Page 2 - CROSSROADS - Febnury 1»78
Mid Westerner Finds Home At Belmont Abbey
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By FR. JAMES SOLARI.O.S.B.
When one thinks of St. Louis, Mo., several things
immediately come to mind: the great new arch, the
Anheuser-Busch brewery, the Cardinals, and, as far as
the political science department of Belmont Abbey
College is concerned. Dr. Robert E. Jones. Bob was born
and grew up there, the second of eight childreh. He is a
product of the parochial school and St. Louis University
Prep which prepared him well for undergraduate work
at the highly regarded Jesuit University. There he
followed the Honors Program and took a bachelor of
science degree in political science cum laude.
As a youth Bob had the typical interests of his con
temporaries: scouting, sports, girls, glee club singing
(not necessarily in this order of preference). He was
beset with a powerful itch to see the U.S.A. and to this
date has managed with a variety of conveyances
ranging from horse and bicycle to the Boeing 707 to visit
all of the forty-eight continental states. He still aspires
to journey someday to Hawaii and Alaska, but allows |
that this will have to wait until his two children, Marcus '
and Marshall, have added a few more years.
After the completion of his St. Louis studies, he was I
awarded a fellowship for graduate work in political ;
science at the University of Notre Dame. All together he '
would spend four years at South Bend and become ad
dicted to the “Fighting Irish” teams. His primary in- ■
terests were diplomatic history and Soviet studies. He
acquired a modest fluency with Russian which will come
in handy if he is able to obtain a grant for research
studies at the University of Moscow.
Armed with his newly-earned Master’s degree, he
wanted to try his hand at teaching to determine whether i
he might make this his life profession. In September of
1964 Bob became an Instructor at Gonzaga University
out in Washington state. He found teaching to be both a
challenging and rewarding enterprise and so he
returned to Notre Dame the following year to continue
coursework for the Ph.D. His doctoral thesis deals with
anti-colonialism in the United Nations.
Bob’s first contact with a Benedictine school came in
1%7 when he was appointed Assistant Professor at St.
Anselm’s College in Manchester, N. H. For the next
three years he absorbed much of Yankee life and culture
and learned how to cope with lots of snow. Teaching at
and l^med how to cope wiht lots of snow. Teaching at
St. A s also afforded him numerous opportunities for
skiing trips to Stowe, Vt. and other nearby winter
‘ resorts. On one weekend down in New York City, he had
his first date with a lovely redhead named Carolyn
whose older sister he had met at St. Louis University.
They began a long-distance courtship and eventually
were married.
Bob arrived on the scene at Belmont Abbey College in
September of 1972 and was named acting Chairman of
! the political science department. Since then he has
become quite active in the Social Science Division,
participated in the Honors Colloquim for academically
, promising Freshman students, and has been granted
I tenure by the college. He attended the curriculum
I renewal Institute at Boone. N. C and.iji the summer of
1975 he received a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities to be a part of a seminar held at
Sarah Lawrence College. In addition to his instructional
duties in political science, academic advisement of
majors, and guidance of students planning to take the
Law Board examination. Bob served on the Steering
Committee of the institutional self-study which Belmont
Abbey has recently completed.
For his avocation Bob has rigged a ‘do-it-yourself’
greenhouse onto his home in Charlotte and has taken up
horticulture. As proof of his success in raising a variety
of orchids and exotic ferns, Carolyn wore a beautifid
corsage of home-grown orchids to the New Year’s
banquet at the Abbey.
Bob has been instrumental in directing gifted students
toward graduate schools as well as into full-time in
ternships in the offices of U. S. representatives in
Washington, D. C. He believes in the liberal arts
philosophy and seeks to encourage his students to obtain
a broad humanistic foundation during their un
dergraduate years, which he considers a truly unique
period in the life of the young person, a time of leisure for
the expansion of their horizons without the respon
sibilities of the adult world.
Bob’s ultimate quest is to become not merely a
professor of political science, but an educator whose
influence will transcend the boundaries of his chosen
discipline. Crossroads joins all of his colleagues and
friends in wishing him well in this praiseworthy en
deavor.
Ill
DR. ROBERT E. JONES
Recollection
Day Planned
For Alumni
A Day of Recollection will be
sponsored by Father Oscar for
all area alumni. It will be held
at' Lake Norman April 1, 1978.
For more information contact
Fr. Oscar 825-3711 ext. 247 or
218.
Charlotte | Alumnus Adjust To New Lifestyle
Alumni
Sponsors
Reception
The Star Light Lounge of
Ovens Auditorium was the site
of an alumni reception following'
the Belmont Abbey-Gardner
Webb basketball game Jan. 4.
Although the Abbey didn’t fare'
well, losing by three points, it
didn’t damper the spirits of the
alumni. Bob Healy, president of
the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Alumni Chapter updated the
group of about 60 people of the
future events for the local
alumni. A tennis tournaments
and picnic is planned for the.
spring. Fr. Bradley spoke to
the group concerning the role of
the alumni and commended the
chapter on the work it has been \
doing. Other officers present r
were Vice President Ted;
Hawley, Treasurer Tom Amann
and Bob Cranford. i
Congratulations to all whojj
made that a very enjoyable!
evening. ,
Belmont Abbey College
alumnus Flynn W. Warren, Jr.
(class of ‘62) recently made his
home many miles from Mt.
Holly, N.C., his home while a
student at the Abbey. His life
style also changed a great deal.
Flynn, his wife Varion and
their two sons live in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia where Flynn is a
pharmacist at the King Faisal
Specialist Hospital and
Research Centre. According to
Flynn, the hospital is quite
modern, even by U.S. stan
dards, and is the referral center
for alt of Saudi Arabia. He goes
on to say that the hospital’s “220
beds stay full and the out
patient load is^quite heavy. For
someone who has been teaching
for ten years, the workload is
rough but 1 have gotten back ■
into the swing of things pretty
well;’
Along with four others from
the hospital, Flynn recently '
made a trip to the Yemen Arab
Republic (northern Yemen).
As Flynn was quick to point out,
this was the type of adventure
no travel agent would arrange,
for you. Traveling chiefly ini
Toyotos driven by guides, the'
group spent one week traveling
through deserts and mountains,
sleeping on the ground beside
their car, eating whatever they i
could manage to buy or find and '
prepare themselves. Many of,
the roads they traveled were
more like paths, and they
.sometimes had to use stars and
mountains as landmarks.
In a letter to Mr. Jack
Hanahan, chairman - Physical
Science Division and Associate
Professor of Spanish and
Geology at Belmont Abbey
College, Flynn said, “You
really should try this trip out
someday. It is a geologist’s
paradise. In one fell swoop you
get to see all the desert you can
stand and lava mountains that
are so recent they are still in
large boulders and virtually
free of vegetation.” However,
he did finally admit that “all in
all, it was the kind of trip you
might not have taken if you had
known all the problems in ad
vance, but the experience was
well worth it.”
Flynn and his family have
adjusted fairly well to living in
Saudi Arabia. In his own words,
,“our housing is like a typical
U.S. apartment complex; we'
drink the water right out of tap,
the electricity is on 99 per cent
of the time, and we have a
closed circuit TV channel that
shows U.S. and British
programs ten hours a day. ’The
local stations also broadcast
five or six hours of English TV a
day - mostly movies, Jacques
Costeau and similar snecials, ■
and Walt Disney stuff’.’,
’The weather seems to be quite
pleasant. It has only rained two
limes since Flynn moved there
early last summer. However,
the temperature did reach 140
degrees F. a couple of times
during the summer - a little on
the warm side.
Communicating on the
problems of communication
with the natives of Riyadh,
Flynn says, “my spoken Arabic
(can’t read anything except the
numbers) has progressed to the
point that with words and
pantomine, I can get most
conversations over to the other
party.
“You have to learn the
numbers in order to shop
downtown. We do not have a
hospital commissary, and there
iS' no ‘western’ stopping
district: we use the same stores
as everyone else. Some grocery
stores have built westem-like
sections and get most of the
trade for good items. Our
grocery bill is roughly twqe
what it was in the States, and we
get packaged food items from •
every country in the world.”
This is life in Saudi Arabia for
Flynn Warren and family.
’Though missing some of the
conveniences of the U.S., all
seems to be going well for the
Warrens in their new home.
Spring
Weekend
Set For
April 21-22
When “spring fever” hits
many alumni, they usually
think of Belmont Abbey. It was
those lazy early spring af
ternoons that made going to
class a little difficult. It is also
the time for Spring Weekend.
Many alumni seem to drop in
during that extravaganza, so
the alumni office decided to
inform you of the dates. The
main event is the Saturday
afternoon outing scheduled for
April 22. A circus tent is erected
to house the band and refresh
ments and to shade those in
volved in card games or other
“games of chance”. Outside
those not participating in
volleyball, softball or other
“games of skiU” are soaking up
the warm Carolina sun. A meal
will also be served under the,
tent.
Friday night, a semi-formal
dance will be held in the Haid.
If you wish to attend the
Saturday outing, you must send
vour $5 check to the College
Union Director before April 7.