A PUBLICATION OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE AMERICAN FIELD SERVICE AND AFS INTERCULTURAL PROGRAMS
Walter J. Brethauer An Unexpected AFS Experience Inspires a Lifetime of Support
FALL 2012:
AFS History Revealed at an American National Historic Landmark 5 Rosi Popp: An AFS Pioneer and Exemplary AFS Volunteer 6 The Green Academy: Learning to Save the Planet the AFS Way 7 Letter from the AFS International President 8 Herman Armour Webster and the Origins of the AFS 9 AFS WWII Ambulance Drivers Last Post 10 2012 Galatti Award Winners Announced 12
Walter J. Brethauer A PUBLICATION OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE AMERICAN FIELD SERVICE AND AFS INTERCULTURAL PROGRAMS
Dear AFS Friend, This issue’s feature article tells the story of Walter J. Brethauer, a World War II AFS Ambulance Driver and steadfast supporter of AFS Intercultural Programs. In his own words excerpted from his wartime diary, Walter tells us how his experience changed his life and motivated him and his family to give decades of committed service to AFS, an organization that they have always held very close to their hearts. AFS Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. (AFS Germany) lost an exceptional member of its family this year. AFS Returnee and Volunteer Rosemarie (Rosi) Popp represented the dedication and commitment of AFS Germany’s first generation of volunteers. We asked Bärbel Helmers, National Director (1961-1989), Honorary Chairperson of AFS Germany, and Rosi’s friend, for input to write the article about Rosi. Just as much as Rosi and her contemporaries helped to build and nurture a strong AFS, AFS Germany’s new generation of staff, volunteers, and participants are helping to shape its future. In the article titled “The Green Academy: Learning to Save the Planet the AFS Way,” we see how AFS Germany is incorporating intercultural learning into innovative and relevant new programs. Vincenzo Morlini writes about some of the important priorities for AFS in the coming years in his “Letter from the AFS International President.” We delve into the history of AFS and bring you the stories of early AFS supporters and volunteers in “AFS History Revealed at an American National Historic Landmark” and “Herman Armour Webster and the Origins of the AFS.” And for those of you who enjoyed the article we published in the Spring 2012 issue titled “Villa le Querci: A Young Woman’s Wartime Memories of AFS,” we have additional information on what has happened with the Villa since the end of World War II that Roberto Ruffino, Secretary General of AFS Intercultura (AFS Italy), wanted to share with our readers. We hope you enjoy this issue of the AFS Janus.
Carlos Porro, Editor carlos.porro@afs.org AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. 71 West 23rd Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10010-4102 USA tel: +1.212.807.8686 fax: +1.212.807.1001 www.afs.org
An Unexpected AFS Experience Inspires a Lifetime of Support “My experience in the American Field Service during World War II changed my life. I have always believed that, by offering young women and men and their host families the opportunity to have life-changing intercultural exchange experiences, AFS is helping to create a brighter and more peaceful world.” Walter J. Brethauer was born into a music-loving family in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1920. Both of his parents were of German descent and were active in their local church. As a boy, Walter was a Boy Scout and a member of the school orchestra, where he played the oboe. He was a senior at Penn State when the United States entered World War II. In 1942 he described himself as a conscientious objector on his draft card since he wanted to support the United States, but he did not want to kill anyone. He fully expected this decision to land him in jail, but his mother’s active participation in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom provided him with an alternative. Through the League she became aware that the American Field Service (AFS) was recruiting ambulance drivers in Pittsburgh and told Walter about the opportunity. “I knew nothing about it much, except that it was on you. You bought your own uniform. There was no pay and there was no insurance possible. I took a piece of paper from AFS with me to the draft board and . . . to my complete bafflement, they said, ‘Fine.’” Walter arrived in New York City in early July of 1942 to report to the AFS office on Beaver Street. He spent his first day collecting his uniform and getting the required immunizations. Excerpts from his diary give us a fascinating glimpse of wartime New York: “While riding the taxi uptown this evening, I noticed antiaircraft batteries along the East River. Several camouflaged boats could also be seen; perhaps the ones we will sail on.” He welcomed the camaraderie of his fellow AFS volunteers: “There is no bossing, a point which we all like very much. A good cooperative spirit prevails.”
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 2
General McCreery (left) shaking hands with Walter Brethauer (right). 1945. Photograph by Carl Zeigler.
Walter and Martha Brethauer at their home in 2011.
On the cover: Walter Brethauer, undated. Photograph by George Holton.
A Peaceful Crossing Atop 93 Tons of TNT Walter had to wait a few days before embarking on the ship that would eventually take him to Port Tewfik, east of Suez in North Africa. In the meantime, he was able to have some fun in New York City and, of course, since some things never change, he had to “spend more money.” He went to see Porgy and Bess on Broadway and made a brief visit to the Bronx Zoo. On July 12, 1942, he was put on board a “dull gray painted Holland America Line vessel,” where, to his surprise, instead of being housed in the hold as he expected, he was placed in a first-class stateroom. He later learned that the hold of the ship was packed with TNT explosives. The ocean crossing was a novel and fulfilling experience for the 21-year-old Walter; he described a day in mid-July as “a beautiful day: calm, warm and yet not burning hot. Our convoy is comprised of nine ships and is escorted by five destroyers, a navy blimp, and several B-25 bombing planes. All morning we watched the water for signs of a submarine, but saw nothing except beautiful cool water disturbed only by the wake of the ships. Occasionally a shark appears to lend interest to the
peaceful scene. Everybody’s reaction is ‘Why didn’t I do this more often?’ The war seems far away and unreal until I think of the 93 tons of explosives below decks and the large toll of ships taken in the last months.” But he knew that danger was always present: “There is no telling when this calm sea will spit death at us, but we are prepared.” By August 17, they had reached Cape Town, South Africa, and by September 1, they were approaching Suez. Walter still found himself inspired by what he was experiencing: “The sunset was unusual tonight. The western sky was a dull red; the sun hovered over a jagged, barren mountain for a few seconds and disappeared with a suddenness that was astounding. The ancient civilization of Egypt . . . the mystery of Arabia, and a picture of this land as the seat of two of the greatest religions of this world were somehow vividly impressed on my mind. I formerly had no vision of the power of this land.” War Becomes Real in the Western Desert After docking in Port Tewfik, Walter began his adventures in the Western Desert with AFS unit ME 19 (Middle East 19) and the realities of the war started
to set in. “Most of the days we spent washing our dirty clothing . . . and cooking kits. Tomorrow at 9:00 AM we leave for Syria, a three-day trip. I’m to drive a three-ton truck, with equipment and men, part of the way.” And as he learned more about what had transpired during the war, he felt conflicting emotions: “In the face of all this war effort and my closeness to the actual battle ground, I find myself at times on the verge of believing this war to be more or less justified. However, now after a week and a half of conversations with English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and Polish army and navy men, I’m made more firm in my original belief that it’s rotten from the bottom up, and the biggest sin ever committed by man.” His diary entries for October 19, 1942, are a stark contrast to his ocean crossing entries. “Worked on car all day. Was told I am to be made a mechanic and be sent to the northern outposts to repair ambulances. Had my first bath in three weeks. Saw the first newspaper for several weeks.” Walter worked hard repairing ambulances and driving supplies where they were needed. He describes a typical day in the desert as “traveling in the Ford truck . . . we proceeded toward
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 3
Durna, removing air pumps from all three-ton trucks in a wrecked condition . . . One truck we came across had hit a mine, another was hit by a tank cannon, a third was evidently machine-gunned by a plane. Near each wreck are two or three crosses, a reminder that more than a piece of machinery ended its days there.” After spending some time at home on leave, Walter was sent to join AFS unit CM 94 (Central Mediterranean 94) in Italy in January 1945, where he worked as a supply and transport officer. He was transferred to India to serve with AFS unit IB 59-T (India-Burma 59-T) in July 1945, but with the cessation of hostilities, there was not much to do. After traveling around India for a couple of months, he made his way home. Building a Life in the Post-War Years After several years in Africa, Europe, and India, in 1945 Walter found himself in the swamps of Florida, where he worked as a timber cruiser estimating tree yields—at times up to his waist in water—for a lumber company. While in Florida, Walter married Martha, a high school acquaintance he had reconnected with during his leave. Later, they moved to Alabama, where Walter managed a lumber mill. In the early 1950s, the Brethauers returned to Pittsburgh and Walter started his own lumber company. However, by the 1960s, a bad recession made it hard to continue to make a living in lumber. Walter decided to change careers completely. He became a selftaught designer of sound and closedcircuit television systems, which he did until he retired in 1987. Continuing the AFS Adventure A decade after their return to Pittsburgh, Walter and Martha became involved with AFS. They started by hosting exchange students on the Pittsburgh leg of the AFS bus trips that gathered participants at the end of their exchanges to show them more of the country. In time, Walter became president of Pittsburgh’s North Hills AFS chapter. Walter continued to shape AFS programming after he retired. A major donor to AFS-USA and AFS International since 1976, in 1999, at the age of 78, he was featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article for his role in supporting AFS-
1
2
1. Dave Samuel (left) and Jill Brethauer (right) with Kunal Ochani (center) the AFS-YES program participant from India they hosted in 2010–2011 2. Walter and Kunal comparing notes on India.
USA’s successful efforts to increase the diversity of Pittsburgh’s participants. Through their AFS chapter work in the 1960s and their travels to AFS anniversary events in the 1990s and beyond, Walter and Martha developed friendships with AFS staff—and especially with other drivers and their spouses—that have been a source of enormous pleasure for both of them. The AFS tradition continues with the next Brethauer generation. Walter and Martha have three children: Jill, Charles, and Janet. In 1965 Jill went to the Philippines as a teenager, motivated in part by her father’s memories of his AFS experience. She has been an active AFS Volunteer in the Pittsburgh area since the early 1990s, and in 2010 she and her husband hosted a student from India. In February of this year she returned to the Philippines to visit her host family.
Today, Walter’s diary entry from New Year’s Day in 1943 seems prescient: “Here is hoping that 1943 will bring peace to the world. Last year was the fullest, most pleasant time I’ve known. While many people all over the world suffered untold miseries . . . I was able to choose the part that I wanted to play in the war. At little cost to myself, I enjoyed a marvelous ocean voyage, was able to make many new friends, had an opportunity to see some of the most interesting and beautiful places on the face of the earth, and [was] exposed to great educational opportunities. For all of this I am grateful.” In hindsight, perhaps Walter was voicing the inspiration that moved him and other AFS Ambulance Drivers to create the AFS scholarship programs after the war and to continue nurturing AFS for decades afterward.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 4
AFS History Revealed at an American National Historic Landmark Interior design and the American Field Service (AFS) were united for a day on June 30th in Gloucester, MA, when Historic New England, a museum of cultural history, hosted a special tour of Beauport, the former home of Henry Davis Sleeper. Sleeper was one of America’s first and best known interior designers as well as a close friend of A. Piatt Andrew, the founder of the American Field Service. His clients included Isabella Stewart Gardner (American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts) and Joan Crawford (Hollywood movie star). Sleeper recruited ambulance and camion drivers and raised funds for the AFS during World War I, and also served at the Paris headquarters on Rue Raynouard from 1918–1919. Upon the closing of the Paris headquarters, the April 1919 issue of the AFS Bulletin described him as having “unremitting and unselfish energy.” He received the Legion of Honor, Medal of Honor, and the Croix de Guerre for his work with the AFS. After attending a dinner hosted by A. Piatt Andrew at Red Roof, his Gloucester home, Sleeper bought property nearby in 1907 and initiated construction that same year. The first structure was a small cottage named after “le beau port,” the phrase reportedly used by French explorer Samuel de Champlain when describing Gloucester Harbor three centuries earlier. Sleeper later purchased adjacent land and continued adding to and decorating the home in various motifs. He continued to work as an interior
designer until his death in 1934. Beauport was purchased by Helena Woolworth McCann in 1935, became a museum open to the public under Historic New England in 1942, and was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
“[Beauport’s] juxtaposition with the home of A. Piatt Andrew makes any talk about the Field Service all the more significant because these two powerful individuals lived and worked close to each other and the fruit of their labors is what we now call AFS.” —William Foley The purpose of the June 30th tour was to highlight the AFS phase of Sleeper’s life, a phase that is not normally highlighted at Beauport. The program began with an introduction to the AFS during World War I by AFS memorabilia collector William Foley, after which AFS Head Archivist Nicole Milano continued telling the AFS story through the present-day exchange programs. The program concluded with a talk by George King III, director of the Ambulance 255 Project. He discussed his recent reconstruction of an AFS ambulance from World War I modeled after one used during the early days of the war by a unit operating in and about Verdun. The guided tour after the program featured AFS-related objects and documents. Some of the memorabilia is housed at Beauport— for example, Sleeper’s copy of the diploma that everyone who served in the AFS received. Former AFS World War II Ambulance Drivers Ward B. Chamberlin, Jr., and DeWitt Morrill attended the event, as did other guests linked to the history of AFS and the historic home, such as Corina Fisk, great-grandniece of A. Piatt Andrew.
1
2
3
1. William Foley in front of SSU 8 reconstructed ambulance. June 30, 2012. 2. DeWitt Morrill (left) and George King III (right) in front of SSU 8 reconstructed ambulance. June 30, 2012. 3. Ward Chamberlin, Jr., and Nicole Milano at Beauport. June 30, 2012.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 5
Rosi Popp: An AFS Pioneer and Exemplary AFS Volunteer AFS Returnee and Volunteer Rosemarie (Rosi) Popp (GER-USA, 1950–1951) passed away on August 3, 2012. Bärbel Helmers, (GER-USA, 1953–1954), National Director (1961–1989), Honorary Chairperson of AFS Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. (AFS Germany), and Rosi’s friend for many decades, gave us input for this article in honor of Rosi’s life and her memory.
The early years of Rosi’s life in Germany gave no sign that she would one day be going to high school in Tenafly, NJ. Like many children of her generation, she suffered the hardships of the Second World War. Her mother had fled with Rosi and her three siblings from their home in Königsberg to Bremen after Rosi’s father had been killed in action. But the efforts at rebuilding Europe and the friendship of nations who had been enemies during the war gave Rosi an opportunity that would change her life. Attempting to strengthen German–US relations just five years after the two countries were at war, the US Department of State had begun to offer full scholarships for German secondary school students to attend an American school and live with an American host family. Thousands of eager young applicants were interviewed and a number of American organizations were selected to take care of the chosen few. Through this process, Rosi was chosen for a scholarship to an exchange program with AFS. A happy sixteen-year-old Rosi travelled to New Jersey in 1950 for her AFS stay in the United States. While in school there and having been warmly welcomed by her host family, she felt accepted and
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 6
Rosi Popp wearing her Bundesverdienstkreuz (German Federal Order of Merit), Hamburg, 1990.
taken seriously. Stephen Galatti, the charismatic director general of AFS, urged her group of German AFS participants to involve themselves in passing on what they had learned and experienced during their AFS year. It turned out that one of his maxims—“just do it”—was to guide Rosi throughout five decades of service to AFS. Her first three years as an AFS Volunteer in Bremen began a long pattern of innovation and leadership in the German AFS organization. By 1954, Rosi and her fellow volunteers were completely in charge of the selection of German AFS participants from the Bremen area. In 1955, a grateful and admiring Mr. Galatti invited her and two other German AFS Returnees to travel throughout the United States to promote AFS. In 1953, Rosi had organized a reception at the Bremen Rathaus for the students on the summer program. This initiative was the beginning of the legendary “Bremen Days.” The next year, on the pier of Bremerhaven, the Senator for Youth and Welfare, Annemarie Mevissen, welcomed 260 students who were to stay with German families for the summer. Bremen Days, with the Rathaus Reception as one of its highlights, remained an annual tradition until the Summer Program
was discontinued in 1991. Of course there was more than AFS in Rosi’s life. She was married in 1957, moved to Osnabrück in 1964, raised five children, and had many fulfilling years as an elementary school teacher. Her family hosted an AFS student from South Africa, two daughters spent a year in the United States, and one of her fifteen grandchildren was an AFS student in Bolivia, while another one went to Malaysia. Under Rosi’s leadership, the Osnabrück committee consistently found record numbers of host families and implemented innovative short-term exchanges, such as inviting small groups of students from “Eastern bloc” countries to enjoy the hospitality of Osnabrück families. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Rosi’s contacts in Osnabrück’s partner town in the former East German city of Greifswald were instrumental in setting up a selection committee to form a new AFS chapter. Rosi’s activities were recognized at many levels, and in 1986 she won the Galatti Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, the most prestigious commendation granted by AFS. In 1989, she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (the German Federal Order of Merit). In 1996 Rosi retired from teaching, but not from her AFS activities. She served on many national AFS bodies and was an active member of the Board of
“Her laughter, her joy, all of this will be missed.”
AFS Germany for eight years. Many of her fellow volunteers, from the very young to the veterans near her age, have expressed that Rosi had an uncanny ability to involve each generation of AFS Volunteers and participants in meaningful committee activities and have praised her skill in nudging inexperienced members towards assuming greater responsibilities within their reach. Gottfried Beer, former chairman of the German Board, sums up his appreciation for Rosi. Speaking for many in the German AFS community, he says: “Her laughter, her joy, all of this will be missed. I have been fortunate to have known her for more than 25 years and to have served with her on the German Board for many years. It was a wonderful time. When things got rough, often a talk with her would help me over such difficulties. One could speak about everything with her. She was a great motivator. Rosi had a big heart. There are not many who radiate such enthusiasm.”
The Green Academy: Learning to Save the Planet the AFS Way
Green Academy 2012 participants on a visit to the Heilbronn University of Engineering, Business, and Informatics.
The Green Academy is not your average environmental education experience. Yes, students learn about sustainable economic activity and using satellite picture technology to visualize climate change. But they do so while also being completely immersed in an intercultural learning experience. From January 17 through February 17, 2013, a group of 40 students (15- to 18-year-old secondary school students and graduates)—20 from different countries and 20 from Germany who will also be host siblings—will gather for a month in Heilbronn, a medium-sized city in the southwest of Germany. They will participate in the second annual Green Academy. The Academy is an AFS Interkulturelle Begegnungen e.V. (AFS Germany) program conducted in cooperation with the “Academy for Innovation and Education” at Heilbronn where students learn about environmental sustainability issues through workshops, seminars, and field trips to locally based companies such as Audi. The Green Academy is an innovative fusion of three types of learning: In addition to gaining environmentally related knowledge, participants get to know people from other countries and learn about their cultures while also being exposed to German culture through trips to the Black Forest and
Heidelberg. They also take German language classes, and stay with German host families on the weekends. One of the Malaysian participants in the first Green Academy expressed how each type of learning experience affected him in an essay called “Being German” published on the Green Academy Web site (http:// www.greenacademy.de/ueber-dieakademie/#english). He described arriving at the airport in Stuttgart and feeling like a stranger in Germany after leaving his family for the first time. This feeling completely disappeared as soon as the Green Academy students from Chile, New Zealand, Brazil and Thailand arrived, since the whole group quickly bonded and came to feel like brothers and sisters. He wrote: “ . . . Attending seminars and workshops about a green environment did bring up the sense of awareness about a better future for all of us and of course for the future generation . . . words are not enough to describe how glad, thankful, and blessed I was to be a German for a month.” Infusing existing programs with a higher level of intercultural learning and developing new programs are two of AFS’s strategic goals heading into the year 2020. AFS Germany has met both of those goals with the Green Academy, and in doing so, has captured the spirit of AFS’s evolution.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 7
Letter from the AFS International President
This past August marked my first anniversary as president and CEO of AFS Intercultural Programs, and it has been a truly rewarding and challenging experience. During my first year as president, the Board of Trustees of AFS International gave my executive team and me a mandate to implement strategies that are in line with where we want AFS to be by the year 2020. At the AFS World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2012, the AFS leadership further defined the strategies for implementing this mandate. More specifically, we have a number of new projects and activities underway and in the planning stages. These programs and activities are linked to a strategy for the overall growth of AFS, while still maintaining the high quality of our programs. I would like to share the broad outline of some of our plans with you. AFS’s secondary school programs are the essence of our organization, but we realize that to remain competitive and innovative in today’s world, we need to offer more opportunities to diverse populations that are interested in enjoying the benefits of intercultural exchange programs. To that end, we are working to develop programs that will allow us to offer the distinctive AFS experience to more secondary school students and to those who have completed their secondary school education. Access to English-speaking destinations is in high demand in the intercultural exchange market. As part of our plans for program development, we are working to develop more programs in traditional English-speaking countries where we already have a presence and in English-speaking countries where we are currently not present. Volunteers are the backbone of AFS. We are committed to strengthening how we support and train our volunteers so that they may, in turn, provide the highest level of support to AFS participants and their natural and host families. We are also looking into ways in which we can create new models of volunteerism that will serve to expand the reach of our volunteers and support the continued growth of AFS programs. We recognize that the intercultural learning (ICL) that takes place during an AFS experience, whether it be the experience of an AFS Volunteer, staff, host family, or a young AFS participant, is what makes AFS programs so unique and valuable. We have instituted a number of changes in our organizational structure at AFS International to ensure that ICL remains a vital element of our programs and that ICL projects, programs, and activities are instituted on a Network-wide basis to support the growth of our programs. I sincerely hope that you will continue to support AFS and its important work now and in the future.
Vincenzo Morlini President and CEO, AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc.
Editor’s Notes: Additional Historical Facts on Villa le Querci In the Spring 2012 issue of the AFS Janus we wrote an article about Villa le Querci and Danila Frassineti Devins’s experiences there as a young girl. Roberto Ruffino, the secretary general of AFS Intercultura (AFS Italy), wrote to us with some additional interesting details about the “Villa le Querce” (as it is also known) that we would like to share with our readers: “The Villa is still there, very much like it was 70 years ago. It stands on a hill that overlooks all of Florence. It is just one kilometer from the Arno River, which flows through the city, next to the Piazzale Michelangelo, the best viewpoint of the old town. The Gordon–Mann family sold the Villa in 1954 to the head surgeon of the main hospital in Florence, who lived there with his family for decades. His wife offered a wonderful reception to the AFS Ambulance Drivers on October 1, 1994, when they came to Italy on a memorial tour for the 50th anniversary of the war. Some of the ambulance drivers who attended the reception at the Villa had lived there during the war and could still recognize the rooms where they had slept. Today, the Villa is protected by the Italian government’s Department of Fine Arts and it will remain very much the same into the future.”
Villa le Querci, as seen from Villa Gattaia from the western end. Photograph by Danila Frassineti Devins.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 8
Herman Armour Webster and the Origins of the AFS by J.B. Shapiro Herman Armour Webster (1878–1970) was a prominent expatriate American painter-etcher in the early twentieth century who moved to Paris in 1904. My wife and I collected several of his works, became interested in his life, and found that there was very little published biographical information available about him. Before I discovered the collections of the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs (AFS Archives), the only published record of his activities during the First World War that I was aware of appeared in his twenty-fifth Yale reunion class history. This narrative provides but a partial outline of the positions that he held without further information. The AFS Archives have been extremely helpful in clarifying his service history and providing insight into the reasons for many of his decisions relating to his service during World War I, a more accurate chronology of his positions, and the stresses that he experienced at the time. Through research, it became clear that Webster spent much of his life in the service of the French, beginning with his association with the American Field Service from March 1916 to March 1917. Herman A. Webster was one of the original members of the AFS working in a nonassigned unit in Flanders. While there, he developed the appreciation of French windmills which would both cause him to devote himself to their preservation and influence his art. In mid-April 1916, he was named second in command of Section 2 of the AFS and accompanied the unit to its post in the east of France. A week later, Edward Salisbury, the commander of the unit, wrote to A. Piatt Andrew
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 9
that he was “running the section completely alone. There seems to have been a little friction when the directorship was decided. I think that things are all cleared up now.” The records of the AFS Archives contain no further mention of problems between the two men, but several weeks later Webster was reassigned to the Paris office of AFS as Deputy Inspector. Because he desired to return to the battlefield, in December, he left AFS to become the Commander of Section 6 of the Harjes ambulance service, which Webster called the “most unique foreign unit of the French Army.” This ambulance service consisted of Norwegian and American skiers equipped with ski ambulances for the rapid transport of the wounded in the Vosges Mountains. Despite the fact that Norway had used ski ambulances for many years and the numerous accounts of the difficulties experienced by the drivers of Ford ambulances in the Vosges, the French much preferred the AFS Fords to ski transport. At the end of six months, Webster left the Harjes unit for a sketching tour of Italy. In the midst of that tour, A. Piatt Andrew contacted him and asked that he return to the AFS as commander of Section 2, which was stationed in Verdun. Letters in the AFS Archives show that Webster left Italy hurriedly, his drawings and art supplies stored at the AFS Paris headquarters. It was during this period of service that he would gain significant recognition for his service to France. The AFS Archives document that Webster developed an innovative way to deploy the ambulances under his command that allowed them to reach the wounded more quickly as each night’s attack developed. This strategy proved effective on the night of December 28,
Herman A. Webster in 1913 (left) and later in his service uniform (right).
1916, when the Germans simultaneously attacked two important hills, the evacuation of whose wounded was the responsibility of Section 2. Despite being under intense bombardment, Webster remained in the field the entire night driving between the dressing stations until the last of the casualties were evacuated. This deed won him both a citation in French division orders and the Croix de Guerre. His citation was mentioned in several American newspapers but the AFS Archives hold the only full version available. Webster subsequently asked Andrew to supply him with a van that he felt would be of use to the section. The tone of Webster’s letter led to a harsh exchange between the two. This, and other incidents that are documented in the AFS Archives, caused Webster to resign from the AFS in January 1917. Upon the entry of the United States into the war, Webster enlisted as a lieutenant and rose to the rank of major in the ambulance service of the United States Sanitary Corps. Ambreville in the Argonne, by Herman A. Webster.
AFS WWII Ambulance Drivers Last Post Frederick T. Burkhard
Herbert R. Drake
Harry O. Du Charme
(CM 83)
(ME 26)
(CM 97)
Frederick Thomas Burkhard passed away on August 28, 2012, in Emmett, ID, at the age of 95. He was born on July 11, 1917, in New York City, and graduated from Bryant High School in Long Island. Burkhard volunteered for AFS in 1944, and was sent overseas in May of that same year. He served in the Italian Campaign and the France-Germany Campaign before being repatriated in June 1945. Burkhard later worked for Eastern Air Lines on two separate occasions: 1949–1959 and 1961–1979.
Herbert Russell Drake passed away on November 8, 2011, in Rye, NH, at the age of 88. Drake was born on July 8, 1923, in Portsmouth, NH. He served with AFS in the African Campaign in the Western Desert between September 1942 and October 1943. Drake then served with the Merchant Marines in the South Pacific. Following World War II, he became a commercial fisherman, hunter, conservationist, and gardener, and also served as a state representative for twelve years. Drake is survived by his wife, Lyn, three children, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Harry Oliver Du Charme passed away on April 2, 2012, in Plymouth, WI, at the age of 87. Du Charme was born on August 30, 1924, in Delavan, WI. He served with the US Navy prior to volunteering for AFS in 1945, and later became a member of the Delavan Legion Post 95 of the American Legion. After the war, Du Charme was employed as a rural mail carrier for the United States Postal Service for thirty years. He is survived by his wife, Peggy, two daughters, one son, six grandchildren, and ten greatgrandchildren.
Richard E. Harrington, Jr.
David D. Heath
Donald R. Moffett, Jr.
(CM 79)
(IB 1)
(ME 34)
Richard Edward Harrington, Jr., passed away on April 22, 2011, in California at age 88. He was born on April 21, 1923, in Chicago, IL. Harrington spent five months as an apprentice seaman and student radioman with the US Navy in 1943. He then served as a radio assembler and repairman in Chicago prior to volunteering for AFS in March 1944. Harrington was sent overseas in April and he served alongside the Fifth Army in Italy before his repatriation to the United States in December 1944.
Dr. David DeVol Heath passed away on April 1, 2012, in Gwynedd, PA, at age 89. He was born on June 14, 1922, in Germantown, PA, and was a graduate of Harvard (Class of 1944). He volunteered with AFS as a conscientious objector in 1943, and took part in the Burma Campaign before returning to the United States in September 1944 at the end of his enlistment. He served as a family medicine physician at Plymouth Meeting Family Medicine for 34 years. Heath is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, four children, eleven grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
Donald Romaine Moffett, Jr., passed away on June 11, 2011, in Nantucket, MA, at age 86. He was born on July 29, 1924, in Tacoma, WA. Moffett graduated from Bronxville High School in New York, and at the age of 18 volunteered with AFS. He was sent overseas as an ambulance driver in November 1942, and served alongside the British Eighth Army in the African Campaign in the Western Desert and the Italian Campaign. He was repatriated to the United States in March 1944. Moffett is survived by his wife, Mary, and two sons.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 10
Harry J. Groblewski
Tom Hale (CM 47, CM 97)
(ME 4)
Harry John Groblewski passed away on March 13, 2012, at age 95 in Beverly, MA. He was born on February 24, 1917, in Plymouth, PA, and graduated from Yale University. Groblewski volunteered with AFS in February 1942 and served overseas in North Africa in the Western Desert Campaign until his repatriation in March 1943. After the war, he became the founding headmaster of the Spartanburg Day School and Glen Urquhart School in Beverly, MA. Groblewski is survived by his wife, Mary Isabella, two daughters, two sons, thirteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
(CM 45)
Tom Hale passed away on September 16, 2012, at age 87. He was born on December 30, 1924, in Newton, MA. Hale first volunteered with AFS in May 1943, and served in the Italian Campaign until November 1944. He reenlisted in March 1945 and served in the France-Germany Campaign, helping to carry released internees from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to hospitals, transit camps, and airfield evacuations before returning to the US in June 1945. After the war, he graduated from Harvard and purchased the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard. Hale is survived by five children and ten grandchildren.
Duncan B. Murphy, Jr.
Robert L. Waterbury
(ME 4, CM 79)
(IB 5)
Duncan Bassett Murphy, Jr., passed away on July 28, 2012, in Palo Alto, CA, at the age of 92. A lifelong pacifist, Murphy volunteered with AFS in 1942. He took part in the African Campaign in the Western Desert, Italian Campaign, and FranceGermany Campaign, and assisted in the evacuation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. He helped to found Witness for Peace in 1983, and joined Vietnam War veterans in a fast for peace in 1986. Murphy fasted again in 1987 to protest arms shipments to El Salvador and was active in the Veterans’ Peace Movement in retirement.
Donald N. Hamilton
Robert Louis Waterbury passed away on December 6, 2011, in Ohio at age 87. He was born January 9, 1924, in New Haven, CT. Waterbury volunteered as an ambulance driver with AFS in May 1943. He was sent overseas in July of that same year and took part in the Burma Campaign alongside the British 14th Army before his repatriation in December 1944. After the war, he graduated from Ohio State University and had a forty-eight-year career as a stockbroker. Waterbury is survived by his son, daughter, and two grandchildren.
Donald Newton Hamilton passed away on November 17, 2011, in Harlington, TX, at age 94. He was born on November 15, 1917, in Dayton, OH. Hamilton was working for the Hamilton Steel Company of Cleveland, OH, when he volunteered for AFS. He was sent overseas as an ambulance driver in July 1943, and took part in the Italian Campaign before returning in October 1944. After the war, he worked with the Diamond-Shamrock Company, an oil-refining and marketing company, until his retirement. Hamilton is survived by his three sons and three grandchildren.
In Memoriam Raymond Aubrac
Photo Credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 3.0
AFS is saddened to report the death of Raymond Aubrac, one of the leaders of the French Resistance during World War II and a former AFS French Fellow. He passed away on April 10, 2012, in Paris, France.
AFS JANUS • FALL 2012 • 11
71 West 23rd Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10010, USA
2012 Galatti Award Winners Announced AFS Intercultural Programs is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 Galatti Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service: Victor Oporto of AFS Argentina, Kroly Rosta of AFS Hungary, and Raylene Sommerville of AFS New Zealand. The Galatti Award honors individuals who have distinguished themselves through their exceptional commitment to the values and mission of AFS. The winner’s AFS Chapter will receive a partial scholarship in recognition of their exemplary work. Victor Oporto has more than 32 years of AFS experience, including being a participant (ARGUSA, 1977–1978), member of the AFS Argentina Board (he was only 23, making him the youngest member), and Chair of the Board of Trustees of AFS International. In the late 1980s, Victor was called upon to rebuild AFS Argentina after a
crisis had left the organization with no volunteer structure. Within one year of his accepting the challenge, there were 40 local chapters once again running programs. Kroly Rosta first heard about AFS in 1993, when he sent his daughter on an exchange to the United States. The following year, he got personally involved by joining the AFS Hungary board and becoming the sending coordinator of his local chapter. Nearly two decades later, he has not only hosted three students and sent his other three children on exchanges, he also became president of the Székesfehérvár Chapter in 2004. As president, he has done everything from securing scholarships from private sector companies to mentoring other chapters to
distributing presents to participants as Santa Claus. Raylene Sommerville first became a volunteer in 1982 as school contact. Thirty years later, she is the president of the Central Plateau chapter. In the interim, she served as the national chair of the AFS New Zealand Board for ten years, the longest anyone has held the position. As a high school deputy principal, Raylene has shared her educational expertise with AFS: She set up an English language assessment for incoming participants and developed a global education framework to improve all participants’ orientation experience. We offer our sincere congratulations and gratitude to the Galatti Award winners of 2012 on behalf of AFS International and the AFS Network.