We apologize for those who checked their e-mail repeatedly last week, awaiting an edition of HP that did not arrive. Your writer’s father died and needs must. An appreciation for this great man follows the rugby news.
SPEAKING OF RUGBY NEEDS…
The Reno Tournament emerges from a ten-year slumber this coming Labor Day weekend, on Saturday and Sunday.
http://www.renozephyrsrugby.com/index.htm
As you can see, the lineup of teams looks pretty good. There will be two pitches in action all day Saturday and most of Sunday.
At present, we have four referees for Saturday and three for Sunday. WE REALLY NEED THAT FOURTH SUNDAY REF – which would mean that every referee ‘only’ does every-other-game for two days.
And of course, it would be great to have two more refs each day – then it would only be every third, which is still a lot of games to do at altitude and out of season.
If you can make it to Reno for either Saturday, Sunday, or both, please let us know!
We hope to see you there.
Refs are still needed for September 8 as well in Santa Rosa and San Francisco.
FIRST ANNUAL NORCAL WOMEN’S MIXED 10s
Saturday, August 18, Rocca Field
Report by Lois Bukowski:
About 60 women celebrated rugby on a sunny, breezy Saturday on Treasure Island. The Women's National Team coach Kathy Flores and Women's Grizzly coach Alex Williams created four very competitive teams (Harlotfest-style) comprised of Eagles, Grizzlies, club, and college players. There were plenty of strong runners, passers, support runners, and tacklers--producing multiple tries by each team in the four matches. The level of play was actually quite high for pre-season players who hadn't worked together before. The tournament featured lots of conviviality--including a one-hour lunch break in the clubhouse--and a tournament T-shirt with a large blue Pelican.
Speaking of Pelicans, we were fortunate to have three referees (Bjorn Stumer, Pete Smith, and Lois Bukowski), four touch judges (Isaac Caselis, Eric Rauscher, Leo Loh, and Preston Gordon), and two referee coaches (Lois B and Dave Williamson). At the close of festivities, the players joined in an appreciative applause for a job well-done by the Pelicans.
GET OUTTA TOWN
Add John Coppinger to the list of Pelicans migrating this autumn:
September 8: Jim Crenshaw to New York City
September 15: Joe Leisek to Boston and Aruna Ranaweera to Aspen
October 6: John Coppinger to New York City
October 22-26: Pete Smith to the Armed Forces Championships at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Early November: Don Pattalock to Virginia
Of course, Paul Bretz and Aruna Ranaweera both worked the National All-Star Sevens in Park City this past weekend.
We are in the process of selecting two exchangees to Victoria, British Columbia, for the extended Thanksgiving weekend.
WORLD CUP EAGLE TICKET OPPORTUNITY
From Ed Todd:
“I have excellent tickets (see purple section) for the following RWC matches. If you know any interested party they are available at cost.
“USA v England (2) @ $100 each, September 8 in Lens
USA v Tonga (2) @ $35 each, September 12 in Montpellier
USA Samoa (4) @ $35 each, September 26 in Saint-Etienne”
Contact Ed directly:
etodd@usarugby.org
MELVIN WHITEHEAD CARTER, Ph.D.
I would ask my readers to indulge me in some thoughts about the man who brought me to a place where I may be useful to others.
My father made his career keeping the public safe from radiation exposures of various kinds, from the South Pacific hydrogen bomb tests in the fifties to consumer products.
He had careers with the US Army Air Corps, the US Public Health Service and the Environmental Protection Agency. After returning to his alma mater, Georgia Tech, he taught and was a mentor to the next generation of radiation safety experts. Retiring as a professor in 1988, he pursued private consulting and served for four years on a governmental advisory board by the appointment of President Reagan.
Because of his particular pursuits, we lived in Las Vegas when I was a kid, which was near the Nevada Test Site. (There is now a fascinating museum just off the Strip dedicated to the NTS.)
Mom used to take us up on the slopes of Mount Charleston to watch pre-dawn, above-ground atomic bomb tests. We had insider information on when they’d be going off, you see.
The nuclear genie released from the lamp awes even from sixty miles away. Among its powers are those to create lasting memories in the mind of three-year old boys.
My father’s was a rare expertise in how to handle radiation accidents, anything from leaking static-electricity neutralizers on assembly lines to Chernobyl.
Industry clamored for his services in times of need.
Someone once happened to have an active Geiger counter near his new car and couldn’t imagine why it should be so vociferous. The car was radioactive. Who you gonna call?
Mel Carter could sort this type of issue out and be home for a family dinner.
It was the paint; it was a particular ingredient in the paint; large revolving vats used to fractionate sludges of kaolin for this industry were, over time and solely by physical and chemical methods, neatly concentrating the naturally-occurring nuclides in the base minerals. He could elucidate such conundrums and devise cost-effective ways for remedying them, containing potential exposures, and adding to our knowledge of such processes.
He was the first foreigner the Soviets invited to Chernobyl, to advise them in containment and decontamination.
My parents married young and not till my mother’s death in 2005 did they part, more than fifty-eight years later. Five children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren survived them.
I was fortunate to be part of a stable nuclear family which enjoyed a long half-life.
I've had a very blessed existence, most of it due to things I was given and took for granted. I don't take them for granted any more, which is perhaps my father's last gift to me.
Following are the words I spoke in memorial at my father’s funeral, at the church which provided my parents sustenance and succor for thirty-five years:
***
Glory to God our father.
When I was young, I read somewhere that a boy didn’t become a man until his father died. It might have been Hemingway, or Norman Mailer, or any other of the godless authors that I invited into my head at my own peril, but I have to admit that there was a time when such intellectual and solipsistic bilge struck me as profound.
How could that young fool have foreseen this day?
When I look at the life of my father, the first man I knew and the one I came to know best, several facts about his manhood become clear:
He was mindful of his gifts and gave thanks;
He devoted himself to his wife, to her comfort and security, and together they walked in faith;
He was fruitful and he multiplied, bringing children into the world and raising us up in the church;
He dedicated himself to teaching and to helping others, dealing literally with the public health, applying his God-given gifts for the greater good;
He formed friendships which remain fast and will follow him henceforth;
And he lived a life of love, selflessness, forbearance and grace even as his magnificent mind, pillaged by dementia, fell into ruin.
Far from my father’s death being required for me to become a man, all that was ever necessary was for me to examine his life, blessed as I have been with his heritage and his example.
To keep the commandment to honor my father, I need only emulate him:
To acknowledge God’s grace;
To hold my marriage sacred;
To love my children and my grandchildren;
To help others;
To be ever a good friend;
And to accept with gratitude God’s plan in this life.
I am so lucky to have been entrusted to such a father.
For me and my four siblings, the first six words of the Lord’s Prayer have taken on an additional meaning.
When we leave here, we are going to take my dad and place him next to his bride so that they can hold hands.
Now, for my brothers and sisters and me, in memory yet green and as manifested in our own persons, Mel and Ann are again and forever more as they most wished to be: one.
All glory to God our father.
***
THIS WEEK’S PHOTO
(photo courtesy of erugbynews.com)
At the weekend’s Sevens National All-Star Championships, Aruna Ranaweera seems to have resolved the dilemma between refereeing behind the offense or behind the defense by a compromise position.
HAIL, PELICUS!
For the Senate
Pelicus Scriptoris
