Department of Geography

UC Davis

I was introduced as an undergraduate to John Borchert via his now classic articles on "American Metropolitan Evolution" (GR 1967) and "America’s Changing Metropolitan Regions" (AAAG 1972). He was among the reasons I came to graduate school at the University of Minnesota. In the fall of 1977, I took Geography 5375, American Cities, from him. I fell under the spell of John’s great historical geographical saga of the United States. The characters were cities, of course, caught up in shifting technological, economic, social, and political currents. John told a great story with colorful characters, but he also revealed the careful map and statistical work that made it convincing. We graduate students competed to see who could tell the Borchertesque tale the best against Erwin Raisz’s backdrop.

John’s ideas found their way into my own work, which has focused mostly on historic preservation. The legacies that people must weigh when they make preservation decisions are the result of the epochal changes John elucidated. Preservation in Charleston, S.C. has been so dominant in part because of the city’s remarkable plunge within the American urban hierarchy from sixth place in 1820 to 97^th a century later. Its failure to keep up for so long bequeathed it an inheritance that was once again valuable in the auto-air-amenity epoch. Legacy of Minneapolis: Preservation Amid Change, which John co-authored with David Gebhard, Dave Lanegran, and Judith Martin, makes clear for that city, so important to John, the local deposits brought by national currents at various times. I wrote my dissertation in part on how the preservation movements of different metropolitan areas were influenced by the varying epochal detritus they received.

John was an Enlightenment Man. He believed in the power of good science and good public policy to improve the lives of ordinary people. The twinkle in his eye was there for both an interesting idea and a fellow human being. His last book review in the Annals was about Ann Markusen’s Book, The Politics of Regions. Near the end of the review, he wrote, "Finally, I was troubled by the focus on regions as exclusively a framework for conflict. Regions also provide a framework for working cooperatively at common constructive [his emphasis] tasks, which also pursue justice and human welfare." This seems a nice summary of what John was about as a geographer, using regional thinking and mapping to make fairer and wiser public decisions. This is an ideal I value.

John, thanks for being part of my Minnesota education and for an uninterrupted stream of warm greetings in person and via Christmas card since. The energy situation in California (which requires me to pack a flashlight to class) reminds me of your prediction that the next energy epoch will bring dramatic changes to the American metropolitan system. I wish you were here to see them.

Robin Datel

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Chris Faust

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Fred Heck

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University of Iowa

Professor of Geography

Director of Global Studies

Director of African Studies

Associate Director, UI Center for Human Rights

John Borchert was an uncommon man with a common touch. He had that rare ability to be at ease with everyone, from the humblest to the most exalted. As great as he was in the classroom, he was in his element on field trips. Two particular incidents merit mention.

In May of 1968 John took a bus load of students to Chicago on a three day field trip. I remember listening to a conversation with a contractor in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Students were wandering around, seeing the sights. John, with a couple of us grad students in tow, sauntered over to a fellow looking over some blue prints. In the gentlest Borchert manner, John engaged the contractor in conversation, eliciting from the fellow an incredible amount of information about what he was doing, the problems he had to overcome, the likelihood of turning a handsome profit, and many other gems of information that helped us understand what was really going on. John took on the role of a curious observer, never letting on that urban development was what he studied, probing in his gentle yet informative way.

Another glimpse into John’s humanity came from an early morning walk he and I took in Aachen in June of 1981 when we were part of an AAG delegation to Germany. He had been a weatherman for the army air corps during World War II, and he talked of seeing a very different Aachen from the air when on what was really a rest and relaxation flight from Britain to the south of France just after the war ended. He discussed his job, which really amounted to figuring out where Allied bombers would be able to see well enough to discharge their ordnance. He talked about how painful yet necessary the whole operation was, how he lamented the loss of life, which side was involved, but also how he knew how necessary defeating the Nazis was.

John Borchert was a sensitive, brilliant, productive man. My life is enriched by knowing him. Minnesota is a better place because he lived and worked there.

Rex Honey

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LMIC

I was a geography student at the U of M in the mid 1980’s. I worked on a small project for John Borchert via Will Craig during that time and took his Minnesota and Metropolitan cities courses.

I was also fortunate to be one of a small band of students to go on one of the undergraduate student club outings where John led us on a tour through the Twin Cities one Saturday. We ended up at his home along the St. Croix where his wife Jane had lunch waiting for us.

What struck me most about John during that time was that his office door was always open and he was always willing to spend a few moments to talk to you. In all the interactions you always felt his generosity to share both his time and knowledge.

Beyond that he also was interested in listening to who you were. I was an older student and I distinctly remember him asking me about my background and interests. He told me at that time about various paths his children had taken. His comment was ‘Isn’t it interesting that so many in your generation have chosen these varying paths?"

The story that I remember him telling was how he was in one city with an hour or so before his plane was to leave. He caught a cab and told the driver he wanted him to show John the city through his eyes, where he lived and what he did.

After the U of M, I went to SUNY at Buffalo. Upon hearing that I had come from the U of M, one of the other graduate students asked about John Borchert and said one of his most valued papers was John’s classic article on physical geography. I was dumbstruck! In my eyes, John had been an urban and midwest geography. Later on, John served on one of the committees when the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis was established at Buffalo. I now work at LMIC where John is given credit for establishing the foundation for our department.

Thus, my admiration for John has grown over the years. I view him as a good model for someone who had been active in his interests his entire life and who had been able to grow with those interests over the years.

I know there are many who have had a much closer and long-term relationship with John, but because of his willingness to share and interact with us all, he has felt close and special to us all.

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Like all his students I was profoundly influenced by John Borchert. His love of geography, good humor and caring, sharing personality made him a professor we all admired and many of us emulated. Of course we were all intimidated as well. He seemed to able to remember and draw every map he ever saw. He also seemed to have visited every city in the country. I well remember his series of course titled American Cities. He would love to take USGS maps of the urban areas we were discussing spread them on the classroom floor and point out significant features with bamboo fishing pole.

It was my great privilege to collaborate with John , Judith Martin and others on the historic site survey of Minneapolis. It was delightful summer of field work conversations and writing. He was an encouraging team member and co-author. That summer was urban geography at its best.

We also worked together in a variety of efforts to improve geographic education in Minnesota and the United States. Many have written about John’s significant contribution to the science and application of geography. I would like to comment on his interest in and impact on geographic education. John always had time to think about large issues and geographic education was one of the large topics that concerned him. Early in his career he wrote a series of books for use in elementary and middle schools. His encouragement lead to a series of successful National Science Foundation Summer Institutes held at Macalester College in the mid 1980s. These institutes were the foundation of the Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education He was very supportive of all the programs of the Minnesota Alliance and even visited one of our early student geography fairs at the Science Museum. He also took time to create a video version of popular course on the geography of Minnesota so teachers would have access to his insight and material. We would regularly discuss efforts underway to improve geographic education in Minnesota. He was always ready with an encouraging word or an approving letter when we accomplished a goal. He was genuinely pleased when after a great deal of effort we secured a million dollar endowment for geographic education in Minnesota and was a guest at our celebratory banquet where he addressed the assembled politicians, bureaucrats and leadership of the National Geographic Society. But John was most interested in talking to the teachers in attendance. He valued their contributions and cherished their company.

When I became President of the National Council for Geographic Education John became one of my most regular correspondents. He took a keen interest in all I was doing and was ready with advice and encouragement as well as his special view on events and processes. Most recently we were able to discuss my efforts to develop the Advanced Placement Human Geography Course, an endeavor he supported with enthusiasm. It is because I must participate in a previously scheduled work-session of the AP test task force that I must be absent from the Memorial Celebration of John’s life, but I will be with you in spirit.

We will all profoundly miss, John Borchert, but we must count ourselves among the fortunate because we knew him.

David A. Lanegran Ph.D

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MEMORIES OF JOHN BORCHERT

John Borchert was both a good friend and the center of my becoming a geographer. I came to the University of Minnesota in 1953 to study architecture. By Spring Quarter I was wondering if a career in architecture was really right for me. I browsed through the course catalog to consider other alternatives. Geography classes jumped out at me. I had never heard of geography as an academic field and it seemed almost too good to be true. Here were classes on topics that had always fascinated. Climatoligy caught my eye. Similar to John I also had worked in Air Force weather stations during the Korean war.

To check out this possible new major, I went over to Ford Hall to find somebody to talk to. There was one office with the door open and someone who looked to me like a professor working at his desk. Fortunately for me, it was John Borchert. I had no appointment but he invited me to sit down and talked about geography. When I left I too was hooked.

John became my advisor through to my Ph.D. in 1962. I took all of his classes, went on wonderful field trips, and participated in several of his seminars. I also worked for him doing field work on his study of of the effect of the then new Interstate Highway System on land use. Later, I even taught his Geography of Minnesota class for him one year.

My wife Grace and I stayed with John and Jane in their home above the St. Croix river. On one of our trips to the Twin Cities we went to dinner and a Twins baseball game with them. They also stayed with us in Missoula and for once I got to lead a field trip. We all watched as a mule deer doe gave birth to her second fawn near the road. I think that could have been the last time I saw John. His departure leaves a big hole but lives on in rich memories.

Bob Lucas

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Director Urban Studies Program

University of Minnesota

As I sat looking at John"s picture on the invitation to this memorial, I was struck by two things: First, I simply cannot believe that John is gone -- that he won’t just turn up looking to have lunch, or to talk about city and university concerns. Those encounters were always a highlight of my day. Second, I can’t think of very many other people about whom I have absolutely NO bad memories.

Three settings, in three decades, capture for me John’s essential qualities.

First, as a teacher in the 1970s. Like many, I first met John in his American Cities course -- my first formal exposure to geography. With no idea what to expect, I was delighted to be down on the floor looking at maps, as John shared new tools for thinking about and analyzing cities. No other 8:15 morning class ever attracted me, but I never missed this one, and would have gladly kept going another quarter or another year. John’s sheer enjoyment of and fascination with cities and their people shone through.

Secondly, as a research colleague in the late 1970s and early 1980’s. John easily persuaded David Lanegran and I to work on the preservation survey of Minneapolis with him – and, it turned out, with David Gebhard from Berkeley (this pairing was the brainchild of Tom Martinson, then in the City Coordinator’s office). John hired Paula Pentel to work on Sanford maps and then he, Lanegran and I delighted in creating the most complicated density map of Minneapolis development ever seen. It was truly amusing to see Gebhard try to fathom what all those symbols meant – and then to see John indulging Gebhard’s arguments about the significance of architectural intricacies, when he knew it was really the streets, sewers, and transit that mattered. Despite our different approaches, this was the most civilized research interaction imaginable. Due to John’s involvement, it was one of the most enjoyable ever.

Finally, as a colleague in the years since he retired. Despite winter absences, John was often around, working on his projects, asking what others were doing, and offering support. An example: In 1997 I organized a Saturday meeting of authors in my book series – since this was a working session, I didn’t advertise it. After lunch, John wandered in and asked if he could sit in. Of course, we were delighted to have his perspective on what we were trying to do. After 90 minutes, he left to meet Jane, but before going he told our group that this was the most stimulating urban discussion he heard in a very long time – to me, a very important endorsement for our team effort. Such generosity was underscored when he later gave many of his city and metro research reports to me for the Urban Studies students to use.

As my teacher, a colleague, a role model, and finally, a friend, John was truly one of the best human beings I ever encountered. He always saw people and things in the best light – who else goes to teach, to eat, or just walk around, and leaves their office door open? John transmitted his positive view of the world in his classes, in his writing, and in his overall demeanor, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. For many of us, the university, the Twin Cities community, and the world are hugely dimmed by John’s death. But all of these settings would be much dimmer today had we not had his intelligence, curiosity, and spirit with us for so long.

Judith Martin

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Darrell Napton

No person outside my family has had a greater impact on my life than John Borchert. I have enough memories to fill a book. Here are a few of them.

John prefaced every visit with a quick, welcoming smile and a question about how I was doing.

When John was my advisor, he was also very busy with a myriad of other commitments. One result of these commitments is that he was consummately late for our appointments. Other students would see me waiting by his door and ask why I didn’t change advisors. My reply was "It’s worth the wait." And it was. When John eventually arrived, I received his undivided attention. His answers to my questions and his comments about my project were so insightful and clearly worded that my notes could be published. I can still hear him asking some of his standard questions: "Where is it? What does it look like when you map it? What do the numbers mean?" Visiting with him had an added bonus. He was able to convince me that he had profited from our meeting, and I always felt proud that I was able to help him better understand the issue we had discussed.

I am convinced that one of the keys to John Borchert’s success was his naïve, child-like curiosity. He had the ability to see the world as if he were seeing it for the first time. This talent may be an extension of the imagination that all geographers use when looking at the world with mental maps at multiple scales, but John had it to an extraordinary degree. One time when John had been mowing some grass at Cedarcliff he had seen a squirrel taking seeds from the birdfeeder. That evening John related how he had imagined what the squirrel was thinking from his view of the world, watching people put free seeds out and later approach with a lawnmower. This imagination allowed John to see the individual lives and struggles that are represented by maps of the human settlement system and, by extension, to have empathy with people of other times and places.

John was a superb teacher. During one seminar he was preparing to write his book, America’s Northern Heartland. Typically, he would put a map on a table in the middle of the room and begin talking about it. Soon the map came alive. John’s clear description and analysis drew us into another time and place. We could see early explorers and settlers making their way up rivers and building outposts that represented the frontier of the U.S. settlement system. Look, there’s James J. Hill’s crew surveying for the High Line! They are taking soil samples to help insure that settlers from Europe will be eager to acquire the land and provide a reliable customer base. Years later and on a different map, we saw the Milwaukee Road crew pushing desperately through hardscrabble country that almost guaranteed few customers and difficult financial times for both the railroad and those who followed it to new frontier farms. We watched land auctions and frenetic construction efforts as new towns emerged behind the new rails. Entrepreneurs promoted their town as the best and advertised local farmland that was always rich and well-watered. The quality of the local resource base and the accessibility of each farm and town differed; a few prospered and grew while others stagnated or declined. Through John’s eyes, knowledge, and imagination we watched geographical processes create the Upper Midwest of today.

Perhaps John’s greatest teaching trait was to teach in such a way that many students were unaware that they had learned. This normally involved a series of clear, simple, logical steps and the use maps and geographical processes to reach a conclusion. At the conclusion, a common student reaction was "Of course, I already knew that." Upon reflection, however, it became apparent that though the facts, maps, and processes used to reach the conclusion were well known, John Borchert was the first person to actually think of the world in this new way that now appeared to be almost intuitively obvious.

Maps were, of course, central to John’s life. He used maps to demonstrate their power and utility to answer scientific questions and to solve problems. He also used maps to show how geography contributes to the body of knowledge and how they can provide us with a context for our lives. For these reasons, geographers have a responsibility to use maps and other geography tools and ideas wisely and for the common good.

John’s questions about the earth and how people use it provide a path for much future geographic research. His methods of approaching these questions provides a light for the path.

Every day my students and I benefit from John Borchert’s articles, his insights, and his ways of thinking about the human settlement system. But perhaps most of all, we benefit from his example of living The Good Life.

Darrell Napton

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THE OPEN DOOR

ENTHUSIASM FOR LEARNING

COMMITMENT TO MAKE THIS AREA A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE

RISK TAKING AND TRUST

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Department of Geography

Macalester College

I remember John Borchert in a number of ways over many years:

He was always welcoming to me and others. One could always stop in his office, which for years was next to the department office. I’m sure he requested that location so visits could be frequent.

I was lucky enough to ride back from a Winnipeg AAG meeting in the Borchert station wagon with a number of other grad. students. It was an amazing field trip! John insisted that we look at everything along the way and to pose questions about the landscape we passed. A number of times we stopped for mini field excursions on site—these sojourns occurred in agricultural settings, small towns, along highways—there was always something geographical that John insisted we consider. No sitting back reading newspaprers on that trip!

Both my wife Darlene and I were amazed at the amount of knowledge John shared with us and a large busload of people about the Twin Cites on an all day field trip through the territory. Darlene still remarks about that experience.

Years ago I had the priviledge of working for Lukermann and Borchert as a research associate in their NDEA Institute for teachers held at the U. This was a richly rewarding experience for all involved.

Early in my geography career I became President of the Minnesota Council for Geographic Education for one year. John was the first to offer to help out in any way he could in this endeavor. I’m sure others too numerous to mention have a similar story about John’s helpfulness.

When the memorial service was held for Hildegard Johnson at Macalester College John and I were asked to speak about that grand lady. I remember John saying that Hildegard was "always there" for teacher workshops, seminars devoted to geography, and programs to give the discipline more visibility. I recall thinking at the time that John was in a way descibing himself, for this characterizes him as well as Hildegard. John was an outstanding spokesman for geography.

I was honored to be a member of a program on Stillwater at the Minnesota Historical Society some years back. What a thrill to be a speaker along with John Borchert and John Fraser Hart.

I think the last time I saw John was a dinner at his home attended by Dick Skaggs and Cotton Mather. Cotton was in town for a brief visit following his retirement. It was wonderful experience and a supreme thrill to look out over the St.Croix valley from the Borchert balcony and to have John point out key elements on the horizon. Nobody did it better.

Finally, there is the Borchert smile; I cannot recall ever seeing him in a bad mood! He was always warm and engaging.

Jerry Pitzl

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University of the Aegean

Lesvos, Greece

Pardon my tardiness in sending this message, but overseas mail can be very slow. I am one of John Borchert’s geography students, I am from Greece, and this is where I now live and work. I would like to extend to you and to your family my deepest condolences for his departure. I would like to add a couple of clumsy words for his Memorial Celebration.

John Borchert’s work has not only touched and changed american geography, academia and students, according the memorial note in the Minnesota Geographer. It has extended around the world. Through me, his influence has played a significant role in shaping the discipline, as well as the profession, of geography in Greece. I have had the great opportunity in my life to become one of the six geographers who created the first department of geography in my country, at the University of the Aegean. I owe to John Borchert my basic geographical knowledge and way of thinking. I also owe to him a shining example of an individual, whose brilliant intellect, heart and spirit, highly interconnected, have provided enormous guidance in my life as a geographer and as a human being.

I feel deeply honored to have been his student.

Sincerely,

Theano S. Terkenli

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Canberra

I first met John Borchert in March 1956 when I came, as a young graduate student from Auckland, New Zealand, to undertake a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Three weeks later I found myself making a journey by car, with Neil Salisbury, Ed Maranda and Donald Philipp, through the snow-covered lands of Wisconsin, Michigan and Southern Ontario to Montreal for the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. John joined us for the return journey through Ottawa, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, and Northern Michigan and Wisconsin to the Twin Cities. Three moments associated with John stay in my memory from that trip - the first a stop in a rural part of the Ottawa River Valley, where John and I as the only members of the group with any French language attempted to interview a surprised French Canadian farmer about the layout and boundaries of his "long-lot" farm. Our efforts were not helped by the fact that the farmer spoke strongly accented Quebecois French almost impossible for either of us to understand. The second moment was when we essayed to enter the United States at Sault Ste. Marie, - no problem for the 4 Americans, but the immigration officials were distinctly doubtful about this student from a country on the other side of the world, wanting to enter the United States on a Student Visa for the second time in a month. There was a long delay while they tried to figure out what to do, - so long that eventually John came back into the entrance hall from the American side to vouch for me, persuade them that my passport and visa were genuine and I was harmless, and they could issue the appropriate stamp to allow me to enter. The third moment was when we stopped for a meal in a small town in Northern Wisconsin. Speaking normally I asked for "toe-mah-toe soup". When the elderly ex-Chicagoan waiter returned with my "toe-may-toe soup", he asked where I came from. I don’t think he’d had much geography in his school days, but he said "Well, fur a furriner y’ sure speak the language mighty well"! I heard John tell this story several times with much delight.

During my subsequent 4 years at Minnesota, and for all the years since then, I came to regard John Borchert with great professional respect, and with love and affection as a person.

Professionally he taught and encouraged me throughout our long association. I was, I recall, briefly a teaching assistant to him in his basic Physical Geography course. I probably learnt as much as the students, especially in techniques of teaching and presentation. I remember taking his Geography of Minnesota course, for I certainly learnt a great deal about the urban and rural geography of the Twin Cities and the State from him. Of course field trips were essential, whether local or further afield. I remember one that assembled at 6 a.m. in the marshalling yards of, I think, the Northern Pacific Railroad in the Twin Cities. As you will know, his interests in this area led to work and publications on the urban and wider scenes. Gerry and I were delighted when years later he gave us a copy of his book on the Upper Midwest, a classic example of how to present a deep understanding of a region in a meaningful way.

He always had a keen interest in weather and climate, and consequently stimulated mine, and I remember many years later sending him the sequence of daily weather maps from a Rangoon newspaper during the month of June - the height of the monsoon rains. An intense low pressure cell centred over the area for about a month made a dramatic map story, and produced about 30 inches of rain on the ground in Rangoon over the month. I believe he displayed the maps on a notice board in the Department.

More importantly for us, over the years he always showed interest in our professional careers, asking critical questions and focusing on key issues. In late March of this year my husband described to him by telephone some research he is doing on space and distance in the Pacific world, and John immediately asked a penetrating question which helped how part of the problem might be handled.

To talk about a friendship which deepened and strengthened over the last several decades, it is impossible to separate John and Jane. They did everything together, supporting each other in every way with great devotion. For us the association started when I asked, with some trepidation, in the summer of 1959, if John would give me away in marriage to this passing young New Zealand geographer from the University of Auckland. Not only did he gladly accept, but Jane offered to hold a "wedding breakfast" at their home in Golden Valley. Unfortunately few photographs remain of this happy occasion, at which Fred Lukermann was "best man", but we did enjoy sharing a meal with John and Jane in The Hague some 5 years ago to celebrate the 37^th anniversary of that event.

After I completed the Ph.D and left Minnesota in 1960 we managed to see John and Jane every few years, either when staying with other good friends or at their wonderful home on the bluffs of the St. Croix. We had several memorable visits to their house - highlights included boating gently down to Taylor’s Falls for lunch on a glorious summer day; walking through the regenerating prairie of which he was so proud, and in the woods near the house; having his friend and neighbour Walter Mondale (Fritz to John) come over to talk to us (!) about events in the Pacific/Asian area; watching turkey vultures soaring over the river; and exploring the Swedish inheritance of the Scandia area.

Other greatly enjoyable shared experiences included meetings at the Congresses of the International Geographical Union, which I think John like us appreciated because of the opportunities they provided for travel and renewing and strengthening old friendships. The first of these that I recall was in New Delhi in 1968 at the shambolic Indian Congress, the politically-fraught meeting in Paris in 1984, then Washington in 1992 (organised by my former student at Reading University and later Minnesota graduate Tony de Souza); and The Hague in 1996.

Particularly memorable for us was the Congress of 1988 in Sydney, when to our very great delight John and Jane along with many other geographer friends came to Australia. We met John and Jane in Sydney and stayed a night or two in a hotel chosen because it provided the best view of the skyline of Sydney CBD of any I know. After taking them both up the tallest tower in Sydney we let Jane recover a bit from the trip back at the hotel. John and I rode the monorail around Darling Harbour (an old port area now converted to tourism) then took the harbour ferry to Manly, - a trip slightly marred when he discovered he had apparently left his glasses on the ferry. We spent quite a few hours in both ferry terminals attempting to recover them, and I can only guess we were successful in the end. The next day we took John and Jane to our coast house some 5 hours drive down the coast south of Sydney, staying a day or two, bird-watching and exploring the historical geography of a nearby valley. Then inland climbing up through the spectacular eucalyptus forest on the eastern slopes of the Divide, to the contrasting southern tablelands and Canberra. We had promised them an Australian field trip, and knowing John’s predilection for long road trips and his earlier writing about what he called the "Rainbow Crescent" of eastern Australia I elected to drive them westwards down the long slopes of the Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys to the dead flat interior Merino sheep-raising plains near Hay, a rainfall transect from 60 or more inches on the coast to less than 10 at Hay, with corresponding changes in vegetation and land use. The next day we went south across the Murray River, east through the fertile lands on its south bank, stopped at the rich vineyards in Northern Victoria and so home. I hope John and Jane enjoyed coming to Australia and New Zealand as much as we enjoyed having them visit us.

Gerard and I are grateful to have had the privilege of knowing John and Jane for so long. We applaud and celebrate his professional career and contribution, and we cherish our long friendship with a remarkable and generous man, and his ever-supportive wife.

Marion W. Ward

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John Weiss

Grad student 1979-85 (PhD 1985)

It was with great sorrow that I learned, while I was abroad on business, of the death of your father. He was such an inspiration to me. I remember fondly our trip to the AAG in 1980 in Louisville. We took the long way back, via St. Louis. I was amazed at how your father could strike up a conversation with passersby in some of that city’s worst slums and within minutes they would treat him like a long lost friend.

I also remember with some horror your father pulling onto the shoulder of an interstate, in heavy traffic, because of the great view of downtown Louisville behind us. Stopping on a freeway just to take pictures was something I had never done before, but ever since, if the situation warranted it (and the highway patrol was nowhere to be seen) I’ve thought of your father, pulled over, and grabbed my camera.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear from your father just this past summer, after an interlude of several years. I had read an article in the Washington Post by Bill Casey about the unpopularity of the new Sacageweya dollar, which, he cited as an example, his friends "John and Jane" in Scandia, MN had never seen. I sent an e-mail to Casey wondering if his friends’ last name was Borchert and he forwarded the note to your father.

I am very sorry that I will be unable to attend the memorial service next weekend. I will be in Italy and Switzerland on a nonrefundable ticket. I would be very interested in obtaining a video or audio tape of the ceremony if that were possible.

Please give my deepest sympathy and warm regards to your mother (who accompanied us on the 1980 expedition), brothers, and sister.

Sincerely,

John Weiss

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