16

Since college days, Lowell Dunham, former FBI agent and pro-

fessor of modern languages at O.U., has maintained an interest

in and friendship with Latin Americans. He has proved to be

A Good Neighbor

There's a full-of-funfellow over in Kaufman Hall whose life isa kaleidoscope of interesting experiences,colorful expressions, and a boundless zestfor enjoying everything .

This teacher who takes such a wholesomedelight in everyday living is Lowell Dun-ham, '32ba, '35ma, assistant professor ofmodern languages.An example of how Dunham makes con-

versational capital happened in Bolivar,Missouri, in 1948 . President Gallegos ofVenezuela and President Truman met inBolivar for the presentation of a statue ofSimon Bolivar to the city . Dunham, whohad translated and edited Gallegos' famousnovel Donna Barbara for an Americanreader, was invited to the festivities . He wasa guest of the presidential party and wasseated on the speaker's stand about threerows behind President Truman and Gal-legos.

Noticing an important looking man onhis left, and judging from the amount ofbraid that he was a "big wheel" of somesort, Dunham decided to engage him inconversation .

"President Truman certainly looks inperfect health," he remarked casually ."He is," came the emphatic reply. "His

health is excellent," stated the man in uni-form as he handed Dunham his card . Itread : "Brigadier General Wallace HenryGraham, Physician to the President, Medi-cal Corps United States Army.Laughing about the incident Dunham

said . "And I guess if anyone should knowhe should ."

There's another interesting yarn leadingup to Dunham's friendship with Gallegos .While Lowell was a student at the Uni-

versity-majoring in languages-he struckup a friendship with Edmundo Luengo,'33bs, who is now Under Secretary of theInterior in Venezuela. Luengo was one ofthe first three Venezuelan students to studypetroleum engineering at the University .The friendship soon developed into aSooner Pan-American collaboration. Lowell

BY BILL GOODNER, '52BA

helped Edmundo with his English andEdmundo would lend an assist to Lowellwith his Spanish. During the course oftheir Latin American confabs Edmundointerested Lowell in the works of two Vene-zuelan authors. Manuel Diaz Rodriguez,who pioneered in the psychological novelin Latin America and Romulo Gallegos,Venezuela's most distinguished man of let-ters.When Dunham started work on his mas-

ter's degree in Spanish he used as the sub-ject of his thesis, The Life and Works oflose Diaz Rodriguez. It was translated intoSpanish and was published in serial form inF.l Diario, in Caracas, Venezuela and re-ceived many favorable reviews from leadingmagazines in that country.

In 1949 Dunham's work received theannual Andres Bello Literary Award pre-sented by the government of Venezuela.

E mbarking on histeaching career in 1935, Dunham taughtLatin and Spanish at Idabel highschool .From 1936 through 1940 he was employedat Central State College, Edmond, as aninstructor in French, Latin, Spanish andEnglish. Also, he served as Principal of theDemonstration School for Central StateCollege two and one-half years. During thistime his friend Edmundo obtained for himthe American rights to Gallego's novelDonna Barbara which was published in aschool text edition in the fall of 1943 .Dunham decidedly doesn't favor the ster-

otyped movie version of a super sleuth orcloak and dagger man, but the record showsthat he interrupted his teaching professionfor five and one-half years to serve as aSpecial Agent of the Federal Bureau of In-vestigation .Immediately prior to World War II the

F.B .I . found itself confronted with the jobof internal security and was badly in needof linguists.

Lowell's father attended a meeting calledby the F.B .I . to organize the local law en-forcement agencies and volunteered Low-ell's services .

After the interviews were over, however,

WHEN HE ISN'T TEACHING CLAss Lowell Dunham can usually be found over at the libraryputting the finishing touches on his dissertation . Here he is shown working with the filmreader . Translating Spanish writings for thesis purposes is a very tedious process .

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Lowell was assigned to the bureau as aspecial agent in training . Finishing the re-quired course in Washington, D. C., hegraduated to the ranks-as Dunham says-as a "full-fledged six weeks wonder."During the course of two years, Dunham

was stationed in Washington, D. C., De-troit, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri, andHouston, Texas. He was sent to PuertoRico as an agent in March of 1942 and inJanuary of '43 was promoted to assistantSpecial Agent in charge of the San JuanField Division .

His duties there were manifold . Sincethere was only one other agent in the officewho could speak Spanish, he had personalsupervision over 44 hand picked PuertoRican police . The police were given to theF.B .I . by the Puerto Rican government toassist with investigation where the regularbureau agents couldn't go wearing "Yankeefaces." Being one of the two agents speak-ing Spanish automatically brought him theburden of the Bureau's public relations job.He delivered lectures to Puerto Ricangroups, organized police training clubs,served as a faculty member at the PoliceAcademy, and handled the necessary cor-respondence in Spanish.One of his babies while there was con-

ducting the investigation of the SpanishFalange Party on the island . The Falangeis the political party of General Franco andmodeled after those of Hitler's and Musso-lini's, employing both youth and womenmovements.

NOVEMBER, 1952

hile in San Juan hestruck up an acquaintance with RexfordTugwell, governor of the island and oneof President Roosevelt's braintrusters . Theybecame fast friends . When Dunham startedto leave the island in 1946, Tugwell offeredhim the post of Chief of the Puerto RicanPolice . He considered it seriously but final-ly decided against it, ignoring the adviceof a Texas agent who quipped, "Hell, Dun-ham, you should take that job and strutaround with a couple of those gold mopcords on your shoulders."The Puerto Rican police also regretted

to see Dunham leave and complimentedhim with a farewell banquet well spicedwith fiery speeches and the gusto that istypical of Latin celebrations . They pre-sented him with a gold watch-which Dun-ham proudly displays when he's in thewatch wearing mood-finely inscribed "AL. C. Dunham-De Sois Amigos PoliciaDe P. R. (To L. C. Dunham-From HisFriends the Police of Puerto Rico) .

Puerto Rico holds a grip on Dunham'ssentiments . Probably his biggest achieve-ment while on the island was his marriageto Frances Ranson, '37ma, Watonga. It

LOWELL DUNHAM, on the left, is shown conferring with the former president of the Republicof Venezuela, Galleogos . Dunham, who is working on his doctor's degree at U.C.L .A ., iswriting his dissertation on the life, work, and writings of the South American novelist .

seemed that the two Sooners were destinedto turn into a family sleuthing team ; Fran-ces worked in the office of Naval Intelli-gence while they resided on the Island .Neither could carry tales home from work .Mrs. Dunham also had a fling in the liter-ary world publishing a short story in Col-liers and a poem in Atlantic Monthly. Herwriting has sort of gone over the board toround out the third parallel of their jointinterests. She is the critic teacher for Eng-lish at the University Lab school whichdoesn't leave much time for literary ven-tures .The chief reason Dunham declined the

tempting police position in Puerto Rico wasto return to his original profession . He re-signed from the F.B .I . in September of'46 to accept an assistant professorship ofmodern languages at the University .When pressed as to why he should leave

a romantic profession to return to an aca-demic one, Dunham flashed a quick smileand replied "why I just like to teach."At present Dunham is completing his

work for his Doctor's degree in languages

through U.C.L.A . He attended thatinstitution on leave from O.U . from1948-1948. The topic of his doctor'sdissertation is not a surprising one; it is ageneral study of the political ideas repre-sented in the works and the life of Romulo(,alleges.During the summer Dunham visited

Gallegos in connection with his thesis . Gal-legos is presently living in Mexico City, inexile from Venezuela, due to a militarycoup .

Gallegos is planning on returning thevisit to Dunham the latter part of Novem-ber or in early December and will probablyspeak to campus groups . However, Gal-lego's main purpose in visiting is to leavehis 15-year-old son with Dunham to attendthe University Lab school .While in Puerto Rico, Dunham collected

several paintings by Spanish artists whowere in exile there. Another hobby of thelanguage teacher provides a quiet contrastto his own lively manner-an impressivecollection of saintly Madonnas . Any spare

Continued page 26

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26

A Good Neighbor . .moment that Dunham now has, however,is devoted to the preparation of his dis-sertation .Dunham's bustling personality probably

accounts for why he is pereptually driftinginto interesting incidents and why his stu-dents soon tag him for a friend as well asteacher.A janitor in Kaufman Hall neatly

summed up Dunham's pleasant impact onpeople . When asked if he knew Dunhamand where his office was, the janitor leanedagainst his broom handle and said, "YeahI know him . He's up on the second floor ."Resuming his sweeping, he added, "Yaknow, for a professor, he's a cheerful sortof a fellow ."

Faculty Loses TwoDr. Dowd Is Dead. Professor Emeritus

Jerome Dowd, 88, professor at the Univer-sity of Oklahoma for 39 years, died August12 in Norman of circulatory ailments .Dowd came to O.U. in the autumn of

1906 as a specialist in the field of social workand retired from the faculty in 1945 . Whileon the staff at O.U. he established the De-partments of Sociology, Economics, Anthro-pology ; the Schools of Journalism and So-cial Work, and the College of BusinessAdministration .He was both friend and teacher to thou-

sands of students at the University during

than any other brand!

Dated to Guarantee Freshness!

his 39 years of teaching and was known asmuch for his wit as for his knowledge .He was born March 18, 1864, in Car-

thage, North Carolina, attended gradeschool there and obtained his first degree,a master of arts, from Trinity college nearCharlotte, in 1896.Dowd was a member of the McFarlin

Methodist church in Norman, the Rotaryclub, the American Anthropological Soci-ety, and Southwestern Political and SocialScience association .He also was the author of several books

in the field of social sciences including hisown biography, Social Aspects of the Auto-biography of a College Professor.

His survivors include his wife, Alma,'12mus, of the home, one son, Jerome H.,'43bus, of Oklahoma City ; one daughter,Mrs. Jean Boylin, Charlotte, North Caro-lina, and one sister, Mrs. Nan Harding,also of Charlotte .Dr. Schmitt Killed. Dr . Karl Schmitt,

assistant professor of anthropology at theUniversity, was killed and his wife seriouslyinjured when their car and a Santa Fe rail-road engine collided on a railroad spur nearMagdalena, New Mexico, last August .

Their twin children, Sigrid and KarlEric, 9, escaped injury.Mrs . Schmitt suffered a dislocated hip

and deep laceration of one leg and was con-fined to the hospital at Socorra, New Mex-ico .Dr . Schmitt was driving west on High-

way 60 when the locomotive suddenly

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