Faith, Hope and Determination

By DANIEL J. THERON

Readers will greatly benefit reading this books forerunner SO MUCH WATER SO LITTLE WOOD for they play in contrasting milieus of maladministration and usually well administered milieus of the financial and other worlds. The American Association of Universty Professors deserves praise for its penetrating light on that books milieu benefitting employees and other educational institutions for future years.

Professions have their unique vocabulary and idioms of wisdom as does the investment business. Its truth will be summarized. Business flourished for me. Ruth and I could vacation and travel a more pleasant life.

Sorrow struck. Ruth had developed small brain aneurysms and died within four days. Two and a half years later I married Janice Seybolt Morton, a widow with two young daughters. Life went on.
And Princeton Seminary? Purposely locked in a forget corner. Then my phone rang. The same student who wanted a copy of my prayer decades ago, now Seminary Archivist, looked for my file, but it was forever assigned to trash. I still have your prayer, he said. He came for three days, asking questions and recording my answers. He unlocked the corner.

I had portraits of five deceased, outstanding former colleagues at Princeton painted for the Seminary, and eventually established endowments for scholarships and distribution of Bibles in South Africa, together with liberal contributions for a new library. Graciously the Seminary dedicated a lecture room in the new library for me on October 22, 2013.

This book fulfills my dream of tribute to several of my friends at Pretoria University dedicating their lives to the Kingdom of God. They are all long gone now, one fifty years ago in 2013, but to all applies the inscription on Johannes Petrus Potgieters grave stone at his mission station Rivoni:
THOU THEY WERE DEAD, YET SHALL THEY LIVE.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491831069

Book preview

AuthorHouse™ LLC

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 DANIEL J. THERON M.A.,Th./Ph.D All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/29/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3105-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3106-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013922834

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

10235.png

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 OUT! OUT! OUT!

Chapter 2 WE SHALL TRIUMPH

Chapter 3 OUT!

Chapter 4 Albert Schweitzer Of The Bush Veld

Chapter 5 MAMMON

Chapter 6 UNFORGETTABLE, UNFORGETTABLE, UNFORGETTABLE

Chapter 7 THREE PILGRIMAGES

Chapter 8 RADIFATE

Chapter 9 FOR ALL THE SAINTS

Chapter 10 LOSING A LOVED ONE

Chapter 11 THE FUTURE ALWAYS BECKONS

INTRODUCTION

If you have read the Preface of my book, So Much Water, So Little Wood, you will better understand the repeated content of that Preface here. Biographies, a most important genre of literature in which writers can engage, encompass real life. It is history with lessons for the reader to avoid pitfalls, and for both the writer and the reader to gain inspiration to convert their own dreams into reality. Biographies always interested me and motivated me to write my own which I thought would be informative, entertaining, and hopefully inspirational for readers of all kinds, especially since the title of this book could as well have been quite different. Recently someone in the publishing world inquired what my career was. Well, I said, A Jack of all trades, and master of several. He responded immediately, Good title for a book!" But I had already chosen the present title long ago. However, the reader will soon find that this idea would indeed cover my life story like a blanket. It was not always easy, and sometimes it was with bitter disappointments.

Life seldom remains the same, sometimes it surprises us with pleasant turns, but sometimes also with unexpected, harsh experiences, which we have no choice but to face as boldly and forcefully as possible. It struck me as life rolled along how fortunate I have been, especially considering what had befallen several of my contemporary friends since we had finished after our long years of comradship at the University of Pretoria what we had planned as divine callings to serve the Almighty and our fellowmen in the world. My life has now (2013) exceeded some of theirs by about half a century. As the lone survivor I have deemed it an obligation to them to share with readers just briefly interspersed, for variety sake, their messages along with my own of always onward and always upward until time on our beautiful earth runs out.

Let me tell you about it.

CHAPTER I

OUT! OUT! OUT!

"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God

and his righteousness;

and all these things shall be added to you."

(Matthew 6 : 33)

Fully to understand this book, The reader should consult, the writer actually hopes you will read its forerunner SO MUCH WATER SO LITTLE WOOD.

The mystery of the KATOXH, the catch, being caught, the inescapable grasp of a divine call, suppression had slowly, but surely changed, in fact it had smashed it. What had happened to the call that had come to a four year old lad way back on the undulating high veld of the Orange Free State near the town of Cornelia around 1924, and that had been a driving force to pursue its fulfillment so diligently with daring faith and hope, with dedication, and with years of sacrifice, privation, and exceedingly hard work? It might have been smashed and mutilated, but no, it had not been destroyed. It can never be destroyed. It is eternal! Therefore, somehow it will be rehabilitated.

This was the second, unexpected tragedy of my life. The first was the four year long, painful, slow dying of a promising romance: loosing Anna.

Years later, while writing the life of Jesus of Nazareth, I realized that he had suffered much greater disappointments in his own life. The coming of the Kingdom of God for which he had labored so tirelessly, the powers to be hardly grasped. Miraculous conversion of the Sanhedrin, scribes, Pharisees, did not eventuate. Instead his preaching had solidified into hatred and painful crucifixion. Small wonder he had cried out: O, my God, O, my God, why have you forsaken me! No, God had not forsaken him. The message of the coming of the Kingdom of God would eventually far exceed the narrow boundaries of Judaism and lay the foundation of worldwide Christianity.

The mystery of having been called might have been smashed, but it would be restored, hopefully, for the Kingdom of God is not limited to a seminary, it is universal, in all walks of life, if we would only open our minds, and our hearts, and our eyes to see and recognize it. I would not need a pulpit or a professor’s lectern to advance the coming of the Kingdom of God. I would look for the Kingdom of God elsewhere and follow its dictates of service and righteousness to the best of my human ability until my life’s end.

Unfortunately, my years at the Seminary as a faculty member had changed my outlook on life. I had become skeptical, cynical, distrustful of human beings, even those who should have been trustworthy as Christians. I had resolved that excessive turning of the other cheek, was foolish and made a mockery of humility. Apart from the satisfaction it produces, it usually does a bully a lot of good to get a solid punch in the nose.

In my childhood I had too often witnessed with sadness of a late frost. Blossoms on the fruit trees, that were happily swaying in the spring breeze the day before with a hope of bearing fruit in the summer, would bend their delicate heads, turn black, and be dead the next day — frost-killed. There would be no fruit harvest that summer season. But for me it was not only a killing, late frost; it was a deep freeze that would crack the bark and kill the trees also… . Well, what does a farmer do? He uproots the dead trees and plants new ones, of course, for if one hope fails, there is always another, as Providence provides. The earth and nature live in hope and thrive on it, and so do we who, by God’s wisdom and grace, are part of these.

Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ had concentrated summer courses, and I enrolled in Economics 101. Mathematics was always one of my strong suits and I could fit in easily. Should a teaching position not materialize, perhaps I would look around in the business world. I was sad not to be part of the Seminary any more, but Lord, O Lord, what a relief also!

Yet, I would gladly have endured a year or two more under John Mackay’s heel, rather than to have been cast adrift away from my calling, and ending up in a strange vocation. Fortunately, I had drive and ability.

Fortunately, a far more pleasant and successful future moved me away from that most haunting period of my life at Princeton Theological Seminary. It became a comfort and pride that for those unpleasant years I had helped the New Testament Department under Piper with new courses to fill the obvious void in the Seminary’s two-year residence requirement for Th.Ds. With Th.Ms. my teaching also showed all how fortunate we are that our great religion, Christianity, in its formative years, had not fallen prey to many Greco-Roman era pitfalls like the Pistis Sophia, gnosticism in extreme, which would have meant an early demise of Christianity (cf. my dissertation).

As the Greeks said, panta rei, all things are in a state of flux, and one must always adapt to changing circumstances. To this I was no stranger.

Since we would likely move, our house would sell better with the second floor completed. So I had Raymond L. Hunt, our original builder, frame out the second floor with two spacious bedrooms, a full bathroom, and more than adequate closet space. I contracted for electric wiring, had it duly inspected, and installed insulation and covered the walls with plaster board myself. Having watched craftsmen doing their construction jobs, I built a cedar closet upstairs, even put an oak floor in it. I tacked wire mesh in all the corners and diagonally at the corners at the doors and windows to prevent the plaster from cracking and put galvanized beads on the out corners and had the entire upstairs ready to be plastered and finishing off.

Economics 101 went well. We made a trip to New York and visited the New York Stock Exchange and one of the major brokerage firms, or wire houses as they are also called. I took all the tests and examinations, although I was only an auditor, and got at least B’s. By the middle of August, nothing had turned up about a new job, and I went to the professor and said to him that I better quit and devote more time to landing a job. He was familiar with my situation and suggested that I continue with my studies in Economics, and added: We will find you a job here at the University. I was astounded, but remembering how much work it required to teach Greek at the University of Pretoria, I realized that I would be at a tremendous handicap with only Economics 101. I thanked him and promised that I would continue to study economics, using the bibliography he had supplied. Eventually, I would study much more economics than both of us could ever have envisioned that day.

I went to Trenton NJ job hunting. At the State Civil Service, a man said to me: We do not bring in brass from outside. Elsewhere, a fine lady asked me: Why not go on unemployment? I just smiled at her slightly, shook my head a little, saying: No, I do not think so. Inwardly my head was shaking vigorously as if to shout: I go on unemployment? Absolutely never! I will dig ditches before going on unemployment!

My last check from the Seminary would be paid August 31, 1958. Then I would be unemployed and without income but with a home, a mortgage, and a small family, so dear to me. Ruth and I had saved up about $1,500.00 in case of need. It would keep us going for about three months.

Early one morning I boarded the commuter train to New York City. Armed with a brief case full of resumes to walk the streets from one employment agency to another. At one of them a burly woman behind a desk barked at me: What do you want? I guess I was too well dressed for her taste, or something. Perhaps she had clairvoyance and knew that I was a theologian, which she must not have liked. The rest of the conversation was in the what do you want? mode. I just left without even saying good-bye.

At other agencies people were more receptive, but they did not exactly know what to do with a theologian, or someone who could do research in eight languages, speak and write some of them. They seemed to think that I was out of my mind with my qualifications to come to them for a job.

For lunch I ordered Swedish meatballs and noodles. Next to me several men discussed their business. They were Mutual of Omaha and United Benefit Life Insurance Co. agents. Then it dawned upon me that I might have a job! My meal quickly finished, I called the New York Mutual of Omaha office to talk about selling insurance. Where do you live, asked the manager? Well, he said, It will not do coming from Princeton to sell insurance here in the city."

Nothing seems to go right today, I thought. Here was a good chance, but I live in the wrong place. But after a pause he added: I’ll tell you. We have an office in Trenton, New Jersey. That is close to you. I know the manager. Go and see him. His name is Murphy. Tell him I sent you.

Well, all is not lost, I thought, thanked him, hung up, and took the first train back, called Murphy in Trenton, and saw him the next day. To be frank, he said, you have much higher qualifications than people we usually hire, but if you want to try it, I will hire you. So, came September, I had a job. The examination for health and accident insurance I took in about two weeks, but the life insurance examination took a couple of months. Passing the first examination, I could sell health and accident insurance. A lead was given to me to start. Called on a man and his wife near Princeton, it was easily determined that he was poorly covered for hospitalization. At that time provided by employers, was greatly wanting. Convinced that he would be hard put, in case of a long illness, it was not too difficult to convince them to supplement his coverage. He signed on the dotted line and gave me a check for the initial premium and policy fee!

It became easier to write coverage as I got more familiar with the product and how it would fit peoples’ needs. As in most other professions, the essential key to success is conviction. One day I was able to come in with five applications, premiums, and policy fees for new insurance policies.

Eventually, qualified to write life insurance as well, I landed a large policy. My income grew, but it was still a hand to mouth situation. The business did not particularly appeal to me. A teaching position was still uppermost in my mind, should one happen along. Other possibilities also interested me. My avocation in investments seemed to hold promise and I wasted no time checking with a few brokerage houses in Trenton: Hemphill Noyes & Co. and Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith & Co. My broker, at Hemphill Noyes & Co. told me that they had just hired a trainee. Then, to my amazement, he went on to say: You are better off in insurance. Insurance is needed by all people, investment is not. To this day his negative position about his own profession remains a mystery to me. The manager at another firm seemed turned off by my background and former employment.

Naturally, I had also talked with Ruth’s father who was in the investment businesss. He was most interested in the possibility that I might join him in Hartford at Shearson Hammill & Co. However, the manager in his office turned a cold shoulder. So I continued with insurance, gathering sales experience and making a modest living.

The Pipers returned from Europe, and came to visit. He never showed much emotion, but I knew that he was greatly upset about my dismissal. We did not talk about several strong recommendations in writing for my promotion to Mackay, Seminary president. Instead I wanted to hear about their European visit. She was her bubbling self, her English falling far behind her emotions, her dark brown eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as her hands gesticulated furiously in an attempt to make up for deficiency in language. She was such a genuine, outgoing person; one could not but just love her — never mind her shortcomings in English.

Then rather excited, Piper called. A Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia needed someone to teach Hebrew and a few other courses. He suggested I take the position and commute to Philadelphia. It was for only one semester. Well, this was an unexpected kettle of fish. I was one year short of majoring in Hebrew in Pretoria and after that had four years of exegesis from the Old Testament Hebrew text. With a little brushing up it could be done.

But right away I hesitated about such a venture in a denomination so different from my Calvinist upbringing, training, experience, and teaching. And it was for only one semester. But perhaps deep down in me there was a bitterness and a leeriness of sticking my head into any seminary situation again. The Seminary wrote and invited me to come, but I turned it down.

It would indeed be far preferable if I could leave writing about the KATOXH era of my life at this point and move on to better vistas, but new events were cropping out of the past, and besides, they would remain part of my memories and part of my life for as long as I live, and it will have to surface a few more times to complete the sad story.

The AAUP decided to launch a full scale investigation into my case when Mackay and the Board of Trustees, at his insistence, no doubt, had refused to retain me. In the AAUP, Mackay cum suis would meet their Moses, a saying from the Old Testament (Exodus): Moses confronted Egypt’s Pharaoh. His sorcerers turned their staffs into snakes, but Moses did the same and his snake vanquished theirs. Both Mackay and I would now be judged by a jury of peers. The outcome would be an interesting guess, at least.

The AAUP was no lightweight. Celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1989, its origins were succinctly summarized as follows:

"Discussion of the formation of an association of

university professors was initiated by faculty

members at Johns Hopkins University in the spring

of 1913, and pursued at meetings in 1913 and 1914.

On April 25, 1914, the committee on organization

met to consider the purpose of the association.

Present were: John Dewey (Education and Psychology,

Columbia), C. J. Keyser (Mathematics, Columbia), Frank

Thilly (Philosophy, Cornell), W. Hobbs (Geology, Michigan), E.

Capps (Classical Philosophy, Princeton), M. G. Learned (Germanic

Philology, Pennsylvania), and A. O. Lovejoy (Philosophy, Johns

Hopkins) — with Lovejoy as secretary.

"As the Association sought to spread to various universities and colleges throughout the country early in the twentieth century there were some voices of disinterest and others of opposition, but the need for its existence was clearly evident in its steady growth. Some faculty members at various institutions who were in favor of such an association expressed themselves quite clearly:

"I should think perhaps no more important question

could be investigated now than that of the Faculty’s

power to govern the purely academic functions of

the college or university. This power, which is

properly that of the Faculty, declines in many insti-

tutions to almost nothing, and is, I believe, more

gravely menaced every year. By academic functions

I mean the regulation of standards and curriculum,

and the choice of teachers.

Charles G. Osgood, Princeton University

"The program of the new Association was also the

subject of lively discussion, as Secretary Lovejoy

sought advice from colleagues in 1914-15. Although

the names of the authors of these opinions have been

lost, their quotes reveal some interesting views.

A Body of Professors

"A college professor of acknowledged parts should be

protected against the personal likes or dislikes of

administrative officers whether they be presidents,

deans or prosperous business men who sit on boards

of control. Some institutions are much better in this

respect than others; but all might be strengthened by

a suitable statement from teachers and investigators

of the proper position of the scholar. During the last

dozen years some things have happened which might

have been quite different if a body of professors had

expressed their opinions publicly."

By 1958, the AAUP had expanded to about 41,000 members in 571 college chapters (The New York Times, April 25, 1959, p. 23, col. 1) and was a force to be reckoned with in matters of academic freedom and tenure.

Mr. Davis from AAUP headquarters in Washington informed me that the Association had appointed two professors as a special committee to investigate my complaint: Professor Dorothy Bethurum, Professor of English at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, a member of the AAUP Council, and Professor Glenn R. Morrow, Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, AAUP Second Vice-President. They spent two days in Princeton, November 14 and 15 1958, interviewing and investigating.

Mackay had requested two senior professors, Henry S. Gehman and Howard T. Kuist, to talk to the committee. They could hardly refuse. My response to Davis, without mentioning names, was that I had good faith in both of them. They were genuine Christian gentlemen. Kuist was part of my service of ordination. He and his wife had visited Ruth and me in our new home, and expressed their regret that I was no longer on the Faculty.

Gehman spoke at the students’ testimonial dinner for me. But it was also significant, after Metzger’s Spookology debacle and Piper asking me to salvage the course, that Piper was denied and Kuist appointed chair of the Biblical Department which Piper much more deserved. Gehman was given the unprecedented opportunity to continue teaching part-time after mandatory retirement, and according to scuttlebutt, would have continued full-time, had Mackay had his way, because he disliked the professor who would succeed Gehman. Now Mackay came to collect his chits from these two gentlemen.

Truly disturbing was the rumor that Mackay threatened to ask Piper for his resignation, should he continue to make a fuss about my dismissal. This could have been a well planted trial balloon threat. Immediately, This was made known to Davis at the AAUP. Regardless of Piper’s stature, it would have been a truly undermining blow to him. Although, as Davis pointed out to me, Piper could not be touched, due to his tenure. It was also important that Piper, a German émigré, was greatly indebted to Mackay for his position. It was indeed a delicate situation, and life could have been difficult for him.

Knowing what a fertile imagination Mackay had to construe others’ words to his own liking and advantage, in a letter to Davis, of September 10, 1958, I strongly cautioned that  . . . if it is not presumptuous on my part to serve the investigating committee with advice — never talk to the President in private! It is regrettable to say, but Mackay’s perception of the truth was at times what he wanted it to be regardless of real facts. A case in point was that Mackay had told the Trustees that Piper had concurred in firing me, which was diametrically contrary to my conversations with Piper and his letter to me while in Europe.

[Many years later I learned that my file which should have contained Piper’s letters had been entrusted to trash — obviously to protect Mackay.]

It would be most difficult for me to get members of the Faculty to speak to the committee on my behalf. Junior members would be out of the question for retaliatory fears. Two friends who had been at the Seminary, in teaching positions, but who had left, did agree to meet with the committee.

The committee had postponed their visit until the fall. They specifically wanted to meet Piper. Davis had asked Mackay’s assistant to make such arrangements, but as far as I could determine, got no action. Whether he had even contacted Piper was doubtful. So, I contacted Piper myself. He agreed to meet with the committee on set dates and left it at that. But disaster struck — seemingly. Piper discovered that he had an appointment in the Middle West on November 12 to moderate a Ministerial Conference, returning on the 16th. He suggested that instead the Committee submit questions to him, and he would answer in writing. This would protect Piper, because it would be private. I now scurried around and submitted the names of two more persons to talk to the Committee — Emile Cailliet, Stuart Professor of Christian Philosophy, and Edna Hatfield, Seminary Registrar.

Cailliet was as independent as they came. Recall the rather comical argument with Mackay about signs posted on the campus, and their funny exchange about urinals, which Mackay deemed totally inappropriate even to be mentioned in a Faculty meeting, described in my So Much Water So Little Wood. But Cailliet had become disenchanted with Mackay. Like almost all other Faculty Mackay had brought him to Princeton. He had even performed Cailliet’s daughter, Suzie’s wedding. But conscience won out.

Miss Hatfield had been with the Seminary since 1914, beginning as a Secretary to the then President, working her way up to Registrar in 1945, appointed by Mackay, of course. She was most upset with me being fired. She would shortly retire and Mackay could not be much of a threat to her. The Mackays had been most kind to her and in all likelihood she owed them a debt of gratitude, but like Cailliet, her aversion to and disgust at what was happening weighed heavier than her loyalty to them. When the entire debacle was over, she had turned completely hostile to Mackay and barely spoke to him, because of the way he had tried to get at her. One day, in his office, he had said to her in a condescending way: You do not have a college degree, do you? She must have been quite sensitive about it, although she need not have been, because she was refined and a most able Registrar, and one would never have thought that she was not a college graduate — not that that would make much of a difference. Mackay knew that he had been wrong, and one day, trying to make up to her, he had attempted to hug her — a most unusual gesture on his part — but she pushed him away in anger, and walked away. Several years later, when they were both living in the same retirement complex, he came to her apartment and asked to have a word or prayer with her. Edna was not that kind of person. What could I say, she would half snicker. Pray with me! Huh! Hug or pray, they were never reconciled.

Those representing and speaking for the AAUP, impressed me with their quality and professionalism. The committee members were the same.

Mackay could impress people. But for those who had to live and work with him on a steady, daily basis, he was entirely different. He did not wear well. His big ego always got in the way. He was so intent and tried so hard to be great that he was not easy to like. There was little doubt in my mind that Mackay would go all out to impress the committee, as he could and as he did.

Joseph McCarthy had been anathema to the academic world. Mackay knew it well and he played his opposition to McCarthy before the committee. It struck a sensitive nerve, although it had absolutely nothing to do with the case before them. In fact, McCarthy had died the year before, already.

It was an anxious time for me. Piper was not there and Cailliet had said that he strongly hoped to be on campus, but that he might be in Cape May. But, dear man, he came all right. Somehow Mackay knew it. So, he called him up, or let him know not to forget to go and talk to the committee! Cailliet kept his cool. Rather irked, he responded sarcastically: You need not remind me. I do not intend to forget.

The committee made full use of the individuals who had agreed to be interviewed, as their report will show. They wrote to Piper and he dutifully replied. I met with the Committee at the Princeton Inn, then still an elegant hotel, and was interviewed at length.

Much as I regretted Piper’s absence, he was much better insulated from reprisal by not testifying in person. He responded to the committee’s letter, and Mackay could not accuse him of stirring up trouble, for it would be confidential. In fact, Piper’s being away, worked in my favor. I got two more people to be interviewed by the committee, especially Edna Hatfield, who after more than forty years at the Seminary, knew it inside and out — where all the bones were buried, or the skeletons hidden in the closets.

Shortly after returning from the Middle West, Piper and his wife came to call at 60 Balsam Lane. We had tea and visited. We did not talk too much, but the purpose of their call was obvious. It was to indicate, without actually saying so, that he was not letting me down. I knew it and he knew how I felt.

About November 18 or 19, there arrived a light blue, South African aerogramme, dated 2-11-58 (November 2, 1958). Air letters were rather small, 4x5, folded up. In the upper right-hand corner on the front was imprinted the franking, 6d., with a well streamlined, winged Springbok, emblem of the South African Airways, and emblem of the Union of South Africa itself. To the left of that emblem was an extra 6d. stamp, orangy in color with a stately black-maned male lion, facing to the right, his head turned to the viewer. The letter was written 2-11-58 (November 2, 1958). It had been forwarded from our former address, 36 Hibben Road. It was from P. de V. Pistorius, Professor of Greek at the University of Pretoria. He addressed me informally as Dear Danie, and continued: I am writing this letter in English, because I know your wife will want to read it also… . There is now a lectureship vacant in Greek and I have proposed your name as first choice. It has already been approved by the faculty and the senate and now awaits confirmation by the Council. Should you come, you will be appointed at the maximum notch of the appropriate scale — at the moment approximately £1600 p.a. (the cost of living allowance is included in that figure) . . . . Naturally I shall be very pleased if you decide to come… .

Ruth and I were still rather flabbergasted by receipt of this unexpected offer when another thick envelope arrived from the Registrar of the University of Pretoria. There were three parts, formal, printed forms with blanks where the appropriate information was typed. The forms were in Afrikaans, the language used by the University. In translation part of the first form, signed by the Registrar, read: Dear Dr. Theron, . . . . It is a pleasure for me to appoint you herewith on behalf of the University Council: (a) as Permanent/full-time lecturer in the Department of Greek (b) commencing February 1, 1959… .

I would like to hear in writing whether you are willing to accept the appointment. I would also like to make use of this opportunity to welcome you cordially in anticipation to the personnel of this university.

The University agreed not only to pay for the transportation of me and my family, but also for the cost of moving our household affects to Pretoria, which would be a substantial sum of money.

The procedure was