Diplomacy & Grace Beyond Measure

Authors personal note: In a modern instantanious digital world... is the value of real personal diplomacy dead?

As a result, I am posting this as a story from my grandmother's time.

The value of "education" and lessons from my grandmother's example resonate well with me. I am a student still learning important life lesson's every single day.
Here's is a good example of Diplomacy and Grace Beyond measure. In my book, it's still worthy of discussion and reflection, even today.

I am honored to have heard of this story first from my father, and I share with you today. Please see the previous post before this one as well for a tad bit more information.
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Word of Edith Faulstich/Fisher's dynamic influence, diplomacy and vast experience in the philatelic arena spread to international philatelic groups.

Many people desired to have her speak and judge at international philatelic exhibitions and other related functions.

On one such occasion, Faulstich received a very glowing and edifying letter from a man stating that his club would be very honored to have such an internationally famous person speak at their stamp club meeting in southern New Jersey.

The letter was signed by the president, Mr. Smerber.

Faulstich recognized the name Smerber as it was not a very common name. She also remembered that he was the same Mr. Smerber from her tenth grade math class.

At that time he did not link Edith M. Faulstich as being the same person as Edith M Vanderpoel.

She was the same person from his 1925 tenth grade math class (author’s interview, 1996).

She wrote a very nice letter back to Mr. Smerber and graciously accepted his invitation. When Faulstich arrived at the meeting, Mr. Smerber did not recognize her when she arrived at the formal luncheon.

Faulstich began her opening remarks about the importance of knowledge and commitment in the successfully promoting philatelic work.

She then began to weave a captivating tale, recounting a forty year-old story about a tenth grade student and how much a teacher can impact and contribute to helping shape the future lives of students. She then coyly but ever so diplomatically turned a smile to Mr. Smerber. She said, ". . . and that student who was Edith M. Vanderpoel became Edith M. Faulstich.

I stand before all of you today to say that my personal education has been and still is the key to promoting the importance of our philatelic work and research." She then very skillfully intertwined her enthralling story so that it resonated well with the members present by providing relevant motivational material and many gracious thanks for inviting her to speak.

Faulstich never mentioned Mr. Smerber’s name in front of the audience. Faulstich and Smerber maintained contact for many years after that gracious speech (author’s interview, 1996).

List of Faulstich Material @ Hoover

Below is the preliminary list of the contents of the Edith M. Faulstich collection, by box, which is housed at Hoover Institute Archives at Stanford University in California.


Note that these lists are pretty much in an alphabetical chronology. Therefore, if you are looking for a person, a letter or a document you could easily send a message to Hoover Institute and have what you are looking for and have it copied, for a fee.

[Box 1]

Miscellany
Allies
Ambulances
American soldiers - letters, diaries, reminiscences, anecdotes, comments, impressions
Ammunition
Animals - pets and mascots
Archival reports

[ Box 2 ]

Armistice
Armored trains
Atrocities
Aviation
Baikal, Lake
Bakeries
Barbers
Belgians
Beresovka
Blagoveshchensk
Bolsheviki
British
Buriats
Butenko, Colonel
Canadian archives
Canadians
Canadians - E. M. Waite correspondence

[ Box 3 ]

Casualties
Cecek, General
Chelyabinsk
Chinese
Chinese Eastern Railway
Chita
Christmas and other holidays
Clothing
Combat action
Communication
Conditions, General
Connor's book
Courts-martial
Currency
Cutrer, E. V., Major - report by
Czar and other Romanovs
Czechoslovak report
Czechoslovaks

[ Box 4 ]

Decorations, awards, and citations
Demobilization
Desertions
Diary of Arnold Eugene Jenny, partial contents list
Diaries
Discharges
Drugs, vice and protitution
Edwards, G. M., Lieutenant Colonel - report by

[ Box 5 ]

Eichelberger, Robert, Major - letters

[ Box 6 ]

Emerson, Colonel - report by
Engineers
Entertainment
Food
Gaida, General
Goar, Fred H., Sr., Lieutenant - report by

[ Box 7 ]

Graves, W. S., General
Graves, W. S., General - report by
Harbin
Homesickness and boredom
Horvath, General
Hospital train
Iman incident
Insignia
Intelligence
Inter-Allied Railway Commission
International Military Police and Major Samuel I. Johnson
Irkutsk
Japanese

[ Box 8 ]

Johnson, Samuel I., Major
Judge Advocate
Kalmikoff, General
Kerensky, Alexander
Khabarovsk
Knights of Columbus
Kolchak, Admiral
Kopeck Hill
Literature
Mail and postal matters
Manchuria
Maps

[ Box 9 ]

Medical - cholera, venereal disease, dental, typhus
Medical - priest's report
Meetings of Allied representatives in Vladivostok
Military - marches and engagements
Military - miscellany
Morrow, Colonel
Naval
News - articles, magazines, etc.

[ Box 10 ]
News - articles, magazines, etc.
News - newspapers, news reports, etc.
Newspaper correspondents
Nikolsk
Novo Nezhino
Nurses
Officers
Omsk
Ordnance
Organizations
Packard, Laurance B., Captain - report by

[ Box 11 ]

Partisans
Personnel, Jewish and Negro
Philippines
Photography
Poems
Poetry
Polish forces
Political matters
Postwar activities
Prisoners of war
Propaganda

[ Box 12 ]

Quartermaster Corps
Reading
Red Cross
Red Cross - relief trains
Reeder, Red, Colonel - article by
Religion
Replacements
Robinson, O. P., Colonel
Romances and marriages
Romanovka massacre
Rozanoff, General

[ Box 13 ]

Russian brides
Russian Island
Russian public
Russian Railway Service Corps
Russian relations
Russians
Ryan, Albert E., Lieutenant
Selenga
Semenov, Ataman
Shkotova
Signal Corps
Soldiers' comments
Spasskoe
Spasskoe - reports on

[ Box 14 ]

Statistics
Suchan
Suchan - mines
Supplies
Telegraph Battalion
Thirty-first Infantry Regiment

[ Box 15 ]

Thirty-first Infantry Regiment
Tomsk
Train of death
Turner, Porter E., Colonel - correspondence and diary
Twenty-seventh Infantry Regiment
Ussuri
Verkhne-Udinsk
Veterans' bonus and pensions
Veterans' organizations
Veterinary
Vladivostok incidents
Weather
Young Men's Christian Associations

[ Box 16 ]

Ade, Lester Kelly, Dr.
Allen, Riley H.
Anderson, Abel
Baggs, Ralph
Baggs, Ralph - letter and telegram books
Barger, Cash
Bean, Frank W.
Beaughan, Mark
Beebe, Earl S.
Bencoe, Paul
Bender, Martin S.
Betz, George A.
Billick, George P.
Boggs, William G.
Borda, Ignacio

[ Box 17 ]

Born, Johnston A.
Bourisaw, Morton
Boyer, Carl W., Dr.
Buckley, Edward B.
Budd, John J.
Bullard, Harold C.
Cadwallader, Harry
Cannon, Fred J.
Carey, Harry H.
Carroll, Gerald J.
Chadwick, Stephen F.
Chapman, William McC., Colonel
Chesebro, Paul E.
Chipman, Clifford I.
Clarke, Clement S.
Coalson, Roy
Colman, Paul R.
Crichton, Fred R.
Cumley, W. H.
Currie, Malcolm
Dean, Charles E.
Demastrie, Joseph
De Met, George
Dexter, Irving A.
Diaries - miscellaneous
Dillingham, William L.
Doherty, William C., Ambassador
Driscoll, John E.
Duffield, William R.
Dusold, Andrew J.
English, Thomas H.
Evans, Clifford F.
Eveleigh, Percy Frank
Fahlenkamp, Leo
Felleman, George H.
Ferguson, Alan

[ Box 18 ]

Fields, Milo
Fifer, Leo G.
Fisher, Carl W.
Fleet, Chris H.
Fletcher, Eva B.
Foley, Robert J.
Frayer, L. W.
Frey, W. H.
Fry, Henry C.
Gale-Galinski, Frank
Gebhardt, John
Gee, Sidney V.
Gilbert, Fred J., Sr.
Goreham, Wilber
Graves, S. C., Major
Grayson, Walter A.
Hanbloom, Bert B.
Hansen, Carl O.
Harper, Anthony J.
Harrelson, Joseph S., Jr., Colonel
Head, Leslie H.
History reports
Hochee, Nick
Hockett, V. E., Dr.
Holmes, Inez
Hoskins, Emmett A.
Hoyman, Harry H.
Ivy, Charles M.
[ Box 19 ]Jenny, Arnold Eugene
Jeremiah, Roy A.
Johnson, Ivan Cameron
Johnson, William H.
Jorgensen, Mignon K., Mrs.
Kamiske, Michael R.
Kempa, Arthur A.
Kendall, Paul W., Lieutenant General
Kendig, Hal D.
Killman, Guy
Newspapers
Official records
Personal miscellany
Strother, Ledia
Telegrams - miscellaneous
Twenty-seventh Infantry Regiment
Veterinary reports
Yates, L. D.

[ Box 20 ]

Pitts, Oscar G.
Predmore, Arthur L., Colonel
Reavey, Arthur
Redman, Harry K.
Reece, William O.
Reed, E. W.
Reed, Lester W.
Reher, Ernest A.
Rehfuss, Louis A.
Reynolds, Elmer E.
Rice, Claire R.
Richardson, Sam
Ritchey, Clara M.
Roberts, Kenneth
Rogers, R. H.
Rohrer, Harry C.
Rosing, Edward
Ruggles, Eileen
Sale, Jesse L.
Shotwell, Thomas A.

[ Box 21 ]

Cicotte, Harry
Duke University (Mattie Russell)
Kopecky, Joe
Korn, Otto H.
Korotzer, Sam
Lange, A.
Longuevan, Joseph B.
Loutocky, J. A.
Lynch, Alva
Lynch, James W.
McClendon, J. T.
McQuiddy, L. A.
Magowan, Dave
Massey, Raymond
Masury, George Tait
Mathieu, Lucille
Maxwell, Charles P.
Miller, George E.
Miscellaneous and partial letters
Photographs
Souhrada, John
Spiking, C. D.
Spowart, Stephen
Sprigg, Rodney
Stephenson, Clinton W.
Streed, Eugene F.
Stommer, Harry N.
Sundheimer, John M.
Taylor, John
Thompson, Dorothy
Umbreit, Cora Hobein
Whaley, Harry R., Mrs.
Wykoff, Roy A.
Yates, J. J.
Zimmerman, Theodore H.

[ Box 22 ]

Diaries - Guy Killman and Paul E. Chesebro
Foley, Robert J.
Miscellaneous reports, articles, and documents
Photograph numbers
Sundheimer, John M.

[ Box 23 ]

Baggs, Ralph L. - correspondence (intelligence) - See 1963 Article, "A Find!"
Edwards, Lillian S. (nurse)
Entertainment programs, poetry, news clippings, telegrams, map, and miscellanea
Goreham, Alphia Wilber - correspondence
Letters
Miscellaneous articles, reports, and news clippings
Miscellaneous postwar items, photos, and correspondence
News and press releases
Padley, Alick, and Bud Holmes
Quartermaster supplies
Russian Railway Service Corps
Turner, Porter E. - correspondence

[ Box 24 ]

Mail, Siberian
Mail regarding Siberian Sojourn
Miscellany
Northern Russia

Contents: Access Points

Memorial Day: 91 Years & A Few Trunks Later

As of this writing, May 25, 2009, there is only ONE
W.W.I. male U.S. solider who is still alive.

His name is Frank Woodruff Buckles (born February 1, 1901) he is, at age 108, the last identified living American veteran of World War I. He currently lives in Charles Town, West Virginia not far from where I live. He is the Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation. Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buckles

There was until very recently also a single female service member who was still living and not to be forgotten:

Charlotte Louise Berry Winters (1897-2007), one of the first women to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and served as a Yeoman (F) Second Class clerk at the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard.

Here is a list of the last surviving WWI Veterans by country as noted on Wikipedia.

Therefore, I dedicate this blog post and the next post which follows to the W.W.I. veterans, their families and to all veterans and their families.

And, finally I dedicate this blog as a result of the work which my grandmother did in behalf of the Siberian A.E.F of W.W.I.
Her name was Edith M. Faulstich (Fisher).

Let them not be forgotten.

To begin briefly, in 1995 I received a package from my father just before the Christmas holiday season. At the time, I was busy running to and from work, entrenched in raising my own three children as a single parent and doing my own research for my Master's dissertation as a full-time graduate student. I had my hands full and very little time for letters or letter writing.
My life then was in full fast forward, at warp speed. In short, I had very little personal time and even much less time for any hand written letters.

But, that is the crux of this whole story, one of hand written letters. I digress a bit....

At any rate, I quickly scanned the hand written note from my father, wherein he stated that my uncle was thinning out some old family items from boxes and trunks in his basement.

Again, this seems to be a recurring theme by the way.
Basements and trunks.

My dad stated in his brief note to me that he thought, I might like a few of the family items, and he was forwarding them onto me. I am now the keeper it seems of some of the aging yellow papers. I put the papers away for safe keeping. And, that's where they sat.

It's already been nearly 15 years and I commented to myself, "Wow, time flies.
This weekend I opened the manila envelope which contained my grandmother's published article written back in 1963, "A Find!- Mail to the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia, 1918-1920. "

And I have brough out her yet unpublished book The Siberian Sojourn (exception there was one tiny publishing which was sent to the direct family members of the A.E.F. and to many of the veterans themselves).

The Siberian Sojourn and the 1963 article are her stories about postal letters written to and received from the forgotten American soldiers left in Siberia during WWI. Why is the relevant? Well, let me take you back a bit further on how this whole "letters thing" all began, more recently only 6o or so years ago.

In 1945-1947, Edith Faulstich began writing about Philatelic subjects, born as a result of simpler beginnings when she was a single parent raising two boys. She collected stamps with her children as a way to share something together, as a family.

There were no malls or the Internet nor cell phones back in her day.

Her "Saga of the Mails" expanded and her family hobby became a life avocation. During her early work and research, many of the A.E.F soldiers were very much so still alive, but passing with time. She sensed the information and data from mails and postal history to be important. And, today we now only have one WWI Veteran left living.

My Nana, Edith Faulstich contacted the A.E.F WWI Siberian veterans one by one, with letters all hand written and sent through the mail. It took a great deal of time. There was no instant messaging, text messaging nor email back then either. I found in reading her work, life moved much slower than today. And, even farther back where a single letter sent to Siberia took 6-10 weeks or more to arrive, if it got there at all.

This gift of a letter from my father now comes full circle, some 91 years since the actual A.E.F. Siberian Campaign; 1918-1920 which my grandmother worked tirelessly on. I am a grandmother now and it hardly seems fitting to just stuff all this paper in yet another trunk, to be completely forgotten.

I have become acutely aware of the passing of time. The passing of generations. The passing of history and all of our W.W.I. Veterans. And, now my own nephew is about to be deployed to a far off land in about 30 days or so.

Therefore, I'd like to ask the virtual masses online, does a single hand written letter with a postage stamp still hold any enduring value today? Like it did 91 years ago? And, more importantly, does it have value to our soldiers currently serving overseas somewhere
far from home?

Well, I know in looking backwards to W.W.I., that the voices of our Veterans are forever enduring because of Edith M. Faulstich's intuition, insight, and research to "FIND" those letters and then to write about a single event with her discovery and subsequent article "A Find!"

Somehow, she innately knew way back then that "the covers" were important (a cover is the envelope the letters are shipped in). It is because of her work that her great-great grand children and other Veterans families of W.W.I. will know of her gift in seeing and knowing the "value" of a hand written letter.

And, please do not forget to take the time write a soldier.

Thanks Nana, to all our Veterans and our soldiers currently serving today.

Please read the next post, "A Find!"
Written by Edith Faulstich, reprinted in 1963 & today reprinted again on
Memorial Day, May 25, 2009.