News From Fort Schuyler

December 26, 1997 - Volume 1, No. 9

SALUTE TO CHARLES B. SHAPLEY '47 - Joe Gerson reported to his fellow "Scissorbills" that a memorial service was held for Mr. Shapley on December 1, just weeks after Chuck made his generous matching contribution of $150,000 to the Class of 1947 Memorial Scholarship Fund. Mr. Shapley attributed much of his successful career with ESSO and ARAMCO to the formative years spent as a cadet here at Fort Schuyler and aboard the EMPIRE STATE.

THE DOME: A PRELIMINARY "HISTORICAL" SURVEY - Questions: WHEN did you first hear of Maritime referred to as "The Dome?." WHAT does it mean? WHY did it get that name? WHO did you hear it from first? WHERE were you when you first remember hearing that term? During this holiday break, if you have some time to ruminate, run these questions through your mind and e-mail your answers to me. I will collate the responses and report back to the group. Do your part to save the sanity of future historians by providing authoritative answers to these burning questions. (Thanks to Al Guardino '71 for posing the question and following up with the first response.)

EXPAND YOUR SIGHTS - Sample a medley of excellent, reliable web sites recommended in the December issue of CHOICE, a review magazine for academic libraries, published by the Association of Academic and Research Libraries.

1) Foreign Language for Travelers (http://www.travlang.com/languages/search.html ) "The site is current, interactive, and easy to navigate. An essential bookmark for...those interested in travel and languages."

2) Environmental Sites on the Internet (http://www.lib.kth.se/~lg/envsite.htm) "a Sweden-based home page that provides a comprehensive array of environmental science information available on the Internet."

3) PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/) An on-line database to the magazine articles indexed by the National Library of Medicine. Most recent citations include abstracts.

STANLEY WOLPERT '47 SAILED INTO INDIAN HISTORY - Did you know that Stan Wolpert '47 became the world's outstanding authority on the history of modern India and Pakistan because he obtained his marine engineer's degree at Fort Schuyler and then sailed on his license? Here is what he writes in the preface to the 5th edition of his definitive survey of modern India, A New History of India, Oxford University Press, 1997: " I first visited India in February 1948, at the age of twenty, a maritime engineer. My ship reached Bombay on the day when one-seventh of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes were immersed in the waters of Back Bay. I witnessed that ceremony from Malabar Hill, watching hundreds of devout mourners swimming after the beautifully painted and flagged ship that bore those ashes, hoping to touch some cinders as they blew away from the aft deck. I had never seen so many people before. I knew nothing of Gandhi's life, except that people called him India's "Saintly Father," and yet he was murdered by one of his fellow Hindus. The enormity of that crime and its paradox changed the course of my life. I abandoned marine engineering for Indian History, and have been a student of that uniquely fascinating subject ever since." (p. viii) Quite a picture he conjures up. I wonder if his ship passed Serendip (now Sri Lanka, once Ceylon) on its way to Bombay?

LIBRARY HOURS CURTAILED DURING WINTER LEAVE PERIOD - The college will continue the practice of shutting down most offices during the winter break in order to save money on heat and salaries. The Luce Library Reading Room, therefore, will be closed through January 4.