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TODAY'S ISSUE
Nephew remembers editor Jack Spalding
of Atlanta Journal as affable person
By Bo Spalding, son of Hughes Spalding
Co-principal of Jackson Spalding Communications
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: Jack Spalding, editor of the Atlanta Journal from 1957-78, died recently. Bo Spalding, his nephew, gave the eulogy at his funeral on January 4. This is taken from that eulogy. On a personal note, in 1962, as the editor of one of the smallest newspapers in Georgia, I met Jack Spalding, then editor of the largest of Georgia newspapers. His friendliness to everyone and kindnesses to my family and me will always be remembered. That's why we are pleased to present this remembrance of Jack to our readers.---EEB)

JAN. 31, 2003 - - Those who knew Jack will always remember his curiosity, his leadership, his love for people and life. They'll remember his sense of humor and of responsibility; his love for family and how that love was returned.

His son James said it best: "Daddy was friendly and happy, and people just wanted to be around him."

He and oldest son Charlie used to explore the family property, which at one time had been farmland. They'd walk the water line and the old roads, and Jack would identify the rocks: "That's mica there, Charlie; that's quartz over there."

That intense curiosity led Jack down some unconventional paths: one to Guatemala where he worked on a banana plantation. Years later at a Christmas party, he learned that a family member was bartending in Hawaii at a place called Cheeseburger in Paradise. Jack's eyes lit up and he said, "That's wonderful! You know I never had a real job either."

People admired Jack. At Georgetown Prep, he was president of the Yard. In the Navy, he commanded a crew of 40. He led community endeavors from the Arts Alliance to the Community Chest. At the Atlanta Journal, people admired the feeling of ownership he had for the city - and the way he brought that sense of duty to his work.

He loved music and he loved animals. He sang constantly and talked to his beloved cats-and even to the birds when he went outside. Once he came in from a morning walk, and daughter Elizabeth said, "Daddy, what are the birds saying today?" And Jack said, "They're saying, Jack, go back to bed!"

And, maybe this story sums up his love for life and his sense of duty. When Maysie went off to college, Jack told her to study, but to have fun too. But he tempered that message to his youngest daughter with a note that said, "Maysie, you don't have to dance every dance."

The spark for Jack's family came when Jack was covering Charles Gowen's gubernatorial campaign in 1954. While Mr. Gowen gave a speech on the courthouse steps, his daughter Ann collected money in an iron skillet. Jack told someone, "That's the noblest woman I ever saw." Putting his journalistic objectivity aside for just a moment, he put $20 in the skillet. After the campaign Ann went to Europe, and Jack tracked her down in Paris and proposed over the telephone. When she arrived in New York, there he was waiting for her, along with her parents.

As a parent and grandparent he worried, as parents and grandparents do. When he and Ann were asked to baby-sit for their 10-week-old grandson over a long weekend, Jack said, "Good God, Ann. Let's just play it safe and get a room at Egleston!"

He had an effortless class, an easy dignity, a gentle grace and style. He was comfortable with himself, and we were comfortable in his presence. Part of that self-assurance was rooted in his faith. He liked to quote his father who said, "The Catholic Church is a tough church to live in, but a good church to die in."

The singing never stopped, by the way. When Jack broke his hip a few days before Christmas, he treated the emergency room nurses to a spirited rendition of St. James Infirmary, the old jazz song.

I've always thought of nurses as angels, and I think it's wonderful that Jack got to sing for the angels at the hospital. And I know that the angels are singing for Jack now, and that he's home.

ELLIOTT BRACK
After 23 years with Gwinnett libraries,
Nancy Chilcoat now views retirement
By Elliott Brack
editor and publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JAN. 31, 2003 -- She didn't start out to be a librarian; it never entered her mind. She was a school teacher, raised in Pennsylvania, and just happened to move to Georgia with her husband in 1972.

Yet Nancy Chilcoat retired December 18 from the Gwinnett Library System. She opened the county's first new library in years, the Mountain Park's branch, and most recently ran the Lilburn Library.

She's just returned from visiting four of her five her children in the York, Penn. area. (A fifth lives in Clarkston.)

Now she is determining what to do with the rest of her life. (Her husband, who was with the Social Security Administration, died several years ago.) "I'm thinking, trying to determine which way I want to go. I'll volunteer, no doubt, for something, perhaps in the environmental area. But I enjoyed working with the Lilburn Business Association. I would like to stay connected." But she remembers a beach house near Wilmington, N.C., which beckons.

The White Plains, N.Y. native was trained as a teacher at Seton Hill (Pa.) Women's College with a master's from Johns Hopkins, she met her husband while teaching biology and chemistry in Baltimore. When he was transferred to Atlanta in 1972, they bought their house in Mountain Park. Soon she was into volunteering at the elementary school where her children attended.

Twenty-three years ago, a friend suggested she might like to volunteer at the Mountain Park Library, then located in a basement of an office building on Rockbridge Road. Asking about a part time job, she was told: "I'm transferring, and this job is open." She was hired, first on a part time basis.

After encouragement from Librarian Jo Ann Pinder, Nancy got a master's degree in library science, and was soon managing a branch.

* "We listen to the people to determine their needs. I feel the system took the dollars we had and get the best bang for the buck."

* "All branches are connected via the data bases, which is a wonderful aspect for any system."

* About the Internet: "It's free to our customers, some who do not have computers at home. But from home, if you have a computer, you can get access into our data bases, or renew a book by computer. That's a far cry from the first day at work, when I had to put the cards in order by the date of the month."

Lilburn's City Council surprised Nancy just before her retirement. Nancy was expecting to go over details of the city's Christmas parade (she was the chair.) Instead, Mayor Scott Batterton read a proclamation praising Nancy's and the staff's efforts in getting the new Lilburn library up and running, remembering what conditions were like previously. Afterward, Nancy was given a wall clock with the library logo engraved on it.

Eileen Morgan, who was her supervisor, says of Nancy: "The quality that she brought to the public library is that she loves people, and loves to connect them with books, tapes or whatever they need for information. She loved going to work every day She brought enthusiasm to her branch on the job each day. I always saw her in a good mood."

FEEDBACK:
1/31: More details about Carol "Noel-Nowell"

Editor, the Forum:

You may be learning more than you want to know about (the Christmas carol) "Noel/Nowell," but ……...

Mike Morgan, seeing my previous communication, gave me another reference when I saw him at church recently.

It will be found in The Hymnal 1940 Companion [Third Revised Edition]. Prepared by the Joint Commission on the Revision of the Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. New York: The Church Pension Fund, 1951. Here is the quote:

"The term 'Nowell' is the old English form of the French 'Noel,' the Provencal 'Nadal,' the Spanish "Natal," the Italian 'Natale,' and the Latin 'Natalis.' It was long a term shouted or sung as an expression of Joy, originally to commemorate the birth of Christ, now retained only in certain old Christmas carols."

There you are.

-- Bill Crosland, Sugar Hill

1/31: Does she qualify for failing grade?

Editor, the Forum:

If Christmas were a course, would I get a failing grade? The course would begin on Thanksgiving and end on New Year's Day.

According to the course requirements, one should put up the Christmas tree by Thanksgiving or that following weekend and take it down by New Year' Day.

I put up my tree on December 10th. Also, it was an artificial tree with lights already on it and was only three feet tall. The ornaments were store-bought and not handmade, more points off.

It's January 29 and the tree is still up. Oh well, maybe I can get it down before Valentine's Day.

-- Faye Hill, Lawrenceville

(Dear Faye: Only Martha Stewart would give you an F. And there's some in my neighborhood still with lights on. Maybe they put them on timers and have forgotten them. At least you haven't forgot. Good luck on your Valentine's goal.-eeb.)

1/31: Deer dying slow death in Peachtree Corners

Editor, the Forum:

Last fall there were some folks that were upset in Peachtree Corners because deer had the bad manners of eating some, but not all of their succulent plants. There were photographs in the papers of the "damage" that the deer had done. We saw plants and shrubs that were eaten to the nub. While I hardly share in the sentiments about the plants I do respect the homeowners frustration and I do not make light of the matter. I further understand the safety issues and I am aware of the deer that have been hit by cars in the area.

Having said that (in my opinion) it should be assumed by anyone that moves into an area that has trees, forestry and vegetation, there will be wildlife. There is one particular subdivision that abuts the Simpsonwood Methodist Church property that seems to have the biggest problem with the deer. I must say that it appears that there is a minority of people who hold the deer in contempt and suggested that the herd be thinned out.

It seems that "someone" has sanctioned an outfit to tackle this "problem." There are people who are killing the deer.

I am asking the local paper to please photograph the 12 to 15 dead deer on the Simpsonwood property that have been "harvested" since the neighbors complained about the deer

I think that photographs of the deer should be published in the paper with the arrows (seems to be from a crossbow) still in the carcass. I would like for these folks to know that the "sanitized" kill actually was extremely painful and slow. The deer bled to death.

Note that Simpsonwood Church does not OWN these deer and is in no way responsible for the deer behavior.

I would like for these neighbors who wanted to see the herd thinned to take their children and go for a family stroll on the Simpsonwood property and look at these dead deer. I further challenge these individuals to tell their children that someone is directly responsible for the slow, agonizing death of that animal for eating a shrub.

-- Paul F. Coyne, Norcross