GE SIX
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1952
W."
JUST PLAIN 'SANDY' AGAIN:
Leisure Eludes Ruthven in Retirement
By DIANE DECKER
Sometime after 5 p.m. on the
last day of June, 1951, President
Alexander Ruthven closed his
desk, bade his secretary "good-
bye" and walked out the door of
2522 Administration Bldg. toward
a life of leisurely retirement.
Looking retrospectively at the
past eight months, Prof. Ruthven
has conoluded that he hasn't
found the leisure he expected."
However, the 70-year-old Scot-
tish educator admits that the
"greatest blessing of retirement
is that now I have more command
of my time, and it is possible for
me to spend what I consider to
be the proper amount of time with
avocations."
*i
THE UNIVERSITY'S former
president finds retirement relax-
ing-"I can smoke my pipe all
the time now. It wasn't conven-
ient 'before."
Lighting a cigarette (because
the pipe tobacco had been in-
advertently left at his home,
Gordon Hall) ,Ruthven contin-
ued, "I've always had a large
collection of briars. A good
pipe smoker has one for every
day of the week so he can give
them a rest."
By family tradition ,the oldest
Ruthven boy has always been
called Alexander, and the good
Scottish nickname for Alexander
is "Sandy."
According to the' Alexander of
this generation: "Before I became
president, my friends in Ann Ar-
bor and elsewhere always called
me 'Sandy'. When I became presi-
dent, they started calling me
President', and since I've retired,
I'm again 'Sandy' to my friends."
BUT BEING retired does have
its disadvantages, as Ruthven ad-
mits. He had expected to miss
his direct contact with students-
and he does-although in his po-
sition as faculty advisor to West
Quad's Allen-Rumsey House, he
Senate Post Goes
To 'U' Professor
Prof. John W. Lederle of the pb-
litical science department has an-
nounced that he has accepted an
advisory position with the U.S.
Senate Elections Committee in
Washington.
The committee is studying the
revision of electoral laws in an at-
tempt to reduce campaign abuses
and excessive expenditures.
Prof. Lederle, who is head of
the University's Institute of Pub-
lic Administration, .said that the
job is on a part-time basis, en-
abling him to remain at. the Uni-
versity..
* *
ago had heard my views on the
subjects that concern me most."
LIFE ISN'T ALL work and no
play even for retired college
presidents, however, and Ruthven
spends a good deal of time at Gor-
don Hall near Dexter with his
hobbies.
A biologist by training, Ruth-
ven enjoys raising Morgan hors-
es and boxers. HeI
stable of Morgans1
and is director of
Horse Association.
had the first
in Michigan
the Morgan
"SANDY" AND MORGANS-Former President Alexander Ruthven
surveys his prize-winning horses, which have taken honors across
the continent. Owner of the first stable of Morgans in Michigan,
he heads the Morgan Horse Association.
* * *
gets an opportunity to talk to the
men about their problems.
Allen-Rumsey House is not
his only contact with the Uni-
versity. Although he has left
the. office in the Administra-
tion Bldg. behind him, Ruthven
has moved to another on the
mezzanine of the Rackham
Bldg.
There he makes plans for the
* * *
new course he is teaching for the
Ann Arbor area extension service
on "Modern Trends in Higher
Education", handles his corres-
pondence, receives visitors, and
prepares speeches.
"It still seems necessary for me
to give a good many talks," the
genial educator confided. "This
surprises me because I had the
feeling that everyone a long time
MATH MONKEYSHINES:
Sun's Slowness, Not Spinsters
Forced Leap Year Adoption
Ruthven proudly admits, "My
horses have taken prizes across
the nation from California to
Massachusetts and New Jersey."
Descended from a long-line of
horse breeders, Ruthvenrchose
Morgans because, "They are the
most intelligent and tractable of
breeds."
One of Ruthven's disappoint-
ments is that, to date, he has
found no time for his writings in
zoology. When he was still ac-
tively engaged in scientific work,
the versatile educator developed a
philosophy of zoology w h i c h
gained wide acceptance.
"I've always planned, when I
had time, to do more writing in
this field," he said. And, al-
though President Ruthven never
got around to it, it seems pretty
sure that "Sandy" will.
Wage Board
To Hear Plea
Of Contractor,
Appeal arguments by the J. D.
Hedin Construction Co. of Wash-
ington, D.C., contractors for the
local Veterans Administration
Hospital project will be heard at
Wage Stabilization Board offices
in Washington today, but a final
ruling is not expected for at least
a month.
The company was fined $80,000
in penalties for allegedly paying
bricklayers $3 an hour between
Feb. 28 and Nov. 14, 25 cents an
hour over the WSB ceiling rate.
of $2.75.
A second local overpayment
charge was made against the
Anchor Fireproofing Co., Inc., also
of Washington, D.C., a subcon-
tractor on the University Hospi-
tal's Out-Patient Clinic project.
The Anchor firm was cited for
allegedly paying $60,000 in over-
ceiling wages to bricklayers last
year.
Hearings in the case, which
have been repeatedly delayed
pending the outcome of the Hedin
case, have now been set for April
22.
Union Show
Ticket Sale
A nnounced
Union Opera preparations shift-
ed into double step yesterday as
the ticket sale schedule for the
1952 edition, "Never Too Late,"
was announced along with a first
call for scenarios for the '53 opera,
Applications for organized group
ticket blocs will be accepted begin-
ning .Monday, according to Pro-
motions Chairman Mark Sand-
ground, '52. The public sale will
begin a week later, March 10. The
show will be held March 26, 27 and
28 at the Michigan Theatre and
tickets are priced at $2.25, $1.75
and $1.25, a reduction from last
year's prices.
Meanwhile with an eye toward
the future, Mimes President Jim
McGlincy, '52, announced that
competition for scenarios for the
'53 opera is open.
A committee consisting of Pro-
fessors Marvin Felheim and Ken-
neth Rowe of the English depart-
ment, Opera General Manager Jim
Yobst and McGlincy , will select
four of the scenarios submitted.
The authors of these will be
asked to hand in completed scripts
from which the Union Executive
Board will select the one to be
used.
McGlincy asked that the sum-
maries be handed in as soon as
possible to the Union main desk.
Although nothing official has
been announced, Mimes officers
hinted that the advance prepara-
tion for next year's show may her-
ald a return to the pre-war prac-
tice of presenting the Union Opera
in December and sending it on a
nation-wide tour.
'Ensian Sale
Today is absolutely the last
day to purchase 'Ensians at the
prevailing price of $5.50, Gor-
don Hyde, '54, promotions man-
ager, warned yesterday.
Orders will be taken from 2
to 5 p.m. at the Student Publi-
cations Bldg. or through the
house representatives.
Those who put off their pur-
chase will have to pay an extra
fifty cents, Hyde declared, for
after today, the 'Ensian will
cost $6:00..
Tickets Still Left
For One Act Bill
Tickets are still available for the
remaining performance of the
speech department's third bill of
one-act plays, being presented at
8 p.m. today at Lydia Mendelssohn
Theater.
R E L A T E D B Y A D 0 P T 1 0 N -"Nutsy," a young squirrel, sits between two kittens after
being found with eyes still closed by Harold Minton in Philadelphia. "Nutsy" was adopted by the
Minton cat who had just given birth to kittens including this twosome.
TUE
WS
February has its extra day today
-not to provide hope for timid
males but to adjust our calendar
to fit the time required for the
earth to revolve around the sun,
according to Prof. Hazel M. Losh
of the astronomy department.
"Making up a calendar is diffi-
cult because the natural divisions
of time refuse to come out evenly,"
she said. The earth does not travel
around the sun in an even number
of days and the moon's revolutions
about the earth are also irregular.
* * *
ACTUALLY the duration of the
earth's trip around the sun is
365.24219 days, Prof. Losh added.
Because the sun refused to make
the journey in exactly 365% days,
the calendar . devised by Julius
Caesar back in Roman times ac-
cumulated an error of several days
by the year 1582.,
It was in'that year that Pope
Gregory XIII instituted a calen-
dar reform-undoubtedly irked
by the necessity of having the
day following October 4, 1582,
become the 15th of the month to
correct the error in Caesar's
calendar.
"The Gregorian calendar con-
tinued the habit of inserting an
extra day every four years but had
a very important modification-
the first year in each new century
is not a leap year unless it is divis-
ible by exactly 400," Prof. Losh
reported. "Thus the year 2000 will
be a leap year but 1700, 1800 and
1900 were not."
This correction has practically
wiped out the error of Caesar's
calendar and leaves only the rela-
tively small discrepancy of 26 sec-
onds a year, Prof. Losh concluded.
B E N D I N C E V E R Y E F F 0 R T -Whatever their luck, these bathing-suited anglers will
catch admiring glances as they join in popular sport of surf casting at St. Petersburg, Fla.
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E Y E F U L F 0 R T H E Y 0 U T H F U L-Susan (left) and Georgia Rushworth have wide-
eyed admiration for papier-mache creations of their uncle, war veteran Richard R. Baldwin, 26,
Berkeley, Cal. This frontier scene is mechanized for animation by Baldwin.
"..
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