NEWSLETTER

of the

American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation


VOLUME 34 NUMBER 4                     AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1992


NEWSLETTER of the ASA/CSCA is published bi-monthly for its membership by the American Scientific Affiliation, P.O. Box 668, 55 Market St., Ipswich, MA 01938. Tel. 508-356-5656, FAX: 508-356-4375. Information for the Newsletter may be sent to the Editor: Dr. Walter R. Hearn, 762 Arlington Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707. Q 1992 American Scientific Affiliation (except previously published material). All rights reserved.

GETTING AKAMAI


We're getting there (in Hawaiian, akamai means "smart" or wise we think-Ed.). Crossword fans already know Hawaii's state bird, nene (usual clue: .'goose"). State flower: hibiscus, though orchids abound on the Big Island, 2,400 miles west of San Francisco. The 50th state itself consists of a cluster of seven major islands plus over 100 smaller ones stretching 1,500 miles farther west. Appropriately, the name of the state fish stretches across the page: humuhumunukunukuapua'a. It is seldom found in crossword puzzles' though ahi Cyellow-fin tuna) is.

We learned all this, of course, because we're headed for the 1992 ASA ANNUAL MEETING at the University of the Nations on the Kona coast of Hawaii, the Big Island. The meeting begins the evening of July 3 1, and ends Aug 3, with two days of one-of-a-kind field trips on Aug 4-5.

Alas, the Weary Old Editor won't be able to bring you an eyewitness account of the trip up 14,000-foot Mauna Kea, the air there too rare for people with "heart conditions" (WOE is meEd.). The five astronomical observatories atop the inactive volcano were directly in the path of the total solar eclipse of 11 July 1991. The rugged road to the summit was closed off two days before that eclipse, we heard, but Kona was considered the prime spot in the world for viewing the rare event. An 88-inch telescope in one Mauna Kea observatory has been probing distant galaxies as the huge new 200-inch Keck telescope went into place this spring.

There's plenty more to see, though, including a couple of active volcanoes. More to learn, too. Only recently did we catch on that the U. of the N. is located in a small town called Kailua. The name Kona refers to a 40mile coastal strip on the westernd!y side of the island, the only region in the USA where coffee is grown commercially. Hilo, the state's second largest city (after Honolulu, on Oahu) lies on the eastern, wet side-where the orchids grow. With massive mountains in between, the two sides are connected by highways around the island's edges; the southern road runs through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, between Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Spectacular flows from Kilauea still drop fiery-red lava into the sea. The southern tip of the island is the southernmost point 'in the whole USA. Hawaii has been a state since 1959. Both Kailua-Kona and Hilo have airports. The Keahole airport, 9 miles N of Kailua, has a few direct flights from the mainland, many from Honolulu. The Kohala coast N of the airport is full of swanky resort hotels. A beachfront hotel right in Kailua named for the first Hawaiian king, Kamehameha the Great, will be the site of ASA's Sunday night luau. (The word for "feast" originally referred to the taro leaves in which kaukau was wrapped to cook in an imu.)

BOTTOM LINE

After tracking down the cheapest fare and registering for the 1992 ANNUAL MEETING, the WOE has invested about $750 in this trip-not counting macadamia nuts (up to $1 an ounce over here). Despite the inexpensive accommodations, the cost from back east could add up to $1,000-though a special airfare deal could make a big difference.

Now, here's a special deal: Why don't those of us who attend add a 10 percent "surcharge," donating that $75 to $100 to ASA's operating budget? For that matter, why don't all the ASA/CSCA members who'll save $750-1,000 by not going contribute to ASA a tidie of what they save that way?

We don't know the Hawaiian word for "good idea" but that level of giving would bail Ipswich out of some pressing financial problems. It would also keep ASA executive director Bob Herrmann and the Council from berating themselves for risking a "far-out" Annual Meeting in a year that turned out to be one of lingering recession rather than economic recovery.

The theme, "Looking to the Future and Across the Globe," will remind participants of how important ASA's mission is, but that mission belongs to all of us. We're all participants. ASA seeks grant funds for special projects, but it's important that members "own" the worldwide work of ASA. A witness needing to be made needs to be supported. Nobody else is doing what we're doing, and nobody else should be expected to support it.

This Annual Meeting could lead to new initiatives. After pondering papers and brainstorming in discussion groups, ASAers will spend two days together traveling over the island in cars and four-wheel-drive vehicles. As we think about new ways to serve Christ in science, we must consider costs to ourselves along with benefits to others. Doing what we do now requires our regular giving; doing more will cost more.

This is being written just after a special issue of Science looked ahead to the "Earth Summif' in Rio de Janeiro. That U.N. Conference on Environment & Development, UNCED, was expected to lay out the costs of not doing something about global problems. (The world is hurting; science is in trouble; the U.S. is in bad shape; the church needs awakening. Wow, what a time to be counted as servants of the world's Creator and Redeemer! - Ed.)

ECONOMIC GROWTH

This may also be a good time to remind ourselves of ASA's Long Range Fund, established in our 50th year (1991) to begin building an endowment for the next 50 years.

Dues, subscriptions, and sales of ASA publications simply do not cover all expenses of running the Affiliation. So, in good or bad economic times, meeting the general operating budget depends on our regular giving. The Long Range Fund offers another way to "take care of the Lord's business." Putting a bequest to ASA in our wills, for example, is a sort of "pray now, pay later" method of contributing to ASA's future witness.

Colleges and universities, expecting their alumni to do well financially, continually mail out attractive brochures that describe methods of "estate planning," "tax avoidance," and "planned giving." Contributing shares of stock that have appreciated in value is a common suggestion. Lawyers can set up family trusts and resort to other gimmicks. With other priorities on our agenda, ASA hasn't gotten around to preparing brochures on Planned Giving. Maybe we don't need to. Just mind your alma mama, but use some of the methods she suggests for long-term giving to ASA. Sic semper economicus.

A BUTLER DID IT

t would be a crime, almost, not to follow that story with this one about ASA member Frank Butler of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Frank is a chemical engineer who retired as president of Eastman Gelatine Corporation a few years ago. He was the focus of a two-page article by Mary Beth Grassi in the Feb 1992 issue of the Massachusetts Episcopal Times. The article was, really about Christian stewardship of wealth. Clue: Frank, senior warden of his parish, Trinity Church in Topsfield, is an active member of a national group called Ministry of Money. That organization helps people "grapple with their ambivalence toward money" so they can develop 14 an authentically Christian perspective" on wealth.

Frank and his wife Ruth have gone on a mission to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa, and have led a mission to Haiti for the Ministry of Money. Such "reverse missions" are intended to show Western Christians how others live with much less. Frank says that "Jesus dealt with people individually, but his purpose was simply to get rid of whatever stands in the way between God and people." That roadblock is often money, which, after the kingdom of God, was the subject Jesus most often spoke about.

Long before he discovered Ministry of Money, however, Frank Butler was following his father's example of frugality and stewardship, tithing the first 10 percent and saving the second 10 percent before spending anything on himself. As he made his way up the corporate ladder, others expected the Butlers to move to a more lavish house and drive a more expensive car, but that had little appeal. Now that their needs are simpler, he's having a hard time breaking the saving habit. He still considers tithing a sensible base for giving, "not as a requirement but as a joyous repayment." But he considers his whole life a stewardship issue because, "Everything has been given to me: my job, my family, even the breath I breathe."

According to Frank Butler, there's no mystery to the way a Christian can go about setting priorities. He recommends: 1) Having a daily devotional, to listen to God; 2) Sharing our wealth (not simply 41giving it all away"); 3) Keeping a journal, of feelings, not merely events in one's life; and 4) Starting a support group, to share goals and hold each other accountable. Getting in touch with Ministry of Money (2 Professional Drive, Suite 220, Gaithersburg, MD 20879) might not be a bad idea, either.

MORE OR LESS

Potential candidate H. Ross Perot
X got it right, more or less, when he called American presidential campaigns "side-shows" that have little to do with picking the best person for the job.

In election years we hear extravagant claims that candidates can accomplish anything voters might want-at no additional cost. We don't know what kind of president Perot would make, but he at least knows how to say the three words that rank behind only "Please," "Sorry," and "Thank you" for promoting civilized discourse:
"I don't know." In answer to a reporter's early question about some policy issue, Perot replied: "I don't know the answer to that, but if anybody knows, I'll try to find out."

Politics is not the only arena tempting people to claim too much. In a bizarre caricature of God's omniscience, preachers, theologians, and ordinary Christians sometimes promise more than they can deliver. ASA member John M. Templeton of Nassau wants religious people to be more open to the "enormity of our own ignorance" and to the religious significance of new discoveries in the sciences. Before warning up with molecular biologist Bob Herrmann to write
The God Who Would Be Known, John expressed that concern in a book titled The Humble Approach.

In 1992 the John Templeton Foundation has initiated a new program, a "Call for Papers on Humility Theology." Papers of approximately 5,000 words in length, published within the past two years (or accepted for publication) in a reputable scientific or theological journal, are eligible for an award of $2,000 each. To win, a paper must contribute to "our greater understanding and appreciation of the new climate of humility engendered by the sciences, and the theological openness which that awareness demands." The twelve award-winning papers may be reprinted.

Papers should be submitted in double-spaced typewritten form, in duplicate, to the John Templeton Foundation, P.O. Box 1040, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-0918. If response is favorable, the Call for Papers will probably be repeated for at least another year.

Ironically, it may take a certain amount of pride in a piece of writing to submit it for a prize competition. Beyond that, the "new revelations from the sciences" stressed in the awards are coming at a time when new revelations about the arrogance of some scientific leaders are also coming to light. Congressional investigations, budget tightening, and internal squabbling are humbling the scientific establishment as never before.

ASA's Committee for Integrity in Science Education observes that evolution often evokes excessive claims. Consider what Harvard University Press says in an ad for its new book by Ernst Mayr, Harvard's emeritus Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology. Tided
One Long Argument (a phrase Charles Darwin used in 1859 to describe The Origin of Species), Mayr's "gem of historical scholarship" is claimed (in Italics) to be "the first clear, accessible explication of evolution." (Wow. No wonder the topic generates controversy, if nobody has been able to explain it clearly for the past 133 years. Does the ASA

Committee understand evolution? Well, er, uh, more or less, they say. That's probably modesty, working its way up to
humility.-Ed.)

MOORE, NO LESS

A 20 percent discount, postpaidnot the overstated claim aboveled us to order a copy of
One Long Argument by "one of the century's greatest evolutionists." While awaiting delivery of that one, we'll alert you to another book we're anxious to see. It is Darwin, a new biography by Adrian Desmond and ASA member James Moore, due from Warner Books in New York this summer.

Darwin has been getting impressive reviews since its 1991 publication in England, has been offered by three book clubs, has gone into a third printing, and is being translated into German and Italian. Three book clubs in the U.S., including Book-of-the-Month, have taken the forthcoming American edition. In a January review in Nature, Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould called the biography "unquestionably the finest ever written about Darwin," and deemed its authors "brilliant in their relentless and integrative pursuit."

Jim Moore is an American who for years has been teaching the history of science through England's Open University. He turned his doctoral thesis into
The Post-Darwinian Controversies (Cambridge U. P., 1981), a monumental but readable work about the first 50 years of the response to Darwinism, primarily in the U.K. but also in America.

At 800 pages,
Darwin may be another monument, but we have no doubt that it is even more "accessible" to ordinary readers than the earlier work. Jim says that this culmination of 20 years of research took 18 months in the writing and left him exhausted. When we heard from him early this year he had survived a "media circus" accompanying publication, including production of a 50-minute BBC-TV documentary. After a publicity tour in Australia this spring, he'll be making a round of public appearances in the U.S. and preparing lectures for fall 1992. Jim has accepted a year's appointment at Harvard as visiting associate professor in the History of Science Department.

TEMPLETON LECTURES

Two plenary speakers at the 1992 ASA ANNUAL MEETING in HAWAII are being supported as Templeton Lecturers: Harvard's Owen Gingerich on 'The Future of Physical Science: Ethical & Theological Implications," and ASA's own Robert Herrmann on "The Future of Biological Science: Ethical & Theological Implications."

This Newsletter has been amiss in not reporting some of the Templeton/ASA Lectures held around the country for the past two years and now even overseas. That's partly because until January we weren't receiving press releases from publicist Joyce Farrell & Associates
(669 Grove St., Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; tel. 201-7466248). Joyce informs local media and some national media, generally better known than ASA's in-house Newsletter.

Under LOCAL SECTIONS last time we described a Templeton lectureship at Stanford U. in April, with Richard Bube of Stanford and Howard Van TiH of Calvin College taking a double-barreled shot at relating science and Christian faith. We failed to report, however, that on April I Henry F. Schaefer, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry at the U. of Georgia, had given a Templeton/ASA Lecture on "Modem Science and the Christian Faith" at Case Western Reserve U. in Cleveland.

Even before that, in late March a Templeton/ASA Lecture was presented in Italy at the fourth meeting of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. The lecturer was Andrej A. Grib, head of the Friedmann Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at a technical university in what is now St. Petersburg, Russia. His topic was "Time and Eternity in Modem Relativistic Cosmology." Bob Herrmann and
Perspectives editor

Jack Haas attended that ESSSAT conference at Castel Gondolfo, head quarters of the Vatican Observatory. Host George Coyne, director of the Observatory, welcomed Christians in science from some 37 countries, including a dozen from former "iron curtain" countries.

Templeton/ASA Lectures have continued throughout the spring. On May 5, Gareth Jones, head of the Dept of Anatomy of the U. of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, gave a Templeton/ASA Lecture at Trinity College, U. of Toronto. Gareth spoke on "The Human Embryo: Between Oblivion and Meaningful Life." On May 26, physical chemist and Anglican theologian Arthur Peacocke of Oxford gave a Templeton/ASA Lecture at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Peacocke's title was "God's Interaction with a 'Chaotic' World."

On May 29 Peacocke repeated his lecture at a Cosmos and Creation conference at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. He was joined by another Templeton lecturer, Karl Schmitz-Moorman, professor of philosophy & theology at the U. of Bochum, Germany. On May 30, Prof. Schmitz-Moorman spoke at the Loyola College conference on "Evolution and Redemption."

We'll try to keep you better informed now that we're in the loop. Joyce Farrell's releases always credit the John Templeton Foundation as sponsor of the lectures "in conjunction with the American Scientific Affiliation." The Foundation is noted as awarder of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Joyce describes ASA in a paragraph such as this:

Dr. Robert L. Herrmann, Executive Director of the American Scientific Affiliation, organizes the Templeton Lectures. The ASA, with headquarters in Ipswich, Massachusetts, has a membership of some 2,500 evangelical Christians who have degrees in the sciences, and who encourage good scholarship in both science and theology.

(Even if "Ipswich" never makes it into media coverage of the lectures, Joyce Farrell wins our GEOGRAPHITO AWARD for trying to help people find ASA.-Ed.)

SQUIBS

Winner of the 1992 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion is Kyung-Chik Han of Korea, an 89-year-old pastor who transformed a small prayer group in Seoul into the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world, the Young Nak ("Everlasting Joy") Church. The church has 60,000 members and has spawned some 500 other Young Nak churches around the world. On May 7, England's Prince Philip presented the prize of 575,000 pounds Oust over a million dollars at present exchange rates) at Buckingham Palace.

Public debate over use of human organs for transplant, and of fetal tissue in research, was the subject of a three page story in Christianity Today (18 May 1992), triggered by the death of anencephalic "Baby Theresa" in Florida. The Dept of Health & Human Services has banned use of any fetal tissue obtained by induced abortion, though research shows promise of successfully treating some intractable diseases (Alzheimer's; Parkinson's) with fetal tissue. Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, an abortion opponent, has argued for lifting the ban as "a prolife position." The Christian Medical & Dental Society opposes use of electively aborted fetuses, but not "use of the tissue of spontaneously aborted, nonviable fetuses."

A sidebar 'Headfirst into the Gene Pool") described Sen. Hatfield's efforts to stimulate public discussion of moral issues in human genetic engineering. In the sidebar, U. of Minnesota geneticist and former ASA president Elving Anderson praised Hatfield's efforts, adding that "Christians must balance the desire to avoid evil with the obligation to do good, while emphasizing that God is the ultimate creator and sustainer of life."

Items of ASA interest appear regularly in Science, the AAAS weekly journal. We learned a lot besides news of "Science in Europe" from the 24 Apr 1992 issue on that theme. For example, "Random Samples" (collected by Washington, D.C.-based Richard Stone) cited an analysis of the biblical Exodus published in the March Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Oceanographers Doron Nof of Florida State U. and Nathan Paldor of Jerusalem calculated that a 72 km/hr wind blowing down the Gulf of Suez for 10 hours could have provided a km-wide pathway for Moses and his followers, then abated to drown units of Pharaoh's army still crossing the sea bottom.

In that same issue a "Research News" story on cystic fibrosis noted work at the U. of Alabama suggesting a broader role for the CF protein (CFfR: cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator), with a quote from CF researcher Francis Collins of the U. of Michigan. The May 8 issue of Science was devoted to "Molecular Advances in Genetic Disease." Its lead article, by ASA member Collins, reviewed "Cystic Fibrosis: Molecular Biology and Therapeutic Implications."

0 Stanford professor Carl Djerassi is well known for his many accomplishments in organic chemistry, including synthesis of the first oral contraceptive and its commercial development through Syntex Corporation in 1951. The title of his 1992 Priestley Medal address, delivered in April at the 203rd American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco CFrom the Lab into the World") sounded much like the theme of ASA's 47th ANNUAL MEETING to be held in HAWAII this summer. Djerassi's experience in R&D in Mexico and Brazil led him some 25 years ago to propose that established scientists should help basic research centers get off the ground in developing countries-which is what ASA is now trying to do in Kenya. Indeed, Djerassi soon found his proposal taken up by an African entomologist, Prof. Thomas Odhiambo of Nairobi University. Odhiambo's leadership kept the fledgling international Center of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE) from becoming a "neocolonial enterprise of Western do-goodism."

Djerassi's address (C&EN, 6 Apr 1992) contained other hints that ASA members frequently "do the right thing." For example, participation in Stanford's Human Biology Program drew Djerassi into a more interdisciplinary style of teaching. Eventually it even drew him into writing fiction about scientists-in order to "talk about the truth behind the scientific persona." Many ASAers have found that presenting the truth can be as challenging as discovering the facts.

OPPORTUNITIES

Even before the Jun/Jul Newsletter was out, we received feedback on the FINDING A JOB story from Nfichael Adeney, husband of anthropologist Miriam Adeney of Seattle Pacific University. Nfichael works for Intercristo, "The Christian Career Specialists." You may have seen one of their ads:

Our story asked for ideas about setting up a computer-based "job referral service." Intercristo matches applicants to appropriate openings with Christian non-profit organizations from among the 18,000 opportunities in their computer, about half of them overseas. Every year some 12,000 people use Intercristo's "Christian Placement Network," first filling out a CPN profile and then receiving four updated printouts over a three-month period for $39.50. About a third of the openings require that applicants raise their own financial support.

Nfichael Adeney does research, writing, and marketing of Intercristo's Prospectus software, updated quarterly, which surveys all current CPN openings (in 215 occupational categories) but also contains much more information. It has a teaching section on the integration of faith and work, sections on short-term missions and "tentmaking," and an annotated booklist on the church around the world covering 66 countries. Some churches purchase Prospectus, which costs $96 for the first year (with 5 quarterly releases), $40 each year after that.

According to Mchael, Prospectus has "the best list available of networks of Christians in the secular marketplace" -including a lengthy mention of ASA. He is currently adapting the software for a move from a 1980 Wang system to a Novell network of PCs. He thinks that by ASA's 1993 Annual Meeting, "members could send in an application by modem and receive back their first printout by modem." (Interesting idea: ASA might even pay for an "electronic ad" with Intercristo, which would then automatically send ASA recruiting material to every applicant with a degree in some branch of science or technology.)

We're not sure where this networking will lead, but meanwhile, Intercristo offers a Career Kit ($45), "the best self-directed career guidance tool available today," with three audio cassettes demonstrating job-finding skills, plus workbooks on biblical foundations, assessment, exploration, marketing, and check-ups.

Free on request is Career Concepts, "a book of biblical and practical help and encouragement for those in career transition" (multiple copies, $3 each). Intercristo's address is 19303 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98133-3800.

WHEREVER GOD WANTS US: 23.

This story should remind readers that investing one's technical skills in a developing country need not be a career terminus. Indeed, it may sharpen those skills for further work "back home." When Canadian entomologist Arnold Dyck was first featured in this Newsletter, he was doing research and extension education on insects of economic importance to Asia at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

About ten years ago Arnold brought his family back to Penticton, British Columbia. At Agriculture Canada's Summerland station he took charge of a long-term program of immense importance to the apple-growing industry. That work is about to come to fruition.

The goal of Arn's project is total eradication from the Okanagan region of the codling moth, an insect that began its depredations in B.C. apple orchards around 1920. The larval form burrows into a ripening fruit, ruining it for commerce. Without regular applications of pesticides, an infestation can destroy as much as 80 percent of an orchardist's crop. The solution Arnold Dyck has been working on is massive release of sterile adult moths. That treatment must cover all orchards in an area-and with overwhelming numbers-but promises to do the job once and for all.

Last fall Am was raising about 45,000 adult moths per six-week life cycle. That amounted to about a thousand bugs a day, but the project is expected to require at least a million a day. The moths will be blown onto the grass under the trees of every orchard in the zone being treated, every three or four days over a 20-week releasing season. After three years of such treatment, a second zone will be treated for another three years, covering the entire Okanagan and Similkameen valleys in the next six to eight years.

Arnold Dyck has perfected ways to grow codling moth larvae on a large scale. About 10 percent of the adults are retained to maintain the colony, the others irradiated by cobalt-60 to render them sterile, though still healthy and attractive to potential mates. To be sure of overwhelming the unsterilized wild males, the sterile moths must be released in a ratio of about 40 sterile moths for each wild one loose in the orchards.

Arn's work has not been limited to the laboratory or orchard, because the whole program had to be "sold" to growers and to government entities-not an easy task with Canada in a recession as prolonged as that in the States. Finally, last fall, three levels of government made the decision to build at Osoyoos the world's largest codling moth rearing facility, at a cost of $7.7 million. Work on the facility is to be completed by the end of 1992. Soon a full staff will be raising and releasing millions of sterile codling moths.

We learned about these developments from a story in British Columbia Report (14 Oct 1991) by writer Brian Swarbfick. Arn's wife, Betty Mae, sent us the clipping last fall, but we held up reporting it because of some unhappy family news in the same letter. We hoped things might take a turn for the better. Arn's mother was in the hospital and Betty Mae had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer for which she was undergoing chemotherapy.

We knew that the Dycks' many friends from close-knit Christian groups in various parts of the world (including Berkeley) would uphold them in prayer, but the medical prognosis was grim. Arn's mother died peacefully in Oct 1991. This spring we learned from Arn that Betty Mae had weakened very quickly in February and died peacefully at home on 23 Mar 1992.

Any sense of technical accomplishment in Arnold's Sterile Insect Release project is thus overshadowed by a sense of great personal loss. Betty Mae was principal of Penticton Community Christian School, a published writer, and an energetic correspondent who enjoyed reading this Newsletter. Courageous accounts of. her painful therapy and spiritual stretching filled the Dycks' 1991 Christmas letter.

Betty Mae's last conscious hours were spent dictating a letter to their son Timothy, a student at Conrad Grebel College at the U. of Waterloo. Tim made it home just before she died. After their daughter Andrea's graduation from high school in June, Am was expecting to be alone in a very lonely house. He asks for our prayers. Betty Mae Dyck's cancer was first diagnosed on 25 Jul 1991 -their 26th wedding anniversary.

WITH THE LORD

Robert M. Page of Minneapolis died of heart failure on 15 May 1992 at the age of 88. A physicist and former research director of the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), he had been decorated by four U.S. presidents. In 1946 President Harry Truman awarded him the Certificate of Merit and in 1960 President Dwight Eisenhower presented him with the Presidential Award for Distinguished Civilian Service.

Born in St. Paul, the son of a Methodist minister, Bob Page entered Hamline University to study religion but in his senior year switched to physics. After graduating in 1927 he joined the staff of NRL, which had been established only four years earlier. With colleagues there he invented the technology to make pulsed radar effective; also the planned position indicator (die now common PPI scope, with radial beam sweeping the circular face of a cathode ray tube to locate radar echos from planes, ships, or hurricanes) and Project Madre, the first radar capable of "seeing" over a horizon. His contributions, pooled with those of British scientists in 1940, were crucial to winning WWII. Later, Project Madre improved surveillance of long-range missile launches during the cold war with the Soviet Union.

Bob Page earned an M.S. degree from George Washington U. while working at NRL, where he was research director from 1957 to his retirement in 1966. He also received an honorary doctorate from Hamline. He was a long-time member and Fellow of ASA. During his tenure at NRL he was active in ASA's Washington-Baltimore local section, and in the sixties participated in a number of ASA Annual Meetings. He taught Bible classes and frequently lectured on the relationship of science and Scripture. According to his son, Rev. John Robert Page of Medford, Oregon, he had recently been working on a full-length study on that subject. ASA old-timers will remember Bob's striking appearance: a tall, thin, white-haired man with a distinctive goatee. Others (especially anyone who worked on early radar gear) might know his 1962 Doubleday Anchor paperback, The Origin of Radar. In addition to his son, Bob is survived by a niece in Minnesota, a brother in Texas, and one grandson.

Purnell H. Benson of Madison, New Jersey, died on 18 May 1992 at age 78, after a brief illness. He retired as a professor in the Graduate School of Management at Rutgers University in 1984, having taught marketing there since 1967. Earlier he had taught sociology and psychology at Temple and Drew universities. He had lectured at the graduate business schools of NYU and Columbia.

Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Purnell graduated from Princeton and earned an M.A. in philosophy and sociology at Harvard and a Ph.D. in social statistics at the U. of Chicago. With his broad interests, he held memberships in the American Economic Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Statistical Association, and other scholarly societies. He was the author of a textbook on Religion in Contemporary Culture in addition to other books and many articles.

As a member of the Religious Society of Friends, Purnell did alternative service as a conscientious objector in WWII. He had later been a member of First Presbytenan Church in Orange, New Jersey, and at the time of his death belonged to Long Hill Chapel, where he sang in the choir. He had been an ASA member since 1965. Survivors include his wife Mary, a son, two daughters, grandchildren, and two brothers.

Information on the life and work of these members suitable for a memorial resolution to be read at the 1992 or 1993 Annual Meeting may be sent to Carol Aiken at ASA's Ipswich office.

THE EDITOR'S LAST WORDS: 22

In "colorful" Hawaii we'll try to take some usable B&W photos for the Newsletter. Meanwhile, here are "The Editor's Last Pix" from the 1991 Annual Meeting (worth several thousand last words). We never found room for a story about the fine music and worship, or a story about ASAers active in the quadrennial World Assembly of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

The IFES Assembly was hosted by IVCF-USA, which, like ASA, was celebrating its 50th anniversary that week at Wheaton College. ASA's worship and focus on the wider world both carry over to our 1992 theme: "LOOKING TO TIM FUTURE AND ACROSS THE GLOBE."

PERSONALS

Alonzo Fairbanks of Minneapolis serves on the staff of IVCF's International Student Ministry. Having formerly taught science in Beirut, Lebanon, he has been catalyzing Christian-Muslim dialogues at the U. of Minnesota. In January he was back in the Middle East setting up an IVCF student project for the summer of 1993. In May he led workshops for students from Islamic countries at a conference on international student ministries. Helping to host the IFES World Assembly at Wheaton during the 1991 ASA Annual Meeting there was a high point for Al. (Too bad his photo was one that didn't turn out - WOE.)

Stan Lindquist accompanied his son Brent, now president of Link Care Center in Fresno, California, to Liberia this spring. For ten days the two psychologists helped train Liberian "peer counselors" to counsel people coping with damaging after-effects of that country's civil war. The Link Care team set it up for those counselors to train others, multiplying Stan and Brent's direct ministry tenfold.

Russell Maatman's retirement from editorship of Dordt College's quarterly journal,
Pro Rege, was mentioned in the Feb/Mar ASA Newsletter. His 1991 paper on "The Origin of the Human Family" drew a response in the Mar 1992 Pro Rege from mathematician John Byl of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, with a reply from Maatman. Although Russ was one of the two authors of the Christian Reformed Church's recent "Report on Creation and Science" who opposed an evolutionary origin of human beings, Byl charged that Maatman's hermeneutical principles were indistinguishable from those of Calvin College physicist Howard Van Till (author of The Fourth Day). In his reply, Russ asserted that "None of the Bible is negotiable" but argued that not all parts of the Bible have been equally perspicuous to all believers.

Roman I Miller is professor of biology at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and editor of the Newsletter of the Affiliation of Christian Biologists. In December Roman married Elva Bowman, a practicing optometrist. They have settled in on a little farm outside of Harrisonburg, getting up before 6 a.m. each morning to feed livestock before going their separate ways to work. This fall Roman plans to teach a new senior seminar course on "Issues and Values of Science," using among other texts Richard Wright's Biology Through the Eyes of Faith and Charles Hummel's Galileo Connection. He says he would welcome ideas on teaching such an interdisciplinary course-and on making a two-career (plus farming) marriage work.

W. Jim Neidhardt, associate professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, is one of a number of physicists who sent clippings about exciting new data on the early history of the universe obtained by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer. Stories of the COBE satellite's confirmation of the Big Bang appeared in Time, Newsweek, and major newspapers, many quoting U.C. Berkeley's George Smoot: "If you're religious, it's like looking at God." Among the clippings from Jim was the table of contents of a book by James E. Loder and W. Jim Neidhardt, The Knight's Move: The Relational Logic of the Spirit in Theology and Science, due in Sep 1992 from Helmers & Howard Publishers of Colorado Springs. Jim Loder is the Mary D. Synnott professor of the philosophy of Christian education at Princeton Theological Seminary. The title is a metaphor from chess for the "creative leap" of scientific or religious insight. (We expect the book to be replete with graphic models of science/theology relationships, familiar to readers of Jim Neidhardt's ASA papers.-Ed.)

Brian P. Sutherland of Victoria, B.C., is a retired chemist who was the founding Chair of the Board of Regent College in Vancouver. Brian, a Greek scholar since his youth, has recently published a

study of the book of Revelation based on his own translation of the Greek text: Conquering and to Conquer: Readings Through the Book of Revelation (Credo, $9.95).

Kurt Wood of Spring House, Pennsylvania, is an industrial chemist whose name appeared under "Newscripts" of the April 6 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, a page steadfastly devoted to chemical trivia. A published tribute to classical "wet chemistry" reminded Kurt of a parody he and a college friend had written 20 years ago, no doubt to the tune of "Good Vibrations" sung by the Beach Boys. We won't inflict you with Kurt's "Good Titrations" beyond these lines: "All the painful things in life seem alien / As I mix in several drops of phenolphthalein . . ." (A good enough "end poinf' for this issue - Ed.)


PEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIONS. Chemistry: Rodney L. Eisenberg (Organisch-Chemisches Institut, UniversitOt Zorich-Irchel, Winterhurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zorich, Switzerland. Tel: 01/257 42 38. Fax: 01/361 98 95. Email: eisenbergoczheth5a.bitnet), ASA member, seeks position for Fall 1992. Has B.S. in chem. (Boise State, Idaho); Ph.D., organic chem. (Oregon State), with T.A. experience teaching organic and p. chem. labs; 2 yrs postdoc research at Zorich; publications in J. Org. Chem., Tetrahedron, on enzymatic reaction mechanisms, biosynthesis of Sarubicin A; familiarity with recombinant DNA techniques, protein isolation, computer modeling of molecular structures. Rod is 33, married, 3 children, USA citizenship, fluent in German, active in ASAer Dan Price's church in Zurich.