MacFriends, Lee has agreed to turn off Marta’s account for a couple days while you and I discuss an upcoming milestone in her life.
Many of you know Marta in person. You knew her when she used to come to the Louisville Computer Society meetings. You may remember her as cheerful and energetic, or you may remember her take-no-prisoners demeanor. But, if you met her you have not forgotten her. The rest of you have seen her posts over the years and may have noticed that they are not as coherent as they once were. Well, let’s give her a little slack! Marta is turning NINETY in a few weeks. When I feel overwhelmed by my three-score-and-one I just think about her being TWENTY-NINE years ahead of me! I can’t even imagine. Well, as you might guess she has outlived the vast majority of her contemporaries and all of her relatives. The one child she did have tragically died in his early twenties. And yet, you have to see her smile and chat up the room, even now. She’s always been a force to reckon with, and even though she has to have 24-hour assistance now, you can still see an incredible spark of the dynamo that she once was. A few points (okay, more than a few) for those who don’t know her that well: Marta Dietrich was born February 21, 1926 in between-the-wars Germany not too far from the French border, grew up to be a multi-lingual teacher of great intellect, breezing through her studies and suffering along with the rest of her countrymen the horrors of the Nazi regime and the resultant war. She told me that her family attended one of the many “Confessing Churches” across Germany that had withdrawn from the reprehensible national German Church that caved to Hitler’s demands. The churches of the "Confessing" body were strongly opposed to Hitler and his mistreatment of the disabled and “non-aryans,” and especially the Jews who were a vital part of Germany’s prominent upper-middle class. She told me she heard something against Naziism in every sermon. When it was finally over, Marta found herself attracted to the friendliness of the Americans she encountered during the occupation. (The French and British were understandably less warm to the Germans.) She got a job as a telephone exchange operator after the war, drawing the eye of the dashing young non-comm that was her boss. Over the years since, Marta gradually found out that this charmer had once been a professional baseball player, saw plenty of action in the war, had been wounded, a prisoner-of-war (twice escaping), a real-life spy, a machine gunner on the back of a General’s Jeep, had crossed paths several times with General George Patton (whose refusal to sign the last dotted line on the papers that all his other commanders had signed cost Dayton a Medal of Honor), had participated in a scheme among the field commanders arrayed along the Elba to deceive General Eisenhower about their crossing the river to rescue fellow soldiers AGAINST the direct orders of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, and the first person to discover and liberate the horrible Wöbbelin concentration camp. For all that he had been through, though, Dayton was a warm and generous person. Dayton was sent back to the states and continued to correspond with her and began participating in a shining symbol of the American people’s world-renown post-war largess that came to be known as CARE. He sent CARE packages to Marta’s family. (Since then, Marta and Dayton came to be sort of the “poster-children” for the CARE program up until very recently, even getting their picture in the New York Times a few years ago.[1]) Dayton went back to Germany a little later to collect his girl and they were married under a tarp amid the rubble of a bombed-out church near her home town. He had to leave the next day, though, to return to duty in the states, and so Marta followed by herself. She stepped off a boat in New York without a clue as to what she would do or where she would go. To her immense relief, Dayton was waiting for her on the dock. So moved was she that she still talks about her “leap of faith.” They lived in Northern California while Dayton fought in Korea. While there Marta went up to Cal Berkeley and took some entrance exams. She scored so high in Science that they wanted to make her a Biology instructor. She had no interest in that, though. They moved to Louisville when Dayton was posted to Fort Knox. Once ensconced in Louisville, Marta had to find something to do with her energy while Dayton was away on various deployments, so she rode the bus with her young son downtown from Valley Station to Spalding College every day and talked them into letting her audit classes. She eventually audited every class they offered. She did so well and charmed everyone she met so much that they just gave her a diploma. She caught the attention of the Language Arts department at U of L (or whatever it was called then) and ended up teaching German there for many years during the 70s and 80s, staging elaborate German-language pageants with her students that became hot social events on campus. She served so many years there and refused tenure so many times that she had to testify that she had been offered tenure, but refused it, just to keep the University out of trouble with their accreditation body. She just wanted to teach. During that time she took numerous trips to Germany with her students, including many prominent Louisvillians at the time. She counted among her students and friends Harvey Sloan, David Jones, and a manufacturing mogul from Shelbyville named Charles Grawemeyer. (And those are just the ones I can remember her telling me about.) Mr. Grawemeyer, who went on several trips himself, wanted to donate to help students to go on her trips to Europe. The way Marta tells it, it was she that suggested to him that instead of just giving the students money that he should turn it into an essay competition. We all know that today, UofL’s Grawemeyer awards in music, religion, psychology, and "ideas improving world order" are some of the most prestigious awards of their kind in the world. Marta’s great love was learning, with a particular affinity for philosophy. Long-suffering Dayton would often come home late at night from his post-military job with Jewish Hospital to find the living room crammed with students discussing world affairs and the deeper issues of life. Frequently he also had to step over their slumbering bodies the next morning. She told me that Dayton was her “enabler,” making it possible for her to be who she was. Marta also greatly influenced the choice of Mainz as the German "sister-city" of Louisville. You can see the name on various signs around town attesting to the short list of cities around the world that claim Louisville as a sister-city. I always think of Marta when I see one. Always tech-savvy, Marta loved the many Macintosh computers she had over the years. At one point I actually counted a Mac in nearly every room in her house. But not in Dayton’s den. ::-) Upon retirement Marta continued to travel all over the world for many years and stayed active and connected to her old friends locally and abroad, until now there are few left but her. Dayton died on my birthday three years ago, last month. She called to tell me. They had been married 62 years. You are one of her last remaining groups of friends. She constantly monitors our postings and reads every word you all write, even though it is getting ever harder for her to see the screen on her big iMac. Even up close. That is why I asked Lee to disable her account temporarily. Why am I telling you all this? Well, one of our national treasures is about to celebrate NINE DECADES on this mortal coil. And she’s not ready to shuffle off just yet. You all have the ability to bring a little sunshine into an old friend’s dreary and largely unrecognized, but extraordinary life. Here are some ideas: 1. A bunch of us who are within driving distance meet up near her house and descend on her place, en masse, with a cake, cards and flowers, (and maybe a little singing). I can alert her care-givers to have her presentable and ready, without spilling the beans. This would happen sometime around the middle of the afternoon of February 21, a Sunday. 2. We all chip in for flowers and send her a flurry of cards. 3. You send all your cards to me and I will present them to her with a cake and flowers on the 21st. (I am planning on going over there anyway.) 4. Other: suggest something Now, we have all day Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to talk about this on this list. On Thursday morning Lee will turn her account back on and we can take this conversation off the group list. Please let me know, either through this list, or directly, if you would like to participate and your preference for contribution. Any and all suggestions are welcome. I hope you will join me in honoring this remarkable woman, who is one of our own, faithful, "Macolytes." Jonathan Fletcher [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/business/08care.html?_r=0 -- Jonathan Fletcher [email protected] Kentuckiana FileMaker Developers Group Next Meeting: 2/23/16 _______________________________________________ MacGroup mailing list Posting address: [email protected] Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/>
