Yesterday I received a letter informing me that Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut USA, has bailed out of constructing a sundial in honor of the late _Sky and Telescope_ columnist Walter Scott Houston. Instead, all funds accumulated for his memorial, about $4000, will be spent to renovate the campus's 0.5-meter Clark refractor, an instrument used by Houston himself on many occasions.
It was through an appeal made in the pages of _S&T_ a few years ago that I sent a modest personal check toward this effort to honor "Scotty." I understand that the NASS also contributed. And even though I feel that a telescope refurbishment is a perfectly justifiable use for these monies, I'm somewhat disappointed to hear there won't be a new, prominent sundial gracing Middletown, one that I'd hoped to visit someday. According to the letter, the sundial monument as originally conceived was rather "ambitious," estimated to cost $25,000 - $30,000. This suggests that a design, or at least a rough plan, was in hand. And if I recall correctly, from an informal chat during the 1998 NASS Conference in Seattle, Fred Sawyer mentioned that the well-known dialist and sculptor Robert Adzema was to deliver Wesleyan's sundial. I'm now quite curious to learn how grand the original plans were. Was the sundial to be one of those already sculpted by Adzema? What type and how large was this sundial supposed to be? Can anyone on this mailing list -- especially those in the Middletown area -- offer any details of the initial plans? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Mark Gingrich [EMAIL PROTECTED] San Leandro, California
