Earlier this week a gentleman came to our office while I was out. He identified himself as a retired surveyor from Florida who had just moved to the area. (I know seems strange to me too).
Unfortunately no one thought to write down his name and no one remembers it (and they are all younger than I am).
He brought in a box of books that he said he no longer had a need for and wanted a surveyor to have them so he left them with us. Several interesting editions of classics: Boundary Control and Legal Principles by Brown, Landgraf, and Uzes, published 1969; Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location by Brown and Eldridge, published 1962; Clark on Surveying and Boundaries Third Edition by John S. Grimes, and several others.
In Clark I found a letter dated May 11, 1967, from John S. Grimes, Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law addressed to Bruce F. Small, 3138 South West 15 Court, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The letter is a response to a letter from Bruce Small, in which he discovered several mistakes in the book. Mr. Grimes acknowledges the mistakes and thanks Mr. Small for his comments.
This has got to be the same Bruce Small, no? What a Small world we live in.
Bruce was this you? You would have been about 26 years old and very thoroughly reading Clark on Surveying and Boundaries.
That is fantastic!
Bruce Small is a great resource and contributor here and that gives us an insight why that is.
Well I'll be darned. Yes, that was a younger me, working on a survey crew for Florida Power & Light, and studying very hard to become a land surveyor. I read every book I could get my hands on, and I do mean word for word. Everyone else would take a coffee break, and I’d sit in the truck and study. I have a history of speaking up, so when I saw a few anomalies I wrote to the author. John Grimes is one of the very few survey authors I never met in person. I have autographs of many of them. Last I saw of those books I had loaned them to a young party chief, Rich Kennedy, as he was moving to California in hopes of getting registered there. I don’t need them back and am glad someone is making use of them.
I’m currently reading the autobiography of Edward Bok, and not until just now did I realize the parallels in our lives. He made it a point to write to and meet as many famous men as he could, so he could learn from them, and it is an astounding list. As a teenager he was a dinner guest with General Grant and his wife, and President Rutherford Hayes and the first lady. He met Louisa May Alcott, Emerson, and everyone else he could bump into. He did not take Jay Gould’s advice on buying and selling stock on margin.
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Ha ha Coady, I'm a big fan of euchre and I hate getting over trumped. Besides, that's a pretty big list of names he's got.
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It has occurred to me that it might be someone from Florida who had a copy of the letter, but not my books. I'm sure I shared that letter with others studying for the exam. The only one I can think of linked to studying + Florida + West Virginia would be Ken Mills, possibly. Does that name ring a bell?
I'll see if it rings any bells in the office tomorrow.
Interesting, Bok Tower, the Singing Tower.
There was a time that this tower was surrounded by miles of orange groves.
Still a very nice place to go visit.
I'll see if it rings any bells in the office tomorrow.
:pinch: Groan.