, 400 N. Haddon Avenue 104, Haddonfield, NJ 08033-1733.
AFS WWII Ambulance Models and Replica of AFS Eagle Cap Badge Available A limited quantity of ambulance models including Dodge WC-54, Canadian Chevrolet truck and Jeep used in India Burma will be sold on a first-come-firstserve basis by Hugh Gemmell. All models are 1/35 scale and approximately 5 %" long and 2 %" high. Drivers may request their ambulance company insignia (485 or 567) painted on the side of a Dodge ambulance. The cost is $65.00 per model. Replicas of the AFS WWII eagle badge (size 2 % " x 1 1,4") are also available. The eagle badge costs $25.00. Please contact Hugh Gemmell, 3128 S.W Hume, Portland, OR 97219 tel. (503) 246-5993.
ME 16 Unit Members Do You Remember the Crossing on the MIS SELANDIA? During his recent trip to Denmark D. A. Weaver (ME 16, FR 4) discovered a six-foot model of the MIS Selandia (Sj;dland) at the Museum of the Resistance in Copenhagen. In 1942 this Danish freighter took 97 AFS volunteers of Unit ME 16 from New York to Cape Town in South Africa. The Selandia's photo is available on the Website of the Royal Library in Copenhagen. http://www.kb.dk/kulturlexpo/ porten/96- illus/34 5- r7 .htm
Oral History Update AFS Archives would like to thank all of the drivers and early AFS participants and staff members who participated in our oral history project. To date more than 50 individuals have helped preserve the AFS legacy in this way. If you did not participate and would like to do so, contact the Archives. We will send you an audio tape and easy questions and directions to follow to describe your AFS experience on tape in your own words.
Research in the Archives Administrative records of the AFS in the Great War were made available to Dr. Jack E. McCallum, who is completing his doctoral dissertation on the AFS participation in World War I at Texas Christian University. Dr. McCallum was particularly interested in descriptions of battlefield surgery obtained from AFS WWI diaries. Dr. McCallum's dissertation is to be part of an overall history of World War I medicine and will be published by Norman publications. We were pleased to provide Dr. Raymond McGuire of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Miami with a videotape of "Our Friend France" (1916) featuring Victor Chapman, a Lafayette Escadrille ace and the first US flier killed in France. Dr. McGuire requested the video for the 1OOth anniversary of the USDA in Miami where an airbase was named after Chapman and a neighboring park also bears his name. Mr. GeoffV Ford, 164ch Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps of the yh British Infantry Division requested archival records on AFS in Italy in WWII. Mr. Ford served with AFS drivers in the area north of Naples during the spring of 1944 and is writing an article on AFS in the Italian campaign for the British "Legion" Magazine. If you wish to contact Mr. Ford, his address is: Penwern Old Mills, Cribyn Lampeter Ceredigion, Wales, SA 48 7QH, UK; tel. & fax (01570) 470905 Robert Ferrier's (IE 54) personnel file and AFS India Burma Unit 54 records were provided to the AFS Des Moines chapter and used in his Oral History interview. The interview is available on the chapter's Web site. http://www.central.edu/afs/ferrier.htm Archives assisted Mr. Michael McMurray of the U.S. Department of Defense in locating the U.S. host mother of Mrs. Loreto Fernandez Baeza, an AFS Chile returnee 1969-70 and the wife of the newly elected Chilean Minister of Defense.
Mrs. Baeza was visiting the U.S. and wanted to contact her AFS host family, the Lafollettes of New Albany, IN. Program records documenting AFS connections to Hotchkiss School and Dickinson College were made available to those schools. AFS Archives assisted Annette Puckhaber, Department of Contemporary History, University of Trier, Germany in her post-doctoral research on German students who participated in the American Field Service student exchanges between 1948 and 1952. Ms. Puckhaber's research focuses on young Germans who went on scholarships to the United States before the Fulbright program was extended to include Germany. Archives contributed photos and records of Rosemarie Popp for the 50 years of volunteer service tribute to her held last March during AFS Germany's General Assembly.
DOCUMENTARY AND
AFS
ON THE WESTERN
DESERT
PARTICIPATION IN THE NORTH AFRICAN
CAMPAIGN
Mr. Hans -Gunther Stark, a documentary filmmaker and a German veteran is looking for AFS ambulance drivers to contribute their accounts of experiences in the Desert war. Mr. Stark is preparing a documentary series about the war in North Africa for the Stern TV / ZDF television network and would like to interview AFS drivers (preferably from the East Coast area) who served in the Western Desert. Mr. Stark is planning to come to the US next spring shoot the actual interviews. If you would like to participate in this project, please let us know and we will pass your name on to Mr. Stark.
BILL ORRICK'S MEMORIAL
SERVICE
A memorial service was held for William Pendleton Orrick, retired director of AFS Archives, on May 6 at Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Bill died February 24, 2000. Bill was the headmaster at Solebury for many years. Arthur Howe, former president of AFS who originally hired Bill in 1968, spoke at the ceremony celebrating Bill's life. His remarks are reproduced below: As we honor the life and work of Bill Orrick, we are reminded of what is important in the values of people and institutions. My immediate conclusion is that in some fifty years of fairly intensive involvement in the affairs of AFS, both in Wzr and Peace, my best contribution was the recruitment of Bill Orrick. He was a wonderfully effective "people"person, and gave 100% loyalty to the institution he served He personified in all his acts, in his quality of mind and heart, the ':5''' letter of the AFS, American Field Service! As to values, he wore them unostentatiously on his sleeve. preach, because he exemplified all that he was, a deeply rooted humanitarian. Bill's good judgement, his gentle but powerful persuasiveness, his overall quality of graciousness stemmed in part, I believe, from his grounding in and love of the classics, and the best of Western arts and letters. Bill's talents were influential in AFS for two eras, the first being his years as Director of Programs dealing with complex intercultural issues of people, principle, and organization in 60 or more countries ... I think of the many thousands of young people from all over the world, as well as their parents and schools, and also of the small but far-flung AFS professional staff and finally of the thousands of volunteers supporting AFS, all of whom directly or indirectly were enriched by Bill's influence. Bill's second "era"at AFS was about as active as his first. He assumed responsibility for collecting, organizing and publishing the unusual history of this hybrid AFS organization, founded in idealism, and in volunteerism through humanitarian service in two wars, followed by a half century of student exchanges... He became the more beloved of AFS friends and supporters as he carried this work forward, still at the age of 90 commuting regularly to the AFS office in New rork.
EVAN
W. THOMAS II (1920-1999)
AFS Intercultural Programs lost a distinguished founder when Evan Welling Thomas, II passed away on February 27, 1999 in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Thomas, 78, was a well-known editor and publisher. Evan Welling Thomas II was born in New York City on July 14, 1920. A son of the Socialist leader Norman Thomas, he was a graduate of Kent School in 1938 and traveled to England as captain of the Kent School crew, winning the Thames Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. Thomas attended Princeton University where he was captain of the crew. He left Princeton and volunteered for the American Field Service as an ambulance driver in October of 1941. Thomas' older brother William also served with AFS.
During his tenure Harper and Bros. published a number of best selling books, including Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau, Old Yeller by Fred Gibson, Death of a President by William Manchester, Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey, The Good Years by Walter Lord and The First Circle by Alexander 1. Solzenitsyn. In 1968 Thomas became Vice-President and Senior Editor at WW Norton and continued to publish notable books, including Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash. He retired in 1983. Mr. Thomas served on Board of Directors of AFS in the 1960's. He was elected AFS Trustee for the term 1966-1969. Thomas was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Association.
Thomas was sent overseas with Unit ME 1 on November 6, 1941. He was assigned to the British 8th Army in the Western Desert (Syria, Egypt and Libya) in 1942-43 and was attached to 11 AFS ACC, 485 Coy. As an AFS first lieutenant and platoon officer Thomas served at the North Mrican battles ofTobruk and El Alamein. Upon his return, he wrote a book about his experiences, Ambulance in Africa (Appleton Century, New York, 1943). In 1943, Thomas joined the U.S. Navy and was commissioned as an ensign. He participated in the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach in June of 1944 as a lieutenant aboard a landing ship tank. In 1945, Thomas became a reader and then an editor at Harper & Bros., publishers. He rose to become Executive Vice- President and Editor-in-Chief.
Evan Thomas next to his ambulance in North Africa,
1942
World War II
Dennis A. Weaver standing at the WWII memorial to his brother-in-law Lt. John R. Vlyman at the cemetary in Nyk0bing Falster, Denmark, October 20, 2000. Mr. Vlyman, a U.S. pilot was shot down over the Baltic Sea and his body washed ashore at Nykobing Falster in April of 1944. The Danish people maintained the gravesite and decorated it each year on Memorial Day until 1996. In his search for the Vlyman's gravesite in Denmark, Mr. Weaver received assistance from Helle Jarlmose, a Consultant to the Strategic Planning Group and a former ND of AFS in Denmark. Helle wrote an article on Mr. Weaver's quest for the Danish AFS magazine "'T" langent " .
Charles L. Albert, Jr., IB 21 John J. Angevin, IB 9 Thomas M. Barber Jr., CM 92, IB 60-T Earl W Butman, ME 37, CM 78 John A. Countaway, ME 2 Harold M. Curtiss, ME 26 Walter S. de la Plante, ME 26 Alfred Fritzsche II, CM 97, IB 59- T Don C. Gifford, ME 21, FFC Francis X. Glynn, IB 59 Julius Cicero Green, IE 55 Ray A. Hauserman Jr., IB 1 Robert L. Headley, ME 4 John H. Hendrickson, CM 75 Byron R. Kelley, IB 3 Ian W. Keen, CM 47, IB 60-T Roscoe V. Lewis, ME 1 Quentin F. Maule, CM 92, IB 59- T Eugene]. McVoy, ME 16, IB 53 Arthur P. Rosenquest, IB 56 Michael B. Rothenberg, IB 55 William H. Sayen IV, ME 4 Richard C. Shepard, FR 1 Dinwiddie Smith, IB 9 William T. Smith, IB 4 Hugh W. Swofford, CM 88 William B. Warden, ME 2, FFC, CM 91 Howard B. Weisberg, ME 16 Francis Brooke Whiting II, ME 35, FFC