DeLand, Florida
March, 1981
STETSON UNIVERSITY
HISTORY DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER
Dear Alumni and a Few Others,
THE MAILBAG:
RICHARD BOYCE '76, my former yardman, wrote in December: "My life is as hectic as ever. •••My real estate company is planning to expand shortly, plus I've
ventured out into other businesses. Just recently purchased part ownership in a
local newspaper, plus my office is diversifying into insurance and travel, •••I'm
also involved in politics, which tries to demand all my time."
JEFF HURLEY »75 wrote from the legal department of the Naval Station at Brooklyn: "Mary '75, and I have departed Guam and we are now living in New York City,
...I am presently in charge of the Navy's legal department having responsibilities
for the metropolitan area. ...My position involves traveling within the tri-state
area of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut,"
MICHAEL DeGOLYER «79, winner of the RHETT AWARD in 1979, wrote the late
RAY V, SORTERS, long-time Director of the Teacher Education Division, last spring:
"My Stetson education wasn't so bad after all, I was picked by the professors in
the history department [at Claremont] as the best entering student,"
In December DUNCAN BOYD '80 wrote appreciatively from Southern Theological
Seminary in Louisville, He was pleased at the rigorous training in writing that
he received in the Department of History and that, unlike many of his seminary colleagues, he avoided being thrown into "bonehead" English,
DELAND JOURNAL:
BETTY and I cancelled plans to go to Yucatan last spring when she slipped
on a sidewalk and broke her kneecap. After dreary months in which I served frozen,
ready-prepared meals, she began to recover. Complete recovery was due to Women's
Tennis Coach VICKI PATE'S «60 exercise program ("Romper Room," I call it) at Edmunds Center where VICKI raises money for her team by exercising DeLand women,
VICKI will shortly go commercial by opening a Nautilus center in DeLeon Springs,
BETTY'S incarceration helped acquaint us with the natural life in our area,
A Carolina wren chose to nest in a flower pot in the garage. Her landing pattern
was not unlike that at the Atlanta airport. In the early summer, neighbor MARY GAEDE
spotted a huge barred owl in one of our trees just like the one in the Stetson case
on the third floor of Elizabeth Hall, It was fun to watch him turn his head almost
completely around to keep surveillance over us. We saw him so often that we realized there was more than one owl. We were forewarned by MARJORIE GILBERT, that
there was a raccoon in the neighborhood, and the prowler who turned over our garbage can turned out to be a mother raccoon with two progeny.
In March, 1980, BETTY and I were judges at the Social Science Fair at Spruce
Creek High in New Smyrna Beach under the tutelage of TANNA GARTSIDE '64, of DeLand
High. Other judges on our panel were VERL '64, '68, and FLORENCE BEEBE '65, '68,
who are quite active in Democratic politics. Also on a judging panel was student
TIM EGNOR '80, who recently withdrew from the Graduate Division in order to accept
a social studies position at Spruce Creek High, his alma mater»
I taught in the summer session alongside PAUL STEEVES. In August, the LSU
Press released my book Oscar W. Underwood. DICK and JESSIE MORLAND gave a send-
off party. The MORLAND house was decorated with cartoons which spoofed the book
and its author—one cartoon showed BETTY and me at the altar accompanied by FATHER
LeROY LAWSON with a parishioner whispering: "Whatever did FATHER LAWSON mean when
he said 'Do you take EVANS until the book is published or until death, whichever
comes first?'"
Somewhat later in the summer, we had our own celebration, and the DeLand Sun
News's laudatory review by RICHARD LANGFORD '59, as well as a personality sketch
by JAKAY JARVIS HUGHEY '69, appeared while the party was in progress.
A summer visitor was ALAN GRAUSTEIN '64, on his way to Disney World with his
wife and two children. In my absence he left a note: "I'm living in Laconia, New
Hampshire, and heading up Christian Fellowship School (K-12),,,,"
