Epilogue

A publication such as this takes a lot of work, and a lot of workers to bring it all together. Special thanks are due to many Members and other individuals. Linda Sternbach, 1997-98 Bulletin editor, started everything off by getting HGS Executive Board approval for this project. The Bulletin staff began work on this issue in the fall of 1997, with a brainstorming session in the new HGS office. Linda first thought of the idea of interviews with past presidents. Her husband Charles, HGS vice-president at the time, came up with the theme "Leadership, Discovery, and Technology." Victor Schmidt conceived the great idea of a time line. With these and other tidbits, Linda figured we could have a 40 page special issue, with half of that being ads to pay for it. We left that meeting with high hopes!
The timeline was a group effort. Elsa Kapitan-White sent me a timeline Schlumberger had developed for their exhibits, and Charles Sternbach found another timcline in David Yergin's The Prize. Elsa worked up some text and rummaged through Schlumberger archives for photos which Amy Green was kind enough to copy and send to us. I added a few facts, and Deb Sacrey shared her computer file of annual significant HGS events (taken in part from past directories). Greg Gregson, while planning for displays at the 75th Anniversary Gala, got Jerry Cooley to show him his photo collection. I tagged along one Saturday afternoon as they sifted through slides and photos with Matt Daura, and Jerry was kind enough to let us borrow many. He also helped us put names to a lot of those faces! Danielle Frost at Manzanita Alliances is the creative genius who put the timeline, and the rest, all together in a layout.
John Suman, our founding president's son, was very kind to my early inquiries about his father and very generously loaned me photographs. Dean Grafton attended one of our meetings and calmly and gently instilled some guidance to our efforts. Past-presidents and distinguished members of the HGS kindly responded to our inquiries. Elsa, working around becoming a new mother, managed to get quite a few interviews. Charles Revilla interviewed some of our Honorary Life Members. Annette Mather worked her magic with the advertising. Joan Henshaw, HGS secretary, served as "communications central." Andy Link and Michael Dumont did yeoman work in proofreading. We put everything together and at the end of July had a 48 page issue that looked pretty good, but something about it just wasn't right. So, we pushed back the publication date and renewed our efforts for some more interviews, some more photos, and some more data. Jeff Lund and Sandi Barber offered some useful ideas and arranged for extra funding. General Hardy came through with some information on the Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, John Adamick on the 21st Century Symposium, and Naomi Watson talked to Charlie Cantrell about the formation of the HGA. The result is this 80 page booklet. In 25 years we will be celebrating our 100th anniversary and our history will evolve into a big book, I promise!!