DeLand, Florida
June, 1978
STETSON UNIVERSITY
HISTORY DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER
Dear Alumni and a few others:
When spring came I was so busy receiving money for the John E. Johns Fund (see
below) that I did not have time to write. In the spring's burst of glory, even our
yard was blessed with blossoms—azaleas, begonias, camellias, and Confederate
jasmine. Betty has raised my gardening grade from a "D" to a "C."
DELAND:
Restorationitis has hit downtown DeLand. The Hotel Putnam dining room has
been refitted as the "Amber Room." The Athens Dinner Theater has opened in the
old movie building and meals are served in the "Green Room." The dinner theater
itself presented "Teahouse of the August Moon" as its first production with Stover
graduates Stephan Wedan '77 and Michelle Dolan '77 in major roles and Gerry Critoph
in a supporting part. The same trio will be in the second play, "Solid Gold Cadillac.
Jewel T Discount Grocery opened in January in the refurbished old A & P
building owned by Jim Clayton '54.
THE MAILBAG:
Louis Freund, former Chairman of the Department of Art and muralist for the
DeLand Post Office and West Volusia Memorial Hospital, still lives in Eureka
Springs, Arkansas, although he has sold "Hatchet Hall," Carrie Nation's one-time
home, and now lives downtown. He wrote Louise Godfrey explaining that he gave
a group of paintings of Mayan ruins to Stetson "as an educational aid for the
reason that they helped sponsor some of our trips South."
Jimmie Simmons, former Stetson postmistress and wife of Earl Simmons '56,
former bookstore manager, reports: "We are still hoping to retire [from the
Jacksonville school system] to DeLand if we can survive the 'rat race' until
retirement time."
Dodie Allen, widow of Humanities Dean Eliot Allen, wrote from Chapel Hill,
N. C., and reminisced about Eliot: "He got his pleasure out of being in his home,
in his office, on the campus when students and parents came, and [was] always
available [to] his colleagues. ...A day on the campus, with students or with
colleagues, tackling problems—that would really set him up!" Dodie, several
years after Eliot's death, is now beginning to travel abroad—England and Scotland
this summer.
Tom Fichter '76 is working on an M.A./Ph.D. in theatrical design at the
University of Georgia and says: "You wouldn't believe how good a background in
history is for this field. ...I'm constantly researching: architecture, furniture,
styles, and general history for all types of plays. I am also a teaching assistant
and teach an introduction to theater as well as one small class in sound engineering.
[In the regional competition] my set [for an original play] was chosen as the best
set design I was selected.. .for a new externship program in which I will
apprentice under Broadway scene designer Eldon Elder for three months this summer
in New York."
