Stephen T. Mather Training Center NPS group photo for an environmental management seminar award (Dad is at the back-right); this photo was held in a leather booklet with the award
Order uncertain but listed top to bottom on back of photo: Kip Stowell (top right), Bob Nichols, Dan Fraser, Jim Murriam, Lewis, Ray Nelson (top left), Ray Price, Bob Johnsson, Paul Lederer, Dave Wallace, Fred Babis
Here is the Award signed by Ray Nelson (who i think has a pipe in his mouth in the photo):
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My father “W.D. Stowell Esq” is mentioned in letters by the director and Warden of the Attingham Park program Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan. The year on the letters is 1963, the year JFK was assassinated.
“In 1947, Trevelyan was appointed Warden of Attingham Park, the first Adult Education College in Britain. At this time of post-war crisis, he was instructed by his local government appointees simply “to put heart back into the British people”. With extraordinary enthusiasm and dedication, he set up adult education courses both during the week and at weekends.
Trevelyan cared passionately for the subjects he taught, which ranged from literature to history, architecture, music, drama and crafts. He included a summer school on the Historic Houses of Great Britain, courses on “Finding the Inner Teacher” and “Holistic Vision”, and a series on “Death and Becoming”. These proved a great success, attracting international participants.
Trevelyan believed that as an evolving species the time had come for mankind to transcend the prevailing materialist philosophy and embrace a spiritual world view. ” – from Sir GT’s obituary
The spiritual and historical New Age leader Sir Trevelyan grew his lecture tours into pilgrimages to explore Britain and then expanded beyond to include America, South Africa, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Germany. Through these years he wrote his trilogy, The Aquarian Redemption, comprising A Vision of the Aquarian Age (1977), Operation Redemption (1981) and Exploration into God (1991). Hundreds of smaller educational groups were born because Trevelyan agreed to come into homes and set them going. Among the movements he helped to inspire are the Lamplighters, Psychosynthesis, the Soil Association, the Findhorn Trust, the Teilhard de Chardin Society, and the Essene Network. In 1982 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”. He was selected for “educating the adult spirit to a new non-materialistic vision of human nature”.
Trevelyan was inspired by a lecture by the son of architect Rudolph Stein, who both Dad and I loved. Walter Johannes Stein was an Austrian philosopher, Waldorf school teacher, Grail researcher, and one of the pioneers of anthroposophy. Of course grail research tied into Trevelyan’s love of Arthurian legends.
Dad took many slides which he showed Mom and I when he returned, and he loved it so much he returned again a few years later, and took us all to England in the 1980s.
Dad also convinced Harpers Ferry NPS architect Peter Dessauer to attend the course in England, and he went while still renting a room from us.
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[more later]
As a 1980s kid into drawing, writing, and imagining stories with creative characters, I was greatly influenced by network TV series and corporate toy merchandising. Saturday morning cartoons were best in the early 1980s; but after-school weekday programming was solid until the 1990s.
Saturday morning cartoons: Smurfs, Gummi-Bears, Super-Man shows (live actors and Super-Friends), Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, …
Weekday after-noon shows: Scooby-Doo (1970s reruns), GI-Joe, He-Man, Thunder-Cats, and lastly Silver-Hawks. Nancy Reagan came to Harpers Ferry and held a huge ‘Just Say No’ campaign downtown that all schools attended. Nancy Reagan was assisted by super heroes from a new show called ‘Defenders of Earth’, which had lesser known or older fiction characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom. I loved them all, and spent many hours pretending to be various heroes from various shows, and playing with paper-dolls the size of army figures (3″) that I drew and cut-out. I also was lucky that my Mom bought me consumer product toys too, so between those 3 tool types I kept busy in dream-land.
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Marvel Comics Animated Cartoon Series
Fantastic Four (1978) – I had a Thing t-shirt hand-me-down.
Spider-Woman (1979) – I had comic-books of all the famous characters including her.
Spider-Man (1981-82) – 26 episodes. 2nd Spider-Man cartoon after the 1967 series
Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends (1982-83) – 24 episodes. included Fire-Star and Ice-Man
Incredible Hulk (1982) – my favorite anti-hero. The Hulk series ran for 13 episodes on NBC, part of a combined hour with Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (as The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man). The live-action show starring Bill Bixby was sentimental melancholy because of David Banner’s sorrow and the theme music at the end, so it was instantly nostalgic.
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DC Comics Animated Cartoon Series
The Justice League super hero group from comic books, was called Super-Friends on TV.
Super-Friends (1973-1986) – starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many others.
Over the years, the Super-Friends 10 season show existed under several titles:
Super Friends (1973–1974)
The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977–1978)
Challenge of the Superfriends (1978–1979) – divided into 2 seasons for dvd *
The World’s Greatest SuperFriends (1979–1980)
SuperFriends (1980–1983)
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984–1985)
The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985–1986)
* Challenge of the Superfriends was divided into 2 seasons for dvd because each episode had two parts. Only one half had the Legion of Doom, but it introduced the villains in their own group for the first time.
The DC 1980s shows were mainly Super-Friends (Justice League), but had Superman movies in theaters and shows for Super Boy and Lois & Clark. Also I was able to see Wonder Woman and Batman show reruns on occasion. There was a Superman (1988) Ruby-Spears cartoon in 1988, but it aired on CBS which was did not come in as clear as NBC and PBS on my TV reception, so I didnt see many episodes; we also got cable tv around that time which got me watching Cinemax and Comedy Channel and Paramount Fox for Star Trek Next Generation, and I dont remember having a good Saturday morning cartoon channel as a teen.
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[more later]
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Original 1970s Silk-screen Prints by Nena Stowell (Evalina Manucy) Art Educator.
Large poster size 23″x17″ (unframed)
Related sketches and prints from the 1970s (including some prints by neighbor Cathy Wilkin)
Nena and Cathy often did art shows and projects together, as Cathy had paintings in Stowell Galleries.
[more later]
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Evening Journal (Jefferson County Journal Newspaper) Dec. 1, 1989 –
“Purchasing a painting takes careful consideration,” Stowell said.
“People must be moved by a painting to wish to purchase it. Sometimes it takes 5 years to sell a painting. Reasons for purchasing artwork vary. People wishing to decorate their homes often-times look for original work, rather than copies. This adds a conversation piece to the home’s decor and social atmosphere.”
“Pieces created from wood have a nice texture and feel good to touch. The large abstract totem-pole on display in the back yard is named ‘Cross Signals’ and was created by Tom Rooney. I began slowly collecting. There are many pieces of art for sale here at our gallery, which are available for those able to purchase less expensive pieces than those found in Washington DC or Baltimore areas.” Stowell featured work from Michael Dean, Cathy Wilkin, and Bernard Sejourne of Haiti.
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Washington Post article By Spencer Rich
March 5, 1979
To the million tourists who visit each year, Harpers Ferry is the quaint and historic old town where John Brown made his famous 1859 raid on the U.S. arsenal.
There are restored buildings, art shops, historic displays and an old hotel, Hilltop House. The National Park Service owns and maintains some of the buildings. Other properties are privately owned.
Harpers Ferry is also the only town in the United States, as far as the park service knows, whose municipal police force was created with a park service grant.
This coup, involving $90,000, was engineered last year by Bill Brawley, political aide to Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) from 1970 to 1976. Brawley is the town’s mayor. His son-in-law, and attorney for a Senate subcommittee Jackson formerly headed, is town attorney. And a former subcommittee investigator was installed by them as police chief in December.
The political clout that got the money came from Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), who put the $90,000 into the 1979 park service appropriation at Brawley’s request.
Brawley thought he was doing the town (population 429) a civic service when he created the six-member police force and started drafting traffic, littering and plumbing codes.
But the campaign for law and order has infuriated some local residents and set off a festering conflict pitting Brawley against Dixie Killam, longtime influential property holder whose family was born there, who bought and restored Hilltop House and who owns the wax museum and other properties.
“We don’t object to a police department. We object to a police state,” Killam said in interview.
Killam charged that Brawley is trying to run the town like a dictator and has put in stiff local ordinances with “heavy” penalties which are turning a friendly, neighborly and charming little town into a place of harsh regimentation.
Killam said Brawley and son-in-law Keith Adkinson, the unpaid town attorney, have been drafting local ordinances imposing not only fines but also jail terms for plumbing violations, minor parking offenses, littering, refusal to admit building inspectors and even for parking trucks in the streets — with penalties in some cases of up to 30 days in jail and a $200 fine.
“Tourists are not bad people — not the kind that should be fined for having a kid throw out a paper cup,” said Anita Brown, an aide to Killam at Hilltop House.
Brawley says he is simply trying to set up legal machinery for a town that had none when he came and that needed a police force. All the traffic, parking and plumbing regulations approved by the town council at his suggestion are based on standard codes in use in many other places, he says.
The problem, he says, is that Killam for a long time has had things his own way, dominating town affairs as the richest man around.
“He closes off public streets to serve his hotel, Hilltop House… he’s been one-man rule, he’s hell-bent to destroy everythng we’re doing,” Brawley declares.
“This is not the little town that looks so peaceful in the daytime,” the new police chief, Bill Gallinaro, added in an interview.
When Brawley moved to Harpers Ferry a few years ago at the urging of his son-in-law, who already resided there, he found signs of juvenile narcotics. There, were motorcycle gangs. Officials said some fugitives wanted by the West Virginia state police were quietly holing up in some of t8e shabbier buildings a bit off the main tourist trails.
Brawley, an energetic man of 61, was elected mayor — a $200-a-year job. Ironically, Killam at that time backed him for mayor. Before long, Brawley concluded that the town needed its own police force — the state police and sheriff’s office could not provide enough protection.
Casting about for funds (the town budget was only $28,000, Brawley said), he decided to mine the place he knew best: the U.S. Senate.
He wrote Majority Leader Byrd, who chairs the Senate Interior appropriations subcommittee that handles park service funds.
Byrd eventually pushed through an amendment adding $90,000 to the park service appropriation in fiscal 1979 for a grant to the town to create a police force. The town controls the money, hires the police and has control over them. The park service did not object, reasoning, according to a spokesman, that since the town and the historic buildings were intermingled, a town police force would help keep order and maintain the historic quality of the area.
Brawley takes pride in the fact that not many small town mayors could have done that well. But then, Brawley is no ordinary small town mayor.
A savvy, experienced Washington politico, he was staff director of the Senate Post Office Committee for more than a decade.
For two years after that he was deputy postmaster general under President Kennedy. Then, fired in a dispute with the postmaster general, he became deputy director of the Democratic National Committee. Later he was vice president of Genesco, a conglomerate, and then a political aide (1970-76) to Jackson.
Nor is his son-in-law just a small town attorney. He is assistant counsel on the Senate permanent investigations subcommittee, which Jackson headed until this year.
And the man they recruited as their police chief, Gallinaro, was a longtime investigator for the Jackson subcommittee who had been involved in some heavy criminal investigative work, including the hunt for former Teamster chief Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
Gallinaro, at Adkinson’s suggestion, took the job as Harpers Ferry’s top policeman at $15,000 a year. He also draws a $13,500 Senate pension.
Although Brawley, Adkinson and Gallinaro had all worked for Jakson, the senator asserted in a telephone interview, “I had no role in any of these activities.I had no knowledge of it at all until a few hours ago when someone told me about it.”
When Gallinaro became police chief in December over protests of some residents that state law required hiring of a local resident, he energetically set out to create an effective police force. It enforces the law both in Harpers Ferry and adjoining Bolivar (population 1,033).
“I have five fullltime cops at $8,500 to $8,600 a year, plus equipment… This is the only really professional police force in the county,” the chief said.
The hiring of Gallinaro helped fan the feeling among some residents that Brawley, a relatively new resident of the town, was bringing in more outsiders to run the place.
Killam says this does not bother him as much as the “emergency” ordinances that are killing the neighborly atmosphere and, in some cases, making it harder for him to run his businesses. He hints darkly that some people feel he is being harassed because others want to run him out and buy up his property to speculate on future rises in value.
Brawley indignantly denies he is harassing Killam or seeking to pick up any of his property. He says he and his wife own only their Harpers Ferry residence and that his son-in-law owns only his residence and half-interest in another property there.
Brawley says the town council has been supporting him solidly on the ordinances and other matters and suggests that Killam does not like Brawley’s new codes because “he wants the town to run down. Then the park service will buy his hotel.” Killam says this is absurd.
The dispute between the two men could be resolved in May when Brawley is up for reelection, though he says he has not decided whether to run again. Killam does not intend to run for mayor, but said he might run for town council.
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By Eugene L. Meyer
November 3, 1981
Kip Stowell, who serves on the City Council, thinks it’s “a spirit from way back or the way the air currents move through the gap here” in the Blue Ridge Mountains 60 miles west of Washington.
To many, it seems as good an explanation as any for a frustrating fact of life in this town made famous by the 1859 raid of abolitionist John Brown: A lot of the folks in Harpers Ferry just can’t get along.
That might seem strange in a small town filled with tourists soaking up history and retirees seeking peace and quiet. But many, if not most, of the 375 citizens of Harpers Ferry seem to thrive on a good fight. Neighbors argue with neighbors on even the most mundane local issue and the end result is that the town has become something of a regional laughing stock.
The most recent round of fussing and feuding came to a head if not a conclusion recently when the mayor abruptly quit after only three months in office. Normally mild-mannered Neal Randell, a sometime actor who works for the National Park Service, had wanted to restore “harmony and peacefulness in this little town, so every little decision we had to make — placing of traffic signs, patching a street, work on the water lines — didn’t have to be made in an atmosphere of acriminious argument.”
Instead, he said, his efforts had been undermined by an “ex officio parallel government.”
Randell, who critics said could not be mayor and work for the National Park Service, which owns much of the town, was soon replaced by Bradley Nash, the man he’d narrowly defeated. Nash was appointed by the council Randell could not control. And no sooner had that occurred than some citizens went to court to overturn the appointment, a challenge dismissed last week.
Divisions tend to defy simple explanations in Harpers Ferry. Newcomers and natives can be found on both sides of every argument. Personalities prevail over issues. And in a town with so many retirees from government and politics, the simple lure of battle is a factor in itself.
“It’s the result of so many people with so much experience having time on their hands,” says Braun Hamstead, Jefferson County’s prosecuting attorney. “They all want to throw their weight around. There is only so much room for so many heavies in an itty-bitty pond.”
In fact there are two towering figures around whom the factions have formed:
* D.D. (Dixie) Kilham, 61, a loquacious real estate entrepreneur and sometime impresario, has ancestral roots here he renewed 26 years ago when he moved from Baltimore and bought the Victorian-era Hilltop House Hotel, which he still owns and operates. Randell, despite his stated desire to avoid the label, is identified as a member of the Kilham clique.
* Hiram (Bill) Brawley, 64, deputy postmaster general under President Kennedy and a longtime political aide to U.S. Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson (D-Wash.), retired to Harpers Ferry, he says, to escape politics, then served two stormy terms as the town’s mayor. It was Brawley who complained to the Park Service that Randell had a conflict of interest as mayor.
Kilham and Brawley, and their supporters, both blame the town’s disharmony on the other and continually question each other’s motives and actions. Both say the town would be peaceful if only the other man weren’t around.
A sort of third force who has at different times aligned himself with or against the other two is Nash, a robust 81-year old who served as secretary to Herbert Hoover and as undersecretary of commerce and assistant secretary of the Air Force under Dwight Eisenhower. A Bostonian by birth, Nash was mayor before Brawley unseated him. Nash has recently written part of a book on staffing and organizing the presidency and is confident he can manage the affairs of Harpers Ferry. “You may say the mayor is calm,” he said the other day.
Amanda Goudie, however, is not. The former Georgetown coffee house operator lives in an old house on land that straddles the line dividing Harpers Ferry and the adjoining town of Bolivar. Goudie ran for mayor of both towns this year and received one vote in Harpers Ferry and six in Bolivar. “It’s nuts,” she says of the place. “Everyone I know who has an ounce of brains wants to leave because of this insanity.”
Among those who have departed recently is the police chief Goudie once bit on the arm when he tried to impound her car. “It’s unbelieveable such a small group of people could live so close physically and be so apart spiritually,” said William Gallinaro, who left his post here last month for the more hospitable climate of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Gallinaro, an ex-New York City policeman, Senate investigator and Mafia-prober, was brought here under a grant to the National Park Service engineered by Brawley. The reasoning was that the town police force should be funded by U.S. tax dollars because Harpers Ferry’s status as a national historic park attracts 1.6 million visitors a year. Gallinaro and Brawley fell out, Brawley says, after the chief switched sides in the local political wars.
Since the park’s dedication in 1959, the centennial of John Brown’s raid, the town has gradually changed from an economically depressed community that never recovered from the Civil War and several severe floods from the nearby Shenandoah and Potomac rivers into a tourist attraction increasingly populated by Washington commuters and retirees.
“Naturally, they look for leadership,” says Dixie Kilham. “One man has changed all of this: Bill Brawley. The long and the short of it is since Bill Brawley’s been here, he’s constantly dividing the community. I’ve got a file on him.”
Brawley, for his part, counters that Harpers Ferry’s problems stem from “a little group, controlled and influenced by Kilham. They are opposed to everything . . . .I think it’s the Dixie Kilham curse.”
“You would love living here,” Brawley’s wife, Hazel, said, “if you didn’t get involved in politics.”
Brawley, who describes himself as “sort of a hell-to-leather guy who wants to get things done,” won the mayoralty with Kilham’s support in 1977. The alliance didn’t last long. Kilham complained about the banning of tape recorders from town meetings and what was described as a “gag rule” restricting public participation at the sessions. Brawley, in turn, charged Kilham with obstructing his efforts to bring law and order and federal largesse to Harpers Ferry. It went on and on.
Except for an unsuccessful run for council in 1979, Neal Randell had watched it all from the sidelines. This June, he planned to try again but at the last moment opted for mayor instead. What changed his mind, he said, was the unopposed mayoral candidacy of Nash, whom he viewed as a front for Brawley.
Brawley, who had decided not to seek another term, saw Randell as a front for Kilham and wrote to every voter endorsing Nash and a list of council candidates. Randell, he wrote, “might be placed here to serve some special interest — if not the Park Service, then Dixie Kilham.” Voters also received official-looking “sample” ballots, and Clifton Butts, who had never even had a parking ticket, was arrested on a felony charge. The charge was later dropped but a grand jury probe ensued. Last Monday, the panel announced it would issue no indictments but said it found “poor judgment” in the conduct of the election.
Randell beat Nash by 10 votes. But the luckless victor narrowly lost control of the council and couldn’t get his appointments approved.
Through it all, Randell also fought with the Park Service to retain both his job and his mayoralty. While the dispute was working its way through the bureaucracy, he was temporarily assigned to the C & O Canal Park headquarters in nearby Maryland. His resignation ended that controversy but left little else settled.
From Florida, Gallinaro, the former police chief, predicts continued chaos for the little town he left. In Harpers Ferry, he said, “it was so penny-ante, every little thing. . . What you find there, you don’t find in, if I can use the word, a regular city where people have more important things to discuss.”
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This is an obituary for a long-lost New England relative with a similar first name (rare) and similar education (engineering). Although most of my PAID engineering work was with the military and civilian surveyors, i studying architectural engineering of structures too. Anyway I would love it if Water helped make UFOs like the Raytheon TR1 or whatever.
Walter Henry Stowell Jr. born July 29, 1937 in Burlington Vermont, son of Walter H. Stowell Sr. and Cynthia Goodsell Stowell died on September 13, 2018 surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife Lyn Stowell, his three children Lee, Cynthia and Trey Stowell and 10 grandchildren, Kaetan, Natalie, Ben, Andrew, Henry, Travis, George, Oscar, Adeline and Mae and was respected by all who knew him.
Walt graduated from RPI in 1959 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and began his career at Raytheon in 1960. He continued his education at RPI receiving his Masters in 1962 and in 1987 he received the Davies Medal for Engineering Achievement. Walt had a long and distinguished career at Raytheon starting as a project manager and ultimately retiring in 1993 as SVP and General Manager of the Equipment Division at Raytheon.
During retirement Walt spent his winters in New Smyrna Beach playing golf, tutoring high school student and spending time with his grandchildren during their spring vacations. Most notably Walt spent his summers where his life began, on Mallets Bay in Colchester Vermont, surrounded by his extended family and enjoying every moment on the “The Point”.
RIP
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Letter from Nena to her Grandmother 1963
From: Evalina Manucy, Comision Fullbright, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid 7, Espana
To: Mrs. Elizabeth Manucy, Box 1176, St. Augustine, FL EE. UU. por avoin
April 18, 1963
Dear Grandma,
How do you like the hotel paper? Not stationery, but you know what!! I am saving a peseta.
Actually, this is typical Spanish TP, but it really works better as stationery. (Ask Daddy or Mommy or James for that fact, anyone on the Delegation!) Mr. Lindsley autographed a piece for James! Wait till you see it!
I thank you “muchisimo” for the Easter card. I think mine was the prettiest one and I really enjoyed it! The mail pack we enjoyed, as usual, and thanks so much for sending me TT Chatter and our sports write-ups every time they come out. It makes James and me look forward to them just as much as Mommy and Daddy.
Today I went out and bought myself a new pair of black flats all alone. The shoes cost about $3.40 and are in the latest style (one of them). You should see all the different kinds of shoes! Some are square toed, some pointed to a pin, others round the way they cut them out. Even the heels on my shoes are not more than 1/8 of an inch. Recently I got a pair of moccasins with cut outs. I am so proud of myself because these 2 new pairs of shoes I bought with my own pesetas.
Mr. Westberry has or had pneumonia and was in the hospital. Right at contest time too, and Larry Hall our drum major, had to direct the band. He wrote and told me how scared he was. You will probably know before us how the band did, but i imagine Larry did a wonderful job with them.
Right now Daddy is busy marking his pictures. You will be surprised at how many photos we have taken. Daddy alone has about 350 pictures (black and whites of his houses), or 29.5 rolls of film!! (350/12=29.5) James and I usually take charge of our new camera. We have 6 rolls of color film and that makes 216 color slides! By the time we finish I imagine about 250 !!
The Pyrenees mountains were not very spectacular to me, but I would say very high. I was disappointed in them except that we hit about 12 or 14 feet of snow in April! It was way over the VW with icicles hanging over the top. The snow plow just chopped 2 walls along the road, straight down! This means the snow was not piled up!! I do hope our photo came out and James aimed it right. In the valleys as we were travelling along, we saw many many waterfalls, not big ones so we didnt take a picture. Daddy saw for the first time many glaciers and called our attention to them.
In Barcelona we saw our first bull fight. It was all right, but it would never by my favorite sport. Two matadors were thrown out of 3. But these were beginners.
Menorica was so neat and clean and green. It was entirely hilly with the same rock fences all over. We saw spring everywhere. The wild flowers seemed to own the island. Piglets, chicks, calves, colts, lambs – everywhere!
France was almost like the States, except for the Eurpoean bit. Even grocery stores but of course since everybody was living higher – the prices had to come up too. So for now, on our budget, we like Spain much better (I love France too though).
Well I decided to leave some for you to use. (HA HA) Not really!!! This is some of the “European bit”. I wouldnt advise anyone to get used to it. Miss you – well be home in about 7 weeks!!!?
Love, Evalina
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Letter from Nena to her parents 1970
To: Mr & Mrs Al Manucy, 104 West Franklin, Richmond VA
July 27, 1970
Dear Mommy and Daddy,
I am feeling better – It usually takes a call to fix things up. My pay check was $183 – I believe I told you $285. So by the time 70 + 83 + 10 + phone – it was gone. I am used to having extra. What would I do if i didnt have a job?
I am sending the $187 amount for insurance (Blue sheet). I am kind of mixed up about the insurance. You pay one large amount in the summer and another amount in the winter sometime? You have paid 2 premiums already – is that right?
The 2 estimates on the car were $200 and $300+. Joe wrote and sent my renewal. Joe said they were having electrical storms and Cross & Sword* has been rained out.
*Cross and Sword was a 1965 play by American playwright Paul Green created to honor the 400th anniversary of the settlement of St. Augustine. It was Florida’s official state play, having received the designation by the Florida Senate in 1973. It was performed for ten weeks every summer in St. Augustine for more than 30 years, closing in 1996. The play is a musical reenactment depicting Florida’s early history at St. Augustine, especially its colonization by Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his settlers’ bloody conflicts with French Huguenots at Fort Caroline in present-day Jacksonville.
We had supper Sunday night, then campfire, then Angela took me into the Junior Lodge – it was all dark. Jackie Perry our assistant head was with us, saying in a mean voice “Who’s there?” We went in and there was the bunk, yelling “Surprise!” Jackie had gotten us milky ways, cokes, cookies, and cards. They had balloons. So then we took them to get ready for bed. Then an arts and crafts meeting, then a staff meeting, and then we have food. Then Angela and Jill the nurse, and i walked over to the infirmary near our bunk. “Surprise!” again and a little cake and tea this time. We hollered unti 12:30 so it was a perfect day.
I am sending you a place mat from one of the newest restaurants in North Conway. Am now drying my hair to go out tonight in the infirmary. Had an easy day today, kids were doing other things. CIT’s, seniors, sub-seniors (our bunk) are going on vags (vans?) tomorrow to Quebec; seniors to Kenibunk and subs to some place just over night. At least a little rest. Will send tape.
Love, Evalina
*
*
Written by his grandson Walton Stowell II, based on the original eulogy
*
On behalf of my family – my mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins – this eulogy is a thankful expression of our collective thanks to Albert and the holy spirits who gave him life, and gave him to us.
Dr. Albert Manucy was a special man. Al was unusual not just because he was shorter and thinner than many men, or wore a jazzy Spanish Minorcan beret since the 1920s in Capitalist anti-Communist Florida, but because he was so accomplished in the field of historic preservation, and specifically in Spanish American history of St. Augustine, Florida. Even at the end of his life, Al was still working on his projects and published a final book. Albert wrote and published many books and articles over a long life.
To his family and friends, Al was more than the significant body of his work. Who Al was matters to us, because he was kind to us. Albert was a kind soul, and a gentle man. He was so calm most of the time, with positive approaches to problems. He could be quick to action on occasion, and played the electric organ and other musical instruments with high energy; but he listened well. Albert could be calm in a storm, and reassure us with humility and stoicism.
We remember Al’s honesty and lack of guile. He had a dry humor, filled with intense intelligence and deep cultural memory. He lived with Clara in Richmond, Virginia where he bought a new Nikon camera, and sold his old camera to a young man for less than he was offered. When I was a child grand-dad sent me presents and cards for my birthday, as did his children (my aunts and uncles). I did not feel like I deserved so much attention from people I rarely saw or even heard about, except on holidays, but I was very appreciative, and am still thankful for those granted memories today. Albert gave to others without expectations because he was a man of God, and trusted that market-place dealings were ultimately out of his control, as all things in life are on the grandest transcendental scale.
I never felt like I had anything I could give to Albert, because he seemed so solidly content. He never asked me for anything, and I never felt like he wanted anything from me. The respect and admiration I gave him during our limited interactions seemed to be enough. Grand-father was politely matter-of-fact, and was direct when he felt it was needed or rationally helpful. Albert Manucy’s life could be displayed for all to see in public, without embarrassment due to his humble piety.
Albert was a man of peace because he was at peace with himself, and God. He accepted life as it was, given to him by his god naturally, without common complaints or bitterness. Al did not seem to get angry like normal people. I am told that Al felt he owed his life to God, and it was God that gave him strength and grace through prayer practice. Al had a practical higher consciousness he was connected to, which gave his life a subtle sustaining flow of will-power and creativity. He was slow to speak, because he thought before he spoke words, and when he did speak he was verbally quiet. Often Al was utterly silent, in his own world.
Finally Al was a man of integrity. His life was literally integrated to make a consistently whole person. Al was content to be himself, without much need to compete or show-off, and no need to brag or belittle others. Albert was authentically Albert. Few could hurt him, because he looked and acted beyond petty battles of mortal failings. These are the reasons why we admired Al.
In conclusion Al was small in stature, quiet, non-combative, unaggressive, and warmly gentle.
Mean people, unfortunate events, and bad moods bring out the worst in us, in general. A Baptist Minister once called these vile people “death dealers”. However we are protected by angels, and gentle spirits like Albert, simply by their presence in our lives. These good spirits have energy that heals our wounded spirits, and stabilizes our lives. Like Christ, they are able and willing to sacrifice for others with less limits than is deemed reasonable by conservative culture. There is truth that we must take care of ourselves before we can help others, but some like Al are more successful at giving and patient with our failings because of their access to higher powers.
Albert cared about us, we mattered to him too. We should be not only thankful, but happy for him and us. We are part of his legacy, in living on to honor his memory for his spirit. His life he lived was his legacy to us, it is our inheritance. As St. Paul wrote “Love is patient, love is kind… It is not proud… but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”
Albert was not perfect, but he was an epic scholar and a gentle-man.
His work and spirit will be with us forever.
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4 pages on family notes by Nena Manucy
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Nena’s parents and grandparents :
Clara Mae Davis (mother) – 5,12,1912 Titusville PA – died from rare cancer age 58, 1970
Clara married Albert C. Manucy (father) – 2,20,1910 St. Augustine – died from stroke aged 87, 1997
Elizabeth Marguerite Archer – 7,19,1884 Philadelphia – died from pneumonia (maybe) aged 86, 1970
Arthur Denis Manucy – 12,17,1876 St. Augustine – died of blood poisoning aged 54, 1940
Evalina Masters – 1840 St Augustine – died aged 93, 1933
Mark M. Manucy – 1842 St Augustine – died aged 55, 1897
James Loren Davis (mother’s father) – 11,11,1884 Belmont NY – died 1943 Miami, Florida
Helen A. Kleisath (mother’s mother) – 9,24,1882 Rasselas PA – died 1940 St Augustine, Florida
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Clara died at 58, 10-9-70 of rare inflammatory cancer.
Albert died at 87 in 1997 of mini strokes.
Thank you for all you do. How lucky I was that you knew how to do your job. You were incredible. Nurses backed by assistants. I had lost my super powers (skills) and you made me see where the path was… just by a joke, a smile, an encouragement. I was glad to be there. Glad to see you living with Faith and hope and steering patients back to the right track.
You can hear it in the voice of a strong nurse determined to heal the patient. This WV girl knows the difference. A heart attack is a 9! The helicopter pad is 2 floors up and not on my floor. And the wristlet is not from Star Trek, and can only be put on a super powered nurse. My prayers forever… much indebted.
8-6
Never had a pedicure from Walmart? Try it. The creams are superb!
Nurse Renea I have been doing quite well… no super highs and only 2 lows. The eggs (quiche) are delicious and i feel great. Exercising a lot watching the Olympics, puzzling, painting, reading, gardening, organizing (love this), gaming, and today Bette and I entered a cake contest! Im making carrot-cranberry 3-layers. So i figure at the contest take just a bite of my favorites, and give away my cake. Hope you are fine. Balloons! You both are screaming “NO!”
In my gaming everyday (June’s Journey online) we have a new member from India and one from New Zealand who plays golf almost daily.
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Walton D. Stowell II 