English Retirees Newsletter

27th Edition, November 2017

Chair’s Message

Dear Colleagues,

I am sitting in one of Pullman’s many downtown coffee shops—there are now four by my count—trying to find a spare moment and a bit of quiet to complete my contribution to this newsletter. That I have to sometimes leave the department to get my work done is testimony to the level of activity and challenge that we have faced over the past year.

Foremost among those challenges, of course, has been the loss of three tenured professors, two of whom (Bill Condon and Patty Ericsson) have joined your ranks and one (Kristin Arola) who returned to her home state of Michigan to take up a position at Michigan State. Also leaving to MSU was Jeff Kuure, a clinical assistant professor with primary responsibilities in our DTC program. These departures have left holes in our department that we are working to manage, though there is no way we can truly fill the void of institutional and disciplinary knowledge, as well as of commitment to us and our students, their absence has created.

Doing so has been made more difficult by WSU’s ongoing budget challenges, some of which have arisen because of a long-standing decline in state support and others from internal decisions to draw upon university reserves to self-finance a series of initiatives. For the next two or three years we will be in belt tightening mode, the seriousness of which is most immediately represented by the elimination of WSU’s Performing Arts programs and associated faculty/staff. While the School of Music and Department of Fine Arts is not affected by this particular budget reduction, the cut of individuals who brought external performance acts to campus and sustained student theater groups is a true loss to our campus and one many people here are seeking to reverse. For our part we are still waiting word on whether we will be able to hire any individuals to fill our faculty losses of the past year, though I remain hopeful that we will be able to do so.

Part of that hope (and I know this letter is already gloomier than previous ones I have sent) springs from the continuing respect our department and its contributions still hold within our university. Even in these tough budget times, for example, I was able to secure additional funds to expand the number of first-year writing sections we will offer next spring. In addition, a CAS review of our faculty’s five-year scholarly/creative activity and teaching went off largely without a hitch and gave me the opportunity to make public the great work our faculty at all ranks do day in and day out.

There are also some program changes to let you know about. This past year was the first graduate admissions cycle in which applicants were not required to submit GRE scores, a decision made last year in recognition of the fact that such standardized tests more accurately measure socio-economic status than academic ability. Subsequent to that decision we had a robust applicant pool that included an increase in applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups. We are now working on a full review of our MA curriculum, an effort that goes along with similar moves to create a more integrated undergraduate English major. Most recently the department unanimously approved the potential accession of the Women’s Studies program and some of its faculty into our ranks, part of a larger reorganization of the departments of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies and Foreign Language and Cultures. Those moves still must flow through official channels, but they offer us a real opportunity to strengthen our ranks and attention to an area of substantial student and disciplinary interest.

Also in the works is a new “Creativity Suite” on the fourth floor that will provide new facilities for digital film and animation as well as for student/faculty publishing. We are also planning to offer the Rhetoric/Professional Writing degree track online and looking to take the lead in developing a multi-disciplinary Medical Humanities minor.

Whew. So perhaps things are not entirely gloomy here. Earlier this week I was at a showcase of undergraduate work in English/DTC, and one joint Creative Writing-DTC major explained that she chose her majors so that she could “think recklessly and try shamelessly.” Times like these demand that sort of initiative from us as well, and please know that your support means a lot to us as we seek to move forward. Feel free to drop me a line whenever the impulse might strike (butlert@wsu.edu), and if you are ever back in Pullman I would love the chance to catch up.

Todd

Paul Brians (WSU 1968–2008)

This was a busy year. I continued my weekly Common Errors in English Usage podcasts. The latest series concerns terms used in politics and government. Did you know that “ballot” comes from Latin “bulla” for the ball dropped into a vase in an ancient form of voting?

Brian Clark of the Washington State magazine convinced his boss to devote considerable staff time and effort to redesigning my WSU Website, “rescuing” it from a proposed reorganization of the main WSU site and giving the whole thing a neat URL: brians.wsu.edu. This was a huge project, and I am very grateful for their support and hard work. A team visited me here on Bainbridge to coach me on how to work with the new platform. I am learning, slowly.

This week an Australian-based Wall Street Journal reporter interviewed me for an article he is writing on apostrophe usage. I have no idea how the piece will come out, but I enjoyed telling him that the last time the WSJ interviewed me it was about my fruitcake recipe.

I continued to work on a major photo book for the local land trust, but publication has been postponed until 2019, and I have more work to do when the good weather returns.

I continue to hear from lots of WSU folks via Facebook, where I post my photography daily. My all- time record hit so far is this shot from our local Halloween event where two women dressed up as Secret Service Agents with a baby Trump.

Former Department of Languages Chair Bonnie Frederick has moved to Seattle and visited with us, and Paula recently had lunch with Patricia Watkinson, who lives in West Seattle and is still very active in the art museum world.

Paula continues to sing with the Amabile choral group and joins in to other choral performances from time to time.

But what set this year apart was our travels. In March Jana Argersinger generously hosted us at her vacation home on Kauai for a couple of blissful weeks.

Then in late May and early June we visited Megan in New York and various friends and relatives in New England.

But our big trip was to Germany and England. In Munich we were hosted by Yolanda Schwager and her husband. Yolanda was an exchange professor in Foreign Languages many years ago and a member of The Knitters. They had visited us for a week in the summer of 2016 and were happy to show us around their city and introduce us to Oktoberfest in München. We also got to explore the Bavarian countryside, including the monastery where the Carmina Burana MS was found. The monastery didn’t acknowledge this anywhere, perhaps because the poems were considered too racy.

Then we moved on to Berlin, where we visited with Amari Barash, former oboe teacher in the WSU School of Music, who has been playing professionally with various orchestras there.

Then we headed for Italy, staying with friends in the little Piemonte town of Morsasco for a week, then heading out in a rental car to tour Cinqueterre, Lucca, Florence, Ravenna, Milan, and Mantua.

Paula had been brushing up on her Italian with a small group here and lessons online, and it turned out to be invaluable. She got a lot of compliments from Italians on her fluency as we traveled.

I took about 1400 photos on this trip and am slowly working my way through editing and selecting them, posting a few at a time on Facebook.

We returned from sunny Italy to cold and wet Bainbridge, with even a few snowflakes falling, but cheered by the most brilliant display of fall color ever in our garden. Here’s the view out our kitchen window and a recaptioned shot from Germany.

Leota Day (WSU 1970–1988)

Dear Friends,

Some years are more defining than others and that is the case this year. Dutch turned 70 and I turned 69. We have been married 45 years and to celebrate all that, we are spending 5 weeks in France. So, as I write this, Dutch and I are in Avignon, enjoying a long stay in a ‘manor’ house we rented through Airbnb. We scheduled it over a year ago as our first experience with Airbnb. We are touring lots of Roman ruins and tasting too much wine. The ruins are impressive. A bridge in Vaisson-la-Romaine is still in use for cars! Some of the wine is pretty old, too. We toured a wine cave in Beaune which has a stash of bottles of undetermined age (my French could not handle it all), which the winery tastes on a preselected schedule. The next tasting is due in 2084! To top off the lovely experience of these small towns, in every one, the church bells ring the hour, half-hour, and sometimes more.

Even with all that excitement, we look forward to home and family. Chad and Kecia are doing fine. Kesh is now part of a gig economy that is a bit blurry to Dutch and me, but she can now stay home for Isaac and Evelyn and still earn a living. Jae, our son-in-law, smashed a hand, but with surgery and 8 weeks in a cast, he has had a stressful couple of months. Without waxing to boastfulness, Isaac, now in 5th grade, is excitedly playing clarinet, soccer, and being a safety patrol crossing guard. Evelyn, now in 1st grade, has translated terrifying Dutch with her talent for hanging by a finger from the highest point on the monkey bars (from the time she was 2 years old), into gymnastics, where she is still terrifying Dutch by flipping giddily around the bars.

Chad continues to be a constant support for us, whether staying in our house while we travel, or helping us move heavy furniture around our house.

Dutch had a huge honor this fall. The incoming Renton School District Superintendent, Dr. Damien Pattenaude, (a WSU graduate, I think with his BA in English and a Ph.D. in Education), asked Dutch to address the district-wide teachers’ in-service day, and introduced him as Damien’s most influential teacher.

I volunteer as a King County Democratic Election Observer, which means I watch how the county counts the ballots in attempt to catch Russia disrupting our elections. It is extremely mechanized, except for signature validation and opening the ballots, sorting the ballots from the envelopes and making sure the marks on the ballots are understandable. Those need a human decision.

Life is good and we hope all of you are enjoying the fruits of your retirement.

Leota and Dutch Day

5653 11th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Email: carvil@comcast.net

Diane Gillespie (WSU 1975-2001)

Not much has changed since my last communication, although we are traveling less. We adopted a little shelter kitty last April and she has bonded with us so thoroughly that we hate to leave her for long periods of time. She was so tiny and pathetic that we had to take her home. Now, however, she’s healthy, happy, and in charge. Before we got her and since my last newsletter report, we did celebrate Dick’s 80th birthday and our 40th wedding anniversary (both in January 2017) by flying to Quebec City for with Road Scholar then returning across Canada with Via Rail. We loved Quebec City, all lit up for the holidays, but were disappointed in the train trip during which passenger trains had to yield continually to freight trains. “We are sorry for the delay” was the constant refrain. In Vancouver, BC, for New Year’s Eve, we had dinner with Margaret Andrews (formerly of the WSU History Department) and John Baker.

Since that trip, I had to cancel a trip to Reading UK—health problems inconvenient for travel, but not life threatening. I was scheduled to read a paper at the 27th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Woolfs’ founding of the Hogarth Press. Fortunately another scholar was willing to read the paper for me. Now I am busy turning it into a much more substantial piece for publication.

We did get to Baker City, OR, to watch the total solar eclipse. Dick’s son Dan and wife Lynne live there so we got to visit with them and avoid traffic jams by going a few days early and staying a day after the event. It was an amazing event. Dick took some stunning photos.

In January we are going to Hawaii. We are tired of hearing, “What? You have never been to Hawaii?” We have been saving it for when we are old, and guess what, now we are.

My Pleiades Investment Club is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. We had a lovely lunch recently at the Bank Left Gallery and Bistro in Palouse. I am still exercising my body at Anytime Fitness and my brain at the piano. Although Dick retired last year after twenty years on the Board of the Gladish Community and Cultural Center, he is now back on the Board and busy helping out there during a management transition.

He is playing golf, shooting competitively with the Troy/Deary Gun Club, and doing “creative recycling” of wood and metal pieces in his half of the garage. Together we continue to enjoy the Palouse Dance Club as well as concerts, plays, and art exhibitions here and in Spokane. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this summer and tried growing butternut squash for the first time. So we cultivate our own garden, but also do our best to support what we value in the midst of current national and international, political and natural disasters.

Diane

945 SE Glen Echo Rd.
Pullman, WA 99163
Email: gillespie@pullman.com

Alex Hammond (WSU 1975-2009)

Barbara and I spent another year on Pullman’s College Hill, which has grown quite lively this fall as the university works feverishly to bolster attendance at home football games, a necessity brought on by the huge debts being carried by WSU’s athletic budget. Barbara continued representing College Hill on Pullman’s Police Advisory Board as well as serving on the boards of Palouse River Counseling (Whitman County’s public provider of mental health services), the League of Women Voters, and the Leaseholders Association at Idaho’s Heyburn State Park. And I went on working with the Whitman County Democrats, with Dick Law on the Eastern Washington Committee for Progress, and with George Kennedy on the College Hill Association—the latter a nonprofit that does whatever it can to improve the quality of life on the hill and preserve the neighborhood’s historic character. As part of the latter effort, our house was added to the city’s historic registry in January 2017, as was George Kennedy’s and Nancy McKee’s this summer.

Our travels this year were particularly rewarding. At Christmas, the immediate family (including our son, daughter-in-law and her mother, and two grandchildren) gathered in La Paz on Baja California’s Sea of Cortez, where our daughter and her partner manage the ecological tour firm Baja Expeditions. Highlights of the trip included the younger generation’s swimming with whale sharks and a piano concert given by our grandson Maxwell. In the summer, we had a week in England where the family was also able to gather, in this case for a wedding at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. We followed that week with an extended cruise with friends on the Baltic that included a number of countries we had never visited—Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Norway—and allowed us to revisit Copenhagen for the first time since 1969. On our flight back, we gave in to Icelandic Air’s encouragement of stopovers in Reykjavik, where Barbara tolerated my seeking out the sites of Bobby Fischer’s 1972 world championship match. In a market by our apartment, I managed to buy a small gift for Nick Kiessling–Hákarl (fermented shark)—to thank him for his expert help with planning the Reykjavik visit. Admittedly the Icelandic delicacy mightily puzzled U.S. Customs when I declared it, but opening the package should remind Nick of his kindness when he helped me find the shuttle from upper-Priest Lake a few years back.

Finally, as in prior years, Barbara maintained her small private practice as a psychologist and offered training seminars for pre-doctoral interns at the WSU Counseling Center, while I went on working on my Edgar Allan Poe research: I finally finished the manuscript section of the guide to the Palmer Holt Poe source collection that is being prepared by WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections; completed edited drafts for two forthcoming book chapters on Poe’s early fiction; and continued to evaluate submissions for two Poe journals, one of which, begun at WSU in 1969 by Dick Thompson, will soon publish its fiftieth volume in the department, where it is currently edited by Jana Argersinger for the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Until next year,

Alex (and Barbara)

1110 N.E. Indiana St.
Pullman, WA 99163

Rich Haswell (WSU 1967–1980)

Middle of June this summer I climbed up to the saddle between Poison Mountain and Bennett Peak. The elevation of Bennett is 13,209’ and the saddle about 11,500’. This is the San Juan Mountains south of Del Norte, CO, where Jan and I are still happily living. I was after Claytonia megarhiza, a spring beauty that grows in rock crevices above the tree line. I had located a herbarium record of the flower found forty years ago on the “south slope of Bennett Mt.”

And there it still was. Life is good.

Rich

Virginia Hyde (WSU 1970–2004)

I see I am barely in time to write this brief note for our Retirees Newsletter.

Dave and I did not travel this year, except within the state of Washington. But I did have a reunion in Spokane with some of my back-east family whom I had not seen for 50 years. We enjoyed the Spokane Falls area and reminisced about our early lives. My cousin was there as delegate and speaker to a national engineers’ conference.

This year, Dave and I also celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with dinner and gifts here in Pullman at our home near the Coliseum. Album in hand, we remembered those of you who joined us at a wedding brunch in Moscow after the ceremony (held in the back yard of the old K-House). Where does the time go?

You may have noticed that the WSU football team is a good one this year, possibly the best since our Rose Bowl year. From our house, we can always tell when the Cougars score touchdowns because a cannon heralds each one—not too far from our location. So it has been really noisy on some of these game nights! But the university news in general is not so happy, as there is word of massive cuts, as in Performing Arts and elsewhere in our college.

I am once again guest-editing an English-language literary journal published at the University of Seoul; submissions come from a wide international circle, including all the continents. My main project, though, is preparing my poetry—published in “little magazines” over many years—for a book collection. I have selected about 200 poems but need to winnow down the number for the book. Some are in traditional forms (including the sonnet) but others are in “free verse.” Many concern western landscape, the flora and fauna of deserts and mountains, combined with ecological themes, and others are humanitarian and philosophical.

I must rush to get this note to Paul–with many thanks to him and with fond memories of you all.

Virginia Hyde

Susan McLeod (WSU 1986-2001)

Dear Friends,

Thanks, as always, to Paul for coordinating this newsletter. I always enjoy catching up on everyone’s news.

Unlike previous years, we have not traveled much; our activity has centered around San Diego events, mostly concerts (we attended a wonderful Mainly Mozart series) and theater. We have lured son Jon’s family from Oregon to SoCal by bribing them with trips to Disneyland and Legoland (see photo), and enjoyed being with our granddaughter in all that excitement. When I retired I promised Doug I would not attend any more professional conferences, but I had to break that promise in March and attend the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Portland, OR.

One of the books I edited for the Perspectives on Writing Series (WAC Clearinghouse, University Press of Colorado), written by WSU’s very own Asao Inoue, won the Outstanding Book Award, and I wanted to be there in person to congratulate him. Further, WSU’s very own Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt is the incoming Associate Chair of the organization, and I wanted to be there to congratulate her as well. (WSU is well represented in the leadership of that organization, since Asao is also the incoming Assistant Chair.)

Doug and I continue to be involved in various volunteer activities; the most satisfying for him is mentoring graduate students and young faculty who have found him via his research. Several of these contacts are international faculty who are just starting their careers, so it’s been especially rewarding for him to learn what they are doing and put them in touch with others who are working the same veins of scholarship. I haven’t been doing much writing myself (editing the book series keeps me busy enough), but I did manage to complete one project: the memoir of Ednah Shepherd Thomas, the remarkable woman who ran the first-year writing program at Wisconsin when I was a TA there, and the oral history narrative of Joyce Steward, the woman who took over for Thomas and who was my supervisor when I was a rookie teacher. I owe both women a debt of gratitude, although I didn’t recognize at the time how much they would influence my own career. It is here, [insert link https://wacclearinghouse.org/docs/books/thomas-steward/memoir.pdf] if you are interested.

I cannot bring myself to comment on the present national political scene, except to say that I am now a regular pen pal of my senators and congressional representative; California politics by contrast are remarkably sane. I don’t know how many of you have been watching the Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War; we felt we had to watch, and although it has been difficult, it has been useful to reflect on that period in our lives and get some sense of perspective. I keep telling myself that this too shall pass. I hope I am right.

Greetings to all and best wishes for the coming year,

Sue

3560 1st. Ave, #11
San Diego, CA 92103
Email: mcleod@writing.ucsb.edu

Fred Schwarzbach (WSU 1987-1992)

I have not yet retired, but I have started moving in that direction. I stepped down as Dean of Liberal Studies in August 2017.

We accomplished a great deal in the baker’s dozen of academic years that I was privileged to serve as dean, but what makes me most proud is raising over $30M in gifts for Liberal Studies, virtually all of it dedicated to undergraduate scholarships. In May 2017, the proud parents of two Liberal Studies alums endowed a graduation prize in global leadership in my honor. That was very humbling—I cannot imagine a better “going away” gift.

I will return to teaching in Fall 2018; I have this academic year to recharge the batteries and to prepare for teaching in our core curriculum. I have several research and writing projects in mind, all of which involve travel—London (as always) but Switzerland and Iceland are also on the list so far.

Some of you may remember my daughter, Betsy, who was a charming eight-year old when we left the Palouse. She is living in NY and now working in IT for a division of Oracle, customizing and installing databases. Her parents could not be more proud.

Barbara Sitko (WSU 1989–2005)

My musical abilities have been called into service. After the sudden death of our community organist, I offered to play daily services until we could hire an organist. This service lasted several months, and although I was happy to oblige, it did put a crimp in my normal daily schedule of gardening, library service, and house clearing. The Pittsburgh Symphony was on strike for a good part of the season, so Jeannette and I were happy to be able to enjoy the Met in HD in Youngstown.

This year brought some deaths in my extended family, and with them, many opportunities to gather in the Cleveland area and meet the great-grandchildren of my cousins. Increasingly, I am experiencing a strong sense of “home,” and continue to be surprised at what my generation means to those following.

Warm regards to all,

Barbara

238 Meadowbrook Dr.
New Wilmington, PA 16142
Email: sitko@wsu.edu

Nelly C. Zamora (WSU 1976-2003)

After a cold snowy winter, a cold rainy spring, and a hot dry summer, we are now looking forward to the cooler and milder weather of early fall. Cesar and I still reside in Pullman but continue to spend a few months in the Philippines.

We flew to Copenhagen in the middle of September, 2016 and joined a 12-day tour of the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. A highlight of this trip was cruising two arms of the Sognefjord (sea inlet): the narrow and stunning Naeroyfjord and the lovely Aurlandsfjord. The 2 and a half hour cruise took us through the fjords with steep towering mountains, waterfalls, and isolated farms and villages. It is not an exaggeration to say that the trip was breathtaking.

We spent part of November-December, 2016 in the Philippines. During this trip, we flew from Manila to New Zealand and joined a 14-day tour which began in Christchurch in the South Island and ended in Auckland in the North Island. New Zealand is a relatively young country, having gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1856. It has a population of only 4.7 million but it is one of the world’s well developed countries. It is true that the country has more sheep and cows than people.

Cesar and I were married on Saturday, December 17, 1966, at the Church of Our Lady of the Abandoned in Marikina, Philippines. On Saturday, December 17, 2016, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with a mass in the same church and later a simple breakfast with our families. We continued this celebration soon after we got back to Pullman (with a surprise “Christmas” party given by our friends) and later with our children and their families, relatives, and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We were back to the Philippines in February-March, 2017. Our trips to the Philippines usually include get-togethers with families, relatives, friends, and high school classmates. During this trip, we also went to visit a couple who used to be on the faculty at WSU and who decided to return to the Philippines to spearhead the development of research laboratories in their alma mater, the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City. The city is located in another island but thanks to airline travel, it is now much easier to hop from one island to another and it takes only about an hour to fly from Manila to Iloilo City.

We spent the Memorial Day weekend in Renton, WA to visit our daughter who took us to a repertory theater at the Seattle Center to see a musical “Here Lies Love”—it is about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines. We also brought textbooks (that have been collected by the veterinary students at WSU) to Bothell, WA, from where they will be shipped to the Philippines. One of Cesar’s projects following retirement is to collect used veterinary textbooks and bring them (through the courtesy of a friend) to the Philippines to be donated to libraries of veterinary schools that need them.

We were back in the Seattle area during the last week of August to get together with Filipino-American alumni of WSU. I was an advisor of the Filipino-American Students Association in the 1990s until retirement and I have developed a lasting friendship with most of the members. The alumni were “kids” when they were in Pullman and now they are themselves parents with children (and a couple with grandchildren). We also spent a couple of days to visit friends who moved following retirement from Pullman to Bellingham.

We did not do much traveling this summer. It seems that our bodies are now catching up with our age. We had medical and dental appointments lined up throughout the summer. We are again scheduled to fly to Manila during the last week of October and will spend November in the Philippines. We will be back in the US to celebrate Christmas with our daughters, their families, relatives and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hard to believe that I have been retired 14 and a half years! Even when health problems occur, I am still thankful that I am able to do many activities that I was not able to do while I was at work. I hope all of you are happy and in good health. Thank you, Paul, for taking care of the newsletter.

Nelly C. Zamora

1710 NW Deane Street
Pullman, WA 99163-3508
Email: nellyczamora@hotmail.com

Howard McCord (WSU 1960–1971)

France has been busy this year.

Translation of filmscript from French to English was completed by my American publisher, Bruce McPherson, so now a search for investors. Olivier Gallon, editor of La Barque, is publishing a collection of three of my books from the sixties, Maps, Longjaunes His Periplus, and Fables and Transfigurations. This volume will be followed by others gathering three or four books.

I traveled to Seattle to visit my son and daughter and their families. Wyatt Asher and Jessi have a lovely new home in Orting, at the base of Rainier. Incredible view of the peak. They are between the Puyallup and Carbon rivers with wonderful trails along each river. Asher gets plenty of miles in, either running, or carrying his son Mateo in backpack. Asher and Jessi are expecting their second child in late spring.

Daughter Eva in Seattle has just completed a big project at Google as head usability engineer. She announced the news on video to all 80,000 Google employees of an ingenious little camera which searches around, finds faces it recognizes, and makes short clips of them which can be selected from, and transferred to your device. It is not connected to the internet, and I find it all very mysterious. Callum, her son, is a reading whiz and enjoying all kinds of books.

Susannah has been making speeches for Cleveland Clinic all over the US and Europe.
Sophia, her eldest is deep into computers and built a beautiful one. She is aiming at MIT. Alexandria is an accomplished artist and dancer. Robert is finishing a novel and teaching at McHenry College in Chrystal Lake, Illinois. Eldest son Colman does computer security for a defense contractor in Toledo.

Jennifer is very well and taking excellent care of me. At 85, I need it!

Howard

Nick Kiessling (WSU 1967–2000)

Greetings to all,

Karen and I both had a very good year, politics aside. It seems that as we near the end, we try to do a bit more than we can while we think we can. Our travels took us to Holmes Beach, Florida for several weeks; about the same amount of time on Bainbridge Island, courtesy of Paul and Paula; two weeks in the Palm Springs area at roughly the same time President Obama was there; eight days on a Road Scholar trip to the Grand Canyon where we had never visited before; several visits to the Avery cabin at Priest Lake; and finally a month in an elegant condo near the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC with a few days at the Folger in Washington, D.C., where I will pretend to do a little work in the library. I should mention a trip to Iceland that I took with three other habitués of Rico’s in late May. We rented a car and toured the island for eight days. Unfortunately I was the only one interested in saga sites – but we visited many of them.

In Pullman we were busy. Karen was active in the League of Women Voters, served on the Whitman County Poverty Awareness task force, serves as the Whitman County appointee on the Planning and Managing Council for Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington located in Spokane, and in her spare time enjoys her Fortnightly book club. She is now gearing up to work for the election campaign of Lisa Brown, who will run against Kathy McMorris Rodgers in 2018. My professional interests are narrowing down to bare essentials: keeping up with reading the TLS, the Book Collector, and various newsletters from the Clark, Huntington and Folger libraries. This year, my article, “James Molloy and Sales of Recusant Books to the United States,” published in the Catholic Historical Review, was honored by CILIP [Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, UK] as the best library history essay of 2017. And I actually got a check for £350. A nice surprise.

Right now we are ending our stay in New York and, this afternoon are invited by Hongbo Tan (PhD 1989) to a feast of Chinese dumpling at her home in Newark. She is sending a car around to pick us up. Her job with Starr insurance is a good one and she is on speaking terms with her boss, Hank Greenburg, the former head of AIG, and now Starr, where billion dollar suits are not uncommon. Another world.

I should mention that in fall 2016. We visited three former students at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. James Stokes, PhD 1979; Becky Stephens, PhD 1996; and the chair of the department, Michael Williams, PhD 1985. All are doing very well. Stokes had a Guggenheim Fellowship; Williams continues his Poe scholarship; and Stephens is the Director of Freshman Composition.

We hope that you will have a good 2018 and we thank, again, Paul, for his assemblage of the Newsletter for all of us to enjoy.

Nick Kiessling