LETTERS // Spots on Leopards
UTAHSTATE FALL 2018
rebuilding rural Got a recipe? Have a special recipe you want to share with us? Tell us why for our upcoming food issue. Send recipes by Jan. 31 to mageditor@usu.edu.
After debuting
our new magazine format last issue, we were overwhelmed with responses from readers and could not include them all. Thank you all for taking the time to write in and share your thoughts and memories. Keep them coming! We love hearing from you.
100-Year Perspective
Growing Up
I really enjoyed this issue of Utah State magazine. The story of the centenary of “The Scotsman” was particularly interesting. You probably already know that several of the Quad buildings turn 100 this year—the results of WWI barracks building. My students hosted a 100th birthday party for the West Building (originally Agricultural Engineering) in March, but Geology (originally Plant Science) and Animal Science are also 1918 buildings. Geology itself celebrated its centennial as a department in spring, too. —Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor, Department of English
Seems your magazine is growing up and becoming a major magazine wellrepresenting USU. Congratulations! Your cover intrigued me. It looks like the Conoco station in Price, Utah, where I worked in the 1950s. But, the balanced rock on top of the background cliffs looks more like Helper, Utah. Couldn’t find a description anywhere in the magazine. Can you identify the actual location for me? —Tom Arnett, ’55
8 UTAHSTATE I WINTER 2019
(Editor’s Note: the Conoco station on the cover was photographed in Helper, Utah. It is a replica built by Gary DeVincent.)
I especially enjoyed the Fall 2018 issue. President Cockett’s note was especially informative. I appreciated her statement regarding unacceptable behavior. The cover piece, “Rebuilding Rural” was insightful. “The Scotsman Turns 100” recalled a personally wonderful memory about Ebenezer J. Kirkham. During 1949–53, I was a Future Farmer of America student from American Fork High School. For several years I was a chapter delegate to the State FFA Convention held at the Newhouse Hotel in Salt Lake City. Ebenezer Kirkham led the assembled delegates in community singing. His powerful, melodic, booming voice seemed to produce half the sound in the convention hall. We sang such things as “Give me a man who’s a stout-hearted man, Start me with ten and I soon give you 10,000 more.” I distinctly remember leaning over the railing on the mezzanine floor observing the activities in the lobby, when his booming voice behind me asked: “Is your name Christensen?” I turned about and said, “Yes sir.” He replied, “I thought so—you can’t change spots on leopards.” He had known my father’s uncles during their college days and the resemblance was sufficient for him to have picked me out of the crowd. Thank you for this reminiscence about a wonderful Utah State alumnus. He was an insightful stout-hearted man of whom all Aggies can be well pleased. —Allen C. Christensen Ph.D. ’79 American Fork, Utah
Read Every Issue
I am currently living in Tucson. I lived in Logan for 41 years from 1965 until 2006 or so, and worked at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory (across the street from the cemetery). I have a lot of fond memories of Logan and the wonderful people there, as well as the university (Go Aggies; I graduated with a Ph.D. from there in 1974). I read every issue of your magazine and love it! —Ray W. Brown, Ph.D. ’74
