Touching the Ancient One

David and Anne West-Watson - 2005

October 30, 2007

Readers of Touching the Ancient One will recall the part that David West-Watson played in the last chapter of the book. A recent magazine article about David will be of particular interest to those readers.

David is the son of William Ronald West-Watson, the British military officer and physician who perished in the 1954 C-47 Alaskan crash that is the basis of my book. It was not until 2005 that David learned there had been survivors of the crash and that they have an active reunion group which includes families of men who died that tragic day.

David is captain of the Stolt Cormorant, a chemical tanker belonging to Stolt-Nielsen Limited. An article recently appeared in Stolten, the corporate magazine of Stolt-Nielsen. The article, Rediscovering the Past and Shaping the Future, tells about David West-Watson’s searching for and finding his "dad,” and in the process changing his “perspective on life.” It goes on to tell how David is using the long-ago tragedy as an incentive toward a project that will benefit others who have lost loved ones through tragic events. This well-written article is an inspiration.

I have permission from Stolten to offer it for download as a pdf file. You can find REDISCOVERING.pdf in Downloads in the sidebar on the right, or by clicking here.

Enjoy.

Rupert

October 22, 2007

I’ve had some requests to use photographs that are on this website. I thought I should state my policies about that. All the photographs here are under copyright law. If there is no credit listed with a photograph, it is assumed to be my own. Where credits are given, I have permission to use them but cannot give permission for anyone else to use them. My own photographs may be used free of charge for personal use, and for non-commercial websites provided credit is given me and a link back to the main page of this website is established. Commercial websites, or companies and individuals that may want to use my photographs commercially, may contact me personally by email.

October 9, 2007

Winston “Wink” Harbour, another friend from Salt Rock, died last week. Yes, if you’ve been reading my logs, the surname should be familiar. In my May 23, 2007 log, just a few short months ago, I told you about Ed Harbour—his passing, and something of our long friendship. Wink is Ed’s older brother by a couple of years.

Although Ed and I were in the same grade all through school, and therefore closer in many ways, Wink, also played a part in my life. First of all, he always seemed bigger than life to me. He was stronger, faster, and more athletic; those were the most important traits to a teen-age boy back then—maybe now, too. Wink became a football player, a guard, in high school, and he was a good one. Soon, we were hearing things like “the best lineman ever at Barboursville” being voiced in the community. And that may have been true. In the 1948 season, Barboursville was undefeated until late in the season when they met Milton, also undefeated. Milton may have won that game, but Barboursville had a great team, and Wink was one of the anchors.

Ed and I were a couple of years behind, but we wanted to be football players too. In ninth grade, we were allowed to walk over from the junior high to the high school and practice in full pads, this in lieu of our regular physical education classes. That was supposed to give us an edge when we got to the high school the following year. During the summer before our high school debut, Wink took us under his wing and unselfishly taught us all he knew about playing on the line. His teaching served us well over the next three years.

Wink served in the Korean War, and by the time he came back, I was at Marshall. He asked me if I’d like to go with him to visit Hubert Harshbarger in St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington. Wink and Hubert had been great friends in high school. Hubert went to Syracuse University and had been on the football squad there. He bought a motorcycle and was on the way home when he had an accident that took one of his legs. Hubert was really down during our visit, and Wink worked hard to cheer him up. On the way out of St. Mary’s, Wink was quiet. He turned away from me, but not before I saw tears on his cheeks.

I only saw Wink a few times after that and don’t know much about his later life, but the things I remember from our younger days are good things to remember.