FRED AND CLARA-LOUISE RIGGS

3920 Lurline Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816

P: 808-732-5308; E: fredr@hawaii.edu; Web: www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WARMEST ALOHA FROM HAWAII

As you can guess from this heading, we have a new toy in the Riggs family -- a computer with Windows 95, WordPerfect, and a Zip Drive -- now that Fred is a real octogenarian, he feels he has a right to be playful. Wendy encourages this little game by writing notes with colorful inserts. We still haven't mastered the technology but it's fun to play with and we hope you don't mind if it comes out a bit strange. Wendy decided that an 80^th birthday really deserves a big celebration and so she composed a well decorated and succinct invitation that was sent to all of our friends here in Hawaii, colleagues at the university and the office where Wendy works. It came off on July 3 as a bang-up party, with balloons, lots of goodies and, thanks to Wendy's step daughter, Lisa, who was visiting from Los Angeles with a friend, we got a lot of help in the camera department so there are some excellent souvenir pictures. More seriously, this equipment is serving us well in the paper and letter-writing department -- especially e-mail where Fred now has a growing, even overwhelming, correspondence around the world. He has also developed his Web Page which you can open at the address given above. If you do, you will find a lot of the current projects he's working on which include a special issue of the International Political Science Review devoted to ethnic nationalism and the world crisis.

As for family activities, CL and Fred did return to the mainland in October in order to visit her sisters, Edith and Amy (she's in a rest home) in Connecticut and his sisters, Edith and Betsy in North Carolina. That was combined with another reunion of the Kuling American School alumni at Summit, just outside of Greensboro, NC, close to Edith's home, so it worked out beautifully. Summit is a lovely conference center in the woods, near a lake, with excellent facilities and everyone had a wonderful time so it was really great. In mid-October, the woods in NC were still pretty green, but when we went on to Conn., we found the fall foliage in all its splendor -- though CL was disappointed that there was not more red -- perhaps it had already vanished. Anyhow, it was great to be there again and to experience the bracing Fall weather we can never enjoy in Hawaii.

Ciel has been doing a lot of volunteer work with Maybelle, an elderly (99 years old) resident of a local retirement home -- they have long weekly visits. She also receives a weekly "missionary" from Japan, working for a healing religious order, Tenrikyo, for which she has a lot of empathy. There are also elderly neighbors whom she entertains weekly for an afternoon tea -- on top of all that, a mountain of house and garden work, clipping newspapers and journals to support her interests, especially in natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and a lot of reading, especially on health and animal rights.

Wendy has found a new career in her "head hunting" job where she has built a large network of contacts to help her find suitable candidates to fill openings in companies anywhere, but especially in Hawaii. After a long slow build-up, she is beginning to enjoy a challenging regular occupation which has many rewards. She managed a mainland and Mexican holiday trip with her friend, Tony Reyes, enjoying it immensely.

Incidentally, Fred also went to Korea in August for the International Political Science congress, followed by a side-trip to Taiwan for a workshop on constitutional choices. All are healthy and busy and offer you their warmest greetings and love, with prayers for your own welfare and earnest hopes that peace will prevail in our world. As we enjoy our Holiday activities we shall be thinking of you,

Lovingly, with much aloha,

Ciel, Wendy, and Fred
December 1997

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Updated: December 1999