A Jamaican English colonialist (Edmund George Ford), is found to have not descended from inquisition-related Jewish Spanish royalty. Nor is a Virginian (John Stuart Gladwell) related to a famous American Civil War Confederate general. Each grew to earn, on their own, the great respect of their colleagues and acquaintances, beyond anything they could have foreseen. Theirs became one story when the Virginian met and married the Englishman's daughter. To their children neither left anything that could have been called a fortune. What they did leave was a good name that could not be easily frittered away and soon forgotten.
This is the story of the son of the Virginian. It is a story that is quite different from that of his Ford cousins. It is one that involves considerable education, progressively responsible positions throughout the USA and finally an important position with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations in Paris.
With the advent of World War II, the Virginian volunteers for active duty with the US Navy. But his physical examination reveals that he is suffering from a serious illness. In 1943, after a major session in two Veterans' Hospitals he dies, leaving behind a devastated widow and an 11-year old son. We then follow the son in his new environment in the Canal Zone and with his second family with his Uncle and Aunt.
Although he was still young and relatively inexperienced, following two years in the U.S. Army in Korea and Japan, the respect of the son's friends was important. His Texas A&M time of studies proved to be the perfect one for him to grow. Following graduation he moves to Alaska to work for the US Forest Service. On the way north he visitsVancouver, Canada, and meets the woman to whom he soon becomes engaged and marries a year later. Before the wedding he is offered and accepts a fellowship to work for an MS in civil engineering at Texas A and M.
owing receipt of the graduate degree he is employed as a research hydraulic engineer at Washington State University. This lasts almost four years when he decides that he is interested in teaching. He is offered a position at the University of Maine. Soon after he returns to the West he begins studies toward a PhD at the University of Idaho. In 1970 he graduates, and accepts a position on a US Presidential water commission. A year on the Commission is followed by two more years in Washington, DC. He is then offered and accepts to be the Director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute.
When the political wheels begin to turn and UNESCO realizes that the US is interested in seeing its candidate placed Jack is given the nod. His position in UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme is given great responsibility when the Director is picked to be Acting Assistant Director General for Science, and Jack is asked to run the Division. This lasts for five years, without title.
Travel to fulfill IHP projects requires a great deal of time. Jack finds the trips very interesting, and before retiring he will have visited 62 countries.