H. P. B. JENKINS, 1902-1963. Following active service in the European Theater during World War II, Dr. Harry Jenkins taught Economics in the
Dr. Jenkins was stricken and died while walking home from graduation ceremonies on the campus, January 26, 1963.
Old Kaspar’s final communique appears on the opposite page, while above is the story of Kaspar, Peterkin, and Wilhelmine as Dr. Jenkins recently recorded it for a young friend.
Old Kaspar and his two equally fictional grandchildren, Peterkin and Wilhelmine, first came to public notice when an incident in their simple lives was described by the English poet, Robert Southey, in his world famous poem, The
Over a century went by without any mention of the Kaspar family in the literature, except for the preservation of Southey’s poem in anthologies of English verse. Shortly after World War II, all three of this family were taken from their ancestral home in
The somewhat whimsical turn of mind which some readers detect in Old Kaspar’s remarks on the contemporary economic situation may perhaps be explained by the conflict between two diametrically opposed influences on his thinking. During his long residence in Blenheim he acquired the prudence, frugality, wisdom, and self-reliance of his sturdy German ancestors. Opposed to that excellent cultural heritage is the influence of the intellectual climate he encounters in the