Club president A . B . Imel, '14ba, and Mrs . Hazel Kelly Imel,'15-'16, (seated) headed a Cushing delegation . Standing areCharles Foster, Jr ., '42-`49, Mrs . Jane Jones Foster, '43-'44,Mrs . Phyllis Fitzgerald Bragg, '48ba, and Benny Bragg, '48bus .

Ocroerai, 1950

She Brings Life to the Classroom

R fight of the South ( )val in the relativelynew Kaufman Hall there's a class in

Spanish being taught . At the front of theclass stands a middle-aged teacher . Relaxedand talking informally with the class, sheis probably explaining a verb form or anidiom peculiar to the language .

Seated in the class are future departmentchairmen, deans of colleges :ud schools,politicians and statesmen and perhaps evenmore distinguished personalities . Many ofthe students are sitting there because a for-mer pupil of the teacher has advised themto take Fugenia Kaufman's Course . But

FACULTY---

If Eugenia Kaufman has one great talent, it is opening mental doors.She does it with understanding and an overpowering belief in students .

By David Burr, '50

whatever the reason for enrolling with MissKaufman, most of- the students will departwith the conviction that they were the stu-dents of a teacher who "never made themistake of judging the individual by hisflair for languages or the lack of it ." In-stead they will have reaper] the rewards of -a decision long since made that "it was(and is) not only impossible but extremelyundesirable to keel) life out of the class-room."The lady with this strange, from the stu-

dent point 01 view, teaching theory is be-"inning her 31st year with the Modern

Payne County Alumni Club reorganized at a meeting atEdgewood in Stillwater August 25 at a dinner .

Officers were elected for the coming year . A . B . Imel, 'I4ba,Cushing, was named president ; Robert Emery, '44ba, '491-aw,Stillwater, was chosen vice president, and Everett Berry, Jr ., '47bus, '49Law, Stillwater, was selected secretary-treasurer .

More Payne County alumni line up for a photograph . They areMrs . Lola Pickell Helena, '34ba, Mrs . William M. Peet, WilliamPeet, '34ba, Mrs . Alen Wilson, and Colonel Wilson, '35m.ed .

Diners Claude Leachman, Mrs . Eliza Guffney Leachman, '24ba,Everett E . Berry, '47bus, '49Law, Glenn Laughlin, '46Law, Mrs .Laughlin, Buel J . Statton, (seated) and Robert Emery, '44ba,'49Law, Al Donnell, '48bus, and Joe Johnson, '40-'49, find some-thing interesting in the lense of the Sooner photographer's camera.

Languages department of the University .In that length of time hundreds of stu-dents have benefitted from a teaching credothat emphasized the individual above allelse . But the student is not the only winnerin this teaching jackpot . Miss Kaufmanclaims that she is willing to learn from any-one who has something worthwhile to of-fer and, of course, she believes that manyof her students do .

One of the bright spots in her teachingexperience has been the opportunity forteaching veterans . That's the way she feels .

1 3

Ifs bCCn a ohI)ortunity for teaching stimu-lation, not a situation which has upset thetenor of her classes or disturbed a pedagogicformula that can only embrace youngerstudents . She believes she has been blessedrather than cursed and carries her belief sopar as to remark that she thinks she oughtto have paid for the chance to teach themrather than

\ice versa .

ut Eugenia Kauflnan is capable oflearning from anyone . A recent SuII-

day School class which she teaches provedthat to her satisfaction . On the day in ques-tion there were only two shall boys in class .One was 3 and the other was 4 . As anopening wedge Miss Kauflnan asked theoldest boy to recite the First Command-ment . He dutifully performed, and thenshe turned to the younger boy and askedkiln to attempt the recitation . Not gettingany immediate results, she had what shethought was a stroke of teaching genius .

The younger boy looked at her a momentbefore he offered, "Not you, just John andme ." IMiss Kaufman considers this one ofthe most important lessons she has everreceived in how to teach .

Eugenia Kaufman is the sister of the lateKenneth Kaufman, a man who brought hisparticular genius to the campus in the latetwenties and who stayed to contribute hisenergies toward making the Modern Lan-

1 4

An appreciation of each other's work made it possible for Eugenia Kaufman andher late brother Kenneth to work side by side in the modern languages department .She is pictured with a framed poem which her brother wrote and dedicated to her .

"Let's say it together," she said .

gu :Igc department one of the nation's out-standing ones . Kaufman I - pall was namedin his honor, and it was with a ccrtain re-luctance that the author broached the subjcct of whether Miss Kaufman had everfound teaching in the sank dCIiartmcnt nhit uncomfortable .

She smiled at my obvious hesitation ."You can tell people that there was alwaysa strong sense of humor and so much laugh-ter at our hoiuc that there was no time forresentment." She does retnctnbcr one oc-casion when she corrected a young studentfor giving her famous brother too muchcredit .

IVliss Kaufman had brought a large booquet of peonies to class with her . The pconics had just begun to bloom and every-one in class "ooed" and "aacd" at the flow-ers . One of the girls asked, "Oh, did thosepeonies grow in Mr . Kaufman's garden,"

Sumtrnoning all the wounded pride avail-able, Miss Kaufman replied, "I Ic can takecredit for all of his personal achievements,but give my garden credit ." She laughswhen she tells this story because she saidthere was so little feeling of being eclips_d .The mutual respect for each other's capa-bilities and energies never contributed tosuch a feeling .

There's a good deal o1 the pioneer aboutEugenia Kaufman . Something which isreminescent of the plains country of Okla-homa and Kansas is reflected in her per-sonality . Perhaps it's the broadness of pur .

prose or her steadfast belief in the dignityand importance of the individual . Whatc%- cr it is, it fits perfectly into pattern andreflects the friendliness, vitality and senseof humor commonly associated with theplainsman .

Eugenia liauttnan's love for the plainscountry comes naturally . Grace Kaul

man, her mother, arrived in Kansas shortlyafter being born where her family honesteatlcd a farm near Leon . It was in thistown just 33 miles east of Wichita thatF,ugenia was horn . Shortly thereafter Graceand John Kautnan bundled their family .Kenneth and Eugenia, Off for Bentouyille,Arkansas . There Eugenia started to schooland lived until she was 10 .The Ozark Mountains rolled in from all

sides and though they were her first envircmnu-nt, a love of the plains was instilledbV the stories of the Kansas prairies told toI`cnncth and Fu-cilia lay their mother . In1901 John Kauflnan arrived in EI Reno fora drawing to determine homestead claims .He was an unlortllnatC candidate but wasable to buy a relinquishment between Hy-dro and Weatherford and brought his fam-ily from Bentonville avhilc he proved up o0the claim .

There was a particular reason for thelocation of the homestead . Grace Kauflnanwanted her children to be near a school andSontlt\vCStern Normal had been establishedin Wcathcrlord . In the spring of 191)? thefamily took formal possession of their farm .It was 11iiss Kaufman's first permanenthome in Oklahoma and her first experienceon a farm . Coyotes, bob whites, and prairiechickens were plentiful . She has never forgotten the qucenIN' feeling she could mustereach nwrnin , when her eyes could walkalong a vision highway lot- miles in everydirection .The preparatory school at Weatherford

had the hinuorous title of Sub-Normalschool when Eugenia enrolled . Kennethwas already in school . Their Imltltcr's dosire had become a reality .Eugenia chose mathematics as a majen

and was struggling with it when a youngprofessor arrived to work in the languagesclcpartmcnt . He was Dr . Roy Temple1 louse, professor emeritus of modern pan; ;cages . Dr . House's arrival dates the advent of bliss Kaufman's interest in foreignlanguages . From that time it has been herwork .

In 1910, Fugenia began her teaching ca-reer and taught at Coalgatc, Weatherford,Altos, and ()kcmah highschools . She sand-wiched a year as a student with a Reach-ing scholarship" at the University betweenher highschool assignments . With additional work in stunlner terms she recei\- cdleer BA in 1917 . In 1919 she was imited

SOONER MAGAZINE

to take ;t position in the languages departmeat at the University and has taught each

year with the exception of one sabbatical

leave. l Icr brother joined the faculty in the

late twenties and the two taught in thesame department until Kenneth Kaufman'sdead) 111 19-5 .A n itulictttion Of how StICCCSSIuI her

teaching tenure has heen is reflected

in the names of some of her former stu-dents. It is even more reflected in what herformer students have to say about her.Dean Glean C. Couch, '31l)s,'37nis, Uni-

vcrsity College, took two semesters of helining German from her.

"I think the most distinctive thing abouther classes was the breaking away from theroutine. She managed to give us a muchmore interesting class than the study ofGernian orammar. I remember her stand-ing invitation Ior help and I'm afraid Itook advantage of that offer more timesthan 1 would like to remember .

'Miss Kaulman has been a member ofthe freshman advisory committee for years(she was a member of the first such com-mittce and is on the present one althoughshe has not served continuously) and not asingle semester goes by but some formerstudent of hers sends III students who de-sire to he advised by Miss Kaufman . lshould think this is the highest type oftribute for Miss Kaulinati's cal)abilities asa teacher and as a human being."

layette Copeland, 'ltlba, chairman ofthe school of. journalism, was also a Ger-man student under Miss Kaulman. He canrecall being a member of "one of the green-est groups of freshmen ever to enrol inGcrman 1" and is firm in his convictionslut she had one of the toughest of teachingjobs . But just as others who have attendedher classes do, he remembers her as a thor-ough and patient teacher with the ;recenton patience .

Speaking of N'liss Kaulman, Savoie Lot-Iiuvillc, '29ha, director of University Pressand another former student, leers that "shewas never content to teach merely the mc-(-hanics of the language, but to imbue thestudent, somehow, with the spirit of the lit-craturc."No student of my time can Iorgct the

personal interest she took in ;t 1)cginner, orthe amount and quality of work she couldinduce by informal stimulus . I can retnetu-her the time an entire class polished off ;t

final examination and joined a garden partyimmediately afterwards in the Kaufmangarden, with cake and ice cream as thefurther reward of a semester's study Of lan-guage," Lottinville said .

hen Eugenia Kaulman was asked tolist the organizations to which she

I)clongs, she professed to being somethingCwaiuucvl on Pagr 27

()Crostat, 1950

Stewart Harral, '36ma, University director of public relations, receives the presi-dent's gavel of the American College of Public Relations Association at the recentannual meeting of the association held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Stewart Harral :

Public Relations' Mr. Fixit

o 's "Mr . Fixit" od futlthc relations . At least,that name has been tagged on Stewart Har-

rrl, '3Gma, director of Iniblic relations at the Uni-versity of Oklahooma, h\, his colleagues over thenation) .

And no wonder . 11c has (f) written niore bookson the subject, (2) addressed as many groups onthe subject (a count would show more if the put,-lie relations profession flad an official statistician)(3) created numerouss activities at O1I. whieh havescreed as inodrls for AM- institutions, and (4)gets so many reyuents to[- adyice that he Call ]MR11\answer shms all .

His "know how" holok respect . In Septemberhe took oliicc :Is f)rssident of the American CoI-

1( ,, ( f'uhlic Relations A,sociatioon, largest and old-(st of all professional organizations of its kind .More than 1350 collcges and universities-most inthe United States, I)ut sootuc in Canada and Hawan-1101[1 memherships its Il)e association .

Public relations is hoth a necessity and a phe-noniena of our tinxs, I larral explains . That's wl)\,he I, invited by a variety of groul)s-druggists,antontobile dealers, variety, store uianagers, min-isters, editors, salesmen, insurance Fnen, buildingand loan association employes, bankers ant] manyotlicrs-tot show theta ways of budding bctter rc-lations with tile f)nhhC .

Mr . and Mrs. Ilarral (01)al Freeland, . '40ha) have two sons Larry Stewart and Donald Lane .

By Richard L . Disney, Jr ., '37ba

The boys don't always understand why their fathermust be away front home so much . Lam', age 4,is continually asking : "Daddy MINI do you wantto leave me and talk so )nueh" .

Harral's a native Oklahoman and fnottd of it .Born at Calera, he attended lnibhc schools ofI )urant (his inother and three sisters still live there)and received a BA froui Sotitheasern State Col-legc . He holds a niaster of arts degree in journalismfront O.U ., has done graduate work at the StateUniversity of Iowa and Columbia University .

"People used h) laugh every time I cliangedjobs and suggest that I make up Inv mind atone myIIfc- work," Ilarral Said . "ACtnally, ev(rything Ihave done contrihtttes something to my knowledgeod. human relations and public relations . -

Ideas -

He

chases

diem

like

:I

G-man

after

apublic enemy. "Look at any successful I)erson,1)IIUInCSS or institution," he reminds )ou, "andtluy went to (lave one tiling in common : a greatabilite to continually bring fresh, current thinkingto their problems . \Vlun v0u are through changingyou are through."

Ihe O.U . l)ublic relations he;al has uncoveredfacts of all kinds-facts about employce relations,copy policy, (-xhil)its, letters, sl)ccial events, guestrelations, speakers bureaus and many other factorsin the big area of Imblic relations . Countless col-lcge and universities are using his ideas andmethods.

Sports . . .wholesale trade. Nearly all the livestock inthe Panhandle moves straight east to Okla-homa City packing plants . Enid is an im-portant terminal for Panhandle wheat.Farming and ranching conditions in thetwo areas are very similar . Oklahoma rail-road rates are very favorable. The Pan-handle is full of Texas-born geologists andpetrolcuin engineers who are Oklahomagraduates.

"I think Texas Panhandle boys and girlsgo to college in nearby Oklahoma for thesame reason Oklahoma Panhandle studentsgo to college in Kansas, Colorado and NewMexico-it's closer .

"And Texas Panhandle students in largenumbers are attending Oklahoma withoutbeing `persuaded' by our Oklahoma foot-ball coaches. We had 766 Texas students atOklahoma last year, most of them from thePanhandle, but only nine football playersfrom Texas. More Texas Panhandle boysshould be playing football at Oklahoma .

"There are 168 registered Sooner alumniliving in Amarillo, 59 in Pampa, 77 inBorger and probably hundreds of otherOklahoma graduates in those cities withwhom our University Alumni office isn'tin contact."

Getting back to the Gilstrap column, Ican't understand why Texas U. hasn'tmade a clean sweep over Oklahoma U., likethe Texas highschool all-star teams havemade over the Oklahoma highschools .

Coach Blair Cherry's Texas Steers shouldlick Oklahoma every year at Dallas .They've got four times as much highschoolmaterial to draw from . Surely Gilstrap isn'tso naive as to expect anybody to believeTexas U. equally divides all that stunningTexas schoolboy talent with the otherSouthwest Conference schools. Texas U.still gets the cream from that 856-schoolwindfall . Only Notre Dame rivals TexasU.in the quality and quantity of its footballmaterial .

Eugenia Kaufman . . .short of a joiner . However, she is a memberof the Business and Professional Women'sClub, the League of Women Voters, theSouth Central Modern Languages Associa-tion, the Norman Chamber of Commerce("I don't know whether I've paid my duesthis year or not"), Kappa Gamma Epilson,Gamma Phi Beta (alumna) and Delta PhiAlpha.She didn't have too much time for un-

dergraduate extracurricular work at theUniversity and contented herself with mem-

OCTOBER, 19511

bership in Eudelphian, Teutonia, CusterCounty Club and YWCA.

Miss Kaufman has several committee as-signments in the department and heads thetextbook committee for beginning Spanish.The University of Chicago, the Univer-

sity of California, and the National Univer-sity of Mexico are other major schools Eu-genia Kaufman has attended . A distinctfeather in her cap was her selection for anintensive course in Portuguese, sponsoredby the American Council of Learned Soci-eties and the U. S. State Department heldon the University of Wyoming campus justbefore World War 11 . This latter coursetestified to her standing among her col-leagues. She was one of three or four, shecan't remember which, teachers who wereadmitted . Others attending were diplomatsand officials from government service .While Miss Kaufman was at Laramie,

she made records of some of the voices ofBrazillian teachers for use in her classes atO.U . She thus became one of the teacherswho pioneered the teaching of languagesthrough the medium of records at the Uni-versity.Right of the South Oval in the rel-

atively new Kaufman Hall there's a classin Spanish being taught . At the front of theclass stands a middle-aged teacher. Relaxedand talking informally with the class, sheis trying to get even with the world . She'sattempting to do as much good as she hasdone harm . Those who sit before her willsoon realize that her attempt is not a futileone. Those who sat there seasons before

knowthe game .lent shape.

that Eugeniaaccount books are in excel-Her

Kaufman is ahead of

Grcetings from

C. E. "LEFTY" BARNESLaw School, 192(,-27

Republican forCONGRESS

Fifth District

than any other brand!

Dated to Guarantee Freshness!

27