If memory serves, exactly fifty year ago today I flew in a small airplane from Charlotte NC to Charleston WV. There I was met by Chuck Cochran and Joe Hutchison--director and associate director of the 1964 National Youth Science Camp, who helped me don a navy blue blazer with the NYSC patch on the breast pocket. I left the plane carrying a multi-colored walking pole--the ZAp Stick--which, when asked by Counselor-in-Training Jim Shuman, I claimed would keep away elephants in those West Virginia Hills. The stick was overwhelmingly efficient in barring pachyderms from Camp Pocahontas for what was the most amazing three weeks of my life--a time when I was exposed to new ideas in math and science and education that altered and enhanced the direction in which I was going. I and those other 99 young men--including Rick Walker of Ohio--selected to represent all the states in the Union were most fortunate to meet folks like astronaut Neil Armstrong (see photo), Sen. Jennings Randolph, attorney general Bobby Kennedy, and a slew of cutting-edge professional scientists from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (see photo), NASA, Union Carbide, DuPont, IBM, and other government and corporate facilities across the U.S. Perhaps most important, on this 28th day of June 2014 I happily celebrate the 50th anniversary of my relationship with Jim Shuman--a remarkable man who (next to my wife) has become through five decades my best friend, colleague, fellow educator-naturalist, and confidant. Thanks, West Virginia, for sponsoring that NYSC session in 1964 (and the years since), and thanks, Jim, for fifty years of a still-growing relationship that means more than I can say.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:49:05 +0000
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