Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1963)
In this exclusive Family Weekly interview, our first orbiting astronaut tells what has happened to him and his family since he became America's No. 1 hero By JACK RYAN appeared at more scientific and engineer- ing meetings. We are few, and we have had a unique experience. It is part of our responsibility to share what we have learned with the people who made it pos sible but time simply couldn't be found, and in that area we have real regrets." But John Glenn has found time his nights, weekends, holidays to reply to the 100,000 persons who wrote him after the flight and those who still mail him 300-500 letters a week. (He also received 800 personal gifts, from carvings of his space capsule to religious mementos ; they are being held for future exhibits in museums.) "That mail," John Glenn says, "was something we were totally unprepared for. Steve Grillo (NASA director of adminis trative services) helped me set up a system by which I could personally reply to any letter requiring a reply." That "personal reply" is not a figure of speech. If you have a letter signed by John Glenn, it is authentic. He has refused suggestions he use a duplicating device, and he insists any letter stating his ideas or feelings be dictated by him, not a public relations man. His secretary says he has taken home up to 1,200 letters a night to sign. Why? "Other than the flight itself," Glenn re plies, "the response of young people to our program has been the most gratifying thing of the past year. Read their letters, and you'll see they have been inspired to set new goals in school and in life. It's a side benefit of the program we never ex pected, and it won't be right to do anything that wouldn't show our appreciation." Glenn's private dedication is obviously toward American youth. When the Boy Scouts asked him to spark a recruitment drive, he replied : "I'll do anything for the Boy Scouts." After a full day's work last summer, he spent more than four evening hours taping radio and television an nouncements for the Scouts. In three sub sequent months, 840,000 boys joined the John Glenn "Go" Roundup, about 20 per cent more than in the previous year's drive. The Glenn family has had less happy oc casions this past year. When NASA moved the space center from Langley Field, Va., .to Houston, they were forced to leave a home in Arlington, where they had deep roots. A serviceman's family must move frequently, but Glenn says : "You never get used to leaving friends and neighbors. We were part of Arlington (he was Scout adviser, son David and daughter Lyn participated in Scout pro grams and school activities, and Mrs. Glenn was an active PTA member and den mother), and we hated to leave." Houston is still a new experience to the Glenns as. are the astronauts to Houston. In Arlington the family was taken for granted; now they faced the prospect of being "somebody special." The astronauts solved the problem by building homes (estimated price around $35,000, though some say higher) in a small, rather sophisticated suburb where privacy was more assured. They are each others' neighbors. Scott Carpenter is Glenn's next-door neighbor. Gus Grissom and Wally Schirra built adjoining homes one block away. Gordon Cooper lives one mile from Glenn, and Deke Slayton is building in the same area. Only Alan Shepard lives in a Houston apartment The Glenns spent much of the fall just settling in their new home. Only recently have they had a chance to pick up the activities which made them familiar and "ordinary" in Arlington. The exception is John Glenn. "I haven't had enough time at home to get into things, but I believe I will. We sort of made it a rule the Glenns aren't going to be different than before. I think we've been reasonably successful the past year, and it's still the rule." 4 Before their move to Houston, Tex., the Glenns John (left), son David, daughter Lyn, I and Mrs. Glenn were given a farewell party by Arlington, Va., friends and neighbors as, What Do You Mean- Only ONE True Church? Non-Catholics often resent the claim that the Catholic Church alone is the true Church of Christ. "You Catholics," some of them say, "have a lot of nerve. The Church is universal. Anybody can belong to it who accepts Christ as his personal Savior and models his life after Christ's teaching. We can be members of the true Church without being Catholics." Many who feel this way about it are, of course, sincere and devout people. And it is not our intention to challenge the various shades of Christian thought which they rep resent. We do ask them, however, to understand that the Catholic claim is not a matter of arrogance or intolerance but of the deepest religious conviction. Nearly all Christians agree that there can be only one true Church. Yet there are hundreds of differ ent denominations some of them miles apart in what they teach all claiming to be the true Church. Certainly all of them cannot be right ... in fact, only ONE can. But which one? How can we identify it? The Son of God made Himself recognizable to men by coming upon the earth with a body and soul like ours. It was in His phy sical body that He died for our redemption. Having thus so care fully revealed Himself to the people of His own time, would He not make equally sure that future generations should also know Him? Catholics believe that the Savior did so, through the Church... in which He is "able at all times to save those who came to God through Him." The Church is, therefore, not merely a body of people believing in Christ . . . but the body appointed by Christ Himself to continue His mission of redemption. SUPREME A "He who hears you," the Savior said, "hears Me." For Catholics, this means that when the Church speaks it is Christ speaking. When the Church offers prayer and sac rifice and forgiveness of sins, it is Christ's prayer and sacrifice and forgiveness of sins. The Church, as Catholics see it, is Christ living in the world today! . Must the Church be an organ ized system? Is the Church invisi ble? Is it composed of saints and sinners? Can we reject the Church without rejecting Christ? Must I belong to the Catholic Church to be saved? The answer to these and many other important questions is available in a pamphlet which we will send you immediately with out cost or obligation. You can read it in the privacy of your home and nobody will call on you. Write today for Pamphlet FM-16. SUPREME COUNCIL KNIGHTS OF COIUMBUS REUGIOUS INFORMATION BUREAU 3473 S. Grand, SI. lovll I, Ma. PUaM Mfld ma your Fraa Pamphlet an. tltltd "What Da Yov Moan-Only NE Tru Chufdi?" FM-16 CITY- COUNCIL f KI1IGHTS of COLUL1IBUS Ireligious information bureau 3473 SOUTH GRAND ST. IOUIS II, MISSOURI Your HEART FUND GIFT fights them all HEART ATTACK STROKE RHEUMATIC HEART DISEASE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE INBORN HEART DEFECTS
