SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT
&
MUSEUM NEWS
S. Rupley . Rup had an enviable reputation fo r probity and what mi ght be called " truth in the work." He sympathi zed RI CHARD IRVING MORRIS with peopl e struggling with diffic ult 1920-1989 problems, and was into lerant onl y of shoddy work . Dick shared these values. When Rupdied in 1983 , Di ck took up ~ the interest Rup had maintained in the ~ im poss ible dream of restoring the sail~ ing ship Wa vertree in South Street Seaport. He soon became personall y interested in other projects in which NMHS was involved. " How do you manage to stay ali ve? do yo u keep thi s effort going?" How Dick Morris (second f rom right) with fr iends were questions he as ked. And he probed at the dedication of the Allen S. Rupley and looked into thin gs until he got andeckhouse aboard the Wavertree. From the left, are trumpeter Dick Rath, Friends of swers. He and our lo ngtime fri end WavertreeChairman Jakob lsbrandtsen ,and George Lamb of the Jackson Hole Pre(fa r right) Rev. James Whittemore, Director serve (who had also gotten caught up in of Seamen' s Church Institute. the concern s of NMHS ) wo uld meet at Dick Morri s died in hi s sleep on Decem- the Yacht Club or the Harvard Club to ber 2 1 in hi s Roosevelt lsland home in he lp out on the problems of establishing New York City. Earli er that week, he a strong, sec ure NMH S. The ir interests had led a successful meeting with Tex - went far beyond the Wavertree to the aco Inc. on the Society's behalf. During fun cti oning of the Society itself, which a ce lebratory luncheon afterward , I re- Di c k o n occas io n compared to the marked how well he looked. He said bumbl e bee: " In theory it shouldn ' t he'd never felt better in hi s life. So, work- but it does." Then, in 1986 , Dick's world fe ll apart. debonaire and cheerful , he left us. He slipped his cable thus, at the height In the summe r of that year hi s beloved of hi s powers, serving a good cause- a Toni died, after a tax ing illness that took . thing he delighted in doin g. During its to ll on Dick des pite hi s unflaggi ng World War II he qui t Harvard to join the opti m ism, hi s building a new house for US Navy as a seaman, not an officer, the her, hi s plans for furth er travel (whi ch summer before the US entered the war. we learned a ll about). He retired fro m Thi s dec ision was inspired by James Grace. Hi s own health slid downhill Bryant Conant, President of Harvard . fast. Hi s famil y worried that they were Dick served as Conant' s chauffeur to los ing him. But then, over the winter of 1986-87 , earn hi s keep, and du ring their drives Conant di scussed with him the world- Dic k staged a remarkable recovery, due wide threat to freedom posed by Nazi largely to deeply he ld reli gious convicGermany. Dick' s reaction was to jo in ti ons, and hi s sense of service to others. the Navy. He went on to see acti on in He to ld us he wanted to do more to he lp -and hi s doing was something to see. both the Atl anti c and Pacific. He met with NMHS supporters and The war over, he returned to Harvard , and upon graduating marri ed Marie convinced them of the ri ghtness of the Antoinette Penny, whom everyone called Society ' s mi ssion, the integrity of its Toni . They had six children and fo und purposes. He made us give searching time to travel and enj oy th e world while consideration to how we were doing the Dick built up an impressive business things we do--and sometimes, whycareer, first in building a sales organi za- while advocating our cause to others. tion fo r a Boston manu fac turer, then in Chairman Jim McAlli ster (whom we building mate ri als, publi c transportation lost to our sorrow on Jul y 16 las t year) looked to Dick fo r answers in many and othe r acti vities of W.R. Grace & Co., the di versified mega-corporati on areas and enjoyed hi s company imthat had evolved from a 19th century mensely. lt was something to be with the two of them, great men fo r serv ice to shipping operati on. Hi s deep social concerns fo und ex- others, great family men-and great story press ion in working from the mid-1970s tellers. on as Pres ident of the Grace Foundation During thi s time the Society was under the chairm anship of the late Allen struggling with Sea History. When oth-
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ers wo ndered whether our staff with their limited ex perience could tackl e the chall e nge of modern magazine publi shing (and in our fi eld we saw two major, well fund ed publi shing efforts fail in thi s past year), he did not doubt. " You know we can do it, I know we can do it," he said . " Let' s do it. " He had similar words, and the work to back them up, fo r other organi zati ons he supported that needed the kind of he lp he could bring. But in all thi s committed acti vity, as in hi s earlier business career, hi s fa mil y came first, unequi vocally. Hi s son Ri chard no ted thi s too, in hi s eulogy at the funeral. It was another example of hi s in sistence on pri orities in life-and he had, surely, the ri ght ones. Hi s children and I had never met, but l fe lt I knew each one of them, so much was hi s life in vo lved with theirs. They to ld me th at they a lso fe lt they knew me and our work in the Society, so much had he made the Society and its peopl e part of hi s world . PS NILS H ANSELL
1909-1989
Nil s Hansell , a most engaging person , and most determined when charged with a mi ss ion, was the person with the idea fo r Operati on Sail. As recounted in our last and in a lette r from hi s fri end C liff O ' Hara, whi ch appears in thi s issue, he fo und ready converts to his dream in Frank Bray nard and others who joined in to make it happen. Nils di ed January 6 in Princeton, New Jersey. He is survived by bro thers who li ve on oceani c island s, Ulf in Made ira, and Jack in Kailua, Hawaii. PS J AMES FR A KLI
KIRK,
SR.
1918-1990 Jim Kirk d ied January 15 after a wasting illness which he bore with notable grace and fo rti tude. A leader in community affairs in the Lower East Side ne ighborhood where he made hi s home with hi s wife Mercedes , following service in the Air Force during World War II , he became member No. l of South Street Seaport Museum in 1966. He later served as a tru stee of the Museum and did much to e nco urage its earl y peo ple-orie nted outlook. A person of all-embrac ing human ity, he devoted himself in his later years to wo rk with young people in tro ulble with the law . In thi s, as in other things , he trul y made a difference. Survivimg are hi s wife and children, James , JerrOJd , Jacque line and Janice. PS
S EA HISTORY 53, SPRING 1990