The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown

People
Joe’s family	University of Washington	Germany
Joe Rantz Harry – father Nellie – mother Fred – older brother Thelma – Fred’s wife   Thula stepmother Step-siblings: Harry Jr. Mike Rose Polly   Joyce Simdars – Joe’s sweetheart and wife	George Pocock – built racing shells   Al Ulbrickson - head coach   Tom Bolles – freshman coach   Royal Broughman – sports writer   Ky Elbright – head coach, Univ. of California	Adolf Hitler   Werner March – architect   Dr. Joseph Goebbels – minister of public enlightenment and propaganda   Leni Riefenstahl – film maker
Olympic crew of the Husky Clipper: Bob Moch – coxswain Don Hume – seat #8 – stroke position Joe Rantz – seat #7 George “Shorty” Hunt – seat #6 – always told Joe, “I got your back.” Jim “Stub” McMillan – seat #5 John White Jr. – seat #4 – worked with Joe at Grand Coulee Dam Gordon Adam – seat #3 Chuck Day – seat #2 – worked with Joe at Grand Coulee Dam Roger Morris – seat #1 - bow

For discussion:
Note: The page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. What do you think about Joe’s father and stepmother, Thula.  Were you able to understand how Thula felt toward Joe?  How was she able to justify kicking Joe out of the house at such a young age?  Also, how did both parents justify leaving their four children alone without much food to go off and have fun?
2. How did Joe’s experiences growing up help or hinder him in the boat?  In life?
3. All of the boys on the Olympic Team were extremely successful later in life.  Was this part at least due to their experiences in the boat?
4. Did you like how the story flipped between Joe and the boat and Hitler and Germany?  Did you learn anything new about Hitler and Nazi Germany leading up to WW II?
5. In boating when all are working at their ultimate it is called “swing.”  In Psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called it “flow” or “the zone,” which is defined as  ”a mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”  (Wikipedia)  Have you ever experienced that in something you like to do?
6. What did you think about the boy’s restricted diet leading up to races.  How would that be viewed with today’s knowledge of nutrition?
7. There was a lot to learn about life from the boy’s experiences and people’s thoughts.  Here are some I found:
1. Page 106 – “Like so much in life, crew was partly about confidence, partly about knowing your own heart.”
2. Page 235 – “What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing.”
3. Page 353 – “What is the spiritual value of rowing?...The losing of self entirely to the cooperative effort of the crew as a whole.”  George Pocock
4. Page 53 – “It is hard to make that boat go as fast as you want to.  The enemy, of course, is resistance of the water….So is life: the very problems you must overcome also support you and make you stronger in overcoming them.”  George Pocock
5. Page 51 – At the beginning of the freshman year when many men tried out for crew, “The first to drop out had been the boys with impeccably creased trousers and freshly polished oxfords.”
6. Page 39 – “Every good rowing coach, in his own way, imparts to his men the kind of self-discipline required to achieve the ultimate from mind, heart and body.  Which is why most ex-oarsmen will tell you they learned more fundamentally important lessons in the racing shell than in the classroom.”  George Pocock
8. Discuss your reading experience.  What did you learn from reading this book?

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell

Family

Others

W. A. Clark – born in southwestern PA Kate – first wife Children: Charlie W. A. Jr. or Will May (Mary) Katherine   Anna – second wife Andree – died age 16 Huguette   Bill Gower – Huguette’s husband – divorced   Etienne de Villermont – closest male friend Elisabeth – wife Marie-Christine – adopted daughter   Nineteen relatives who contested will   Properties owned: Mansion – NY - Fifth Ave and Seventy-seventh Street Bellosguardo – CA Rancho Alegre – donated to Boy Scouts Le Beau Chateau – Connecticut – never occupied 907 Fifth Avenue – NY – Apartments 12W (Huguette’s), 8W (Anna’s), 8E (purchased 1963)

Hadassah Peri – private nurse for 20 years   Chris Sattler – personal assistant for art projects and hobbies   Suzanne Pierre – wife of longtime doctor, Jules Pierre – friend and social secretary   Anna’s goddaughters Leontine Lyle Ann Ellie   Tade Styka – painting teacher Wanda Magdeleine Styka – daughter and Huguette’s goddaughter   Wally Bock – attorney   Irving Kamsler – accountant   Various Doctors and Doctor’s Hospital

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition of the book.

 

1. What do you think of W.A. considering the following:
1. His questionable Montana Senate election
2. He was a shrewd and honest businessman.
3. He was fair to employees: supported fair wages, opposed wage reductions when copper price fell, offered good healthcare for employees, supported giving women the vote (page 87)
4. He had no succession planning for his business
5. In his will he made minimal charitable donations unlike Carnegie and Rockefeller

 

2. Does W.A.’s fairness in business outweigh his underhandedness in politics, particularly the Montana State Senate?
3. What was the impact of Andree’s death on Huguette?  Did her parents seem to learn anything after reading Andree’s journal about how unhappy she was?
4. Had Huguette been a few years younger and had the opportunity to go to college, would her life have been different?  How?
5. Discuss the various people and their lives.  How would they have been changed if they had less money or no money?  How did money enhance or diminish their lives?
6. Why do you think Anna and Huguette continued to give money to so many people they barely knew?
7. In a conversation with her attorney, Wally Bock, Huguette said about giving so much money away, “I want to see people enjoy the gifts that I give while I’m alive.” (page 266).  Can you understand her thoughts on this?
8. What did you think of Hadassah?  Did she deserve the money Huguette gave her?  After all she did work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and had no life of her own. 
9. Wanda Styka last saw Huguette when she was 11 and Huguette was 48 but they corresponded for 50+ years.  Chris Sattler commented about Wanda, “If there ever was anybody in the world who ever loved Mrs. Clark just for her love, it was that lady” (page 259).  Did you think anyone else loved Huguette just for herself and not her money?
10. Discuss Doctor’s Hospital, part of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, and the Development Department.  The chapter title was “Shakedown” (page279).  Was it ethical for the doctors to talk with Huguette?
11. Do you think Huguette was competent or manipulated toward the end?
12. What did you think about her 19 relatives?   Why did they not pay more attention to Huguette earlier in her life?  Through the four children of W.A. and Kate, each family had already received 1/5 of his estate, same as Huguette.  Was it fair that they wanted Huguette’s share?
13. Did you think the final settlement of Huguette’s estate was fair?  Why or why not?

*****

First Semester Success: Learning Strategies for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.