Milestones, Jul. 23, 1956

  • Share
  • Read Later

Died. Dr. Gerrit J. Van Heuven Goedhart, 55, tall, intense U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees since 1950, whose office won the 1954 Nobel Peace Prize for its thankless task of finding "permanent solutions" to the plight of some 350,000 anti-Communist refugees in Europe and Asia; of a heart attack while playing tennis; in Geneva, Switzerland. Prewar editor (1929-33) of the big Amsterdam Telegraaf, bald, brilliant Dr. Goedhart became a top-ranking resistance leader, later (1944) moved to London as Minister of Justice in the Dutch government in exile. Lately embittered by apparent indifference to the plight of the "hardcore" refugees, Goedhart threatened to resign, crying, "It is a scandal that 65,000 refugees are still living in misery in a Europe bulging with prosperity." But good news reached him just before death struck: the U.S. House of Representatives voted a $2,000,000 appropriation for his 1956-57 emergency refugee fund.

Died. Charlotte Carr, 66, gusty, bushy-browed social worker, successor to the late Jane Addams as head (1937-43) of Chicago's famed slum settlement Hull House, head of all home relief in teeming New York City during the hard-pressed mid-'30s of a heart attack; in Manhattan.

Died. Wythe Williams, 74, puckish, pipe-smoking magazine editor and newspaperman, sometime foreign correspondent for the New York World, New York Times. Satevepost (1925-26), chief correspondent (1931-36) for Hearst papers in London, founding president (1939) of Manhattan's Overseas Press Club of America; of cancer; in Jersey City.

Died. Richard A. ("Old Dick") Glendon, 86, oldtime rowing coach whose crews at Navy and Columbia paced eastern racing for 27 years (1904-1931); in Hyannis, Mass. A fisherman by trade, Dick Glendon taught himself to scull on Boston's Charles River, developed the famed "Glendon stroke" (a long layback).

Died. Judge John Tate Raulston, 87, Tennessee county judge who presided at the celebrated Scopes "monkey trial" (1925); in South Pittsburg, Tenn. A Fundamentalist himself, Raulston helped get Biology Instructor John Scopes, 24, indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution to his county high-school class by reading the opening chapters of Genesis to the grand jurors of Bible-belt Rhea County, presided at the trial as Defense Lawyer Clarence Darrow relentlessly badgered Special Prosecuting Attorney William Jennings Bryan with agnostic Biblical quiddities. Baited by Darrow, Raulston snapped: "I hope you do not mean to reflect on the court?" Countered Darrow, gazing absently out of the window: "Well, Your Honor has the right to hope." Scopes was found guilty, and Raulston imposed the fine: $100.