The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission

WE WENT AS A GROUP to the big beer halls. At the
time, the Hofbräuhaus men’s room had troughs in the four
walls instead of urinals. Unfortunately, some poor fellow
didn’t find the closest wall and got me in the back of the
pants.
I was fond of the Schuhplattler 13 dancing across the street.
One of my friends, Gerhardt Hattel, who lived in the
dormitory, had a motorcycle. We took a trip to Venice. I
rode on the back of the bike all the way to Italy. I remember
he didn’t always want to stop when going down hills so
that I could take a picture. We had a wonderful trip in
spite of the fact that it rained the whole time. I found,
though, that the back seat has advantages in the rain.
The cafeteria, which in those days was shared between
the TH and the university, arranged trips. During vacation
I took a trip to Greece. It was mostly faculty because most
of the students could not afford the price, but it was won-
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derful to be with such learned people, who could explain
some of the history and sights. I did my part by helping
the driver lift their bags on to the top of the bus, which
was a wonderful new, large Mercedes. Unfortunately, at one
point there were two mountains with a bridge between
them and the Greek road did not have enough room to turn
from the mountain road to the bridge. The driver jacked
the heavy bus up and pushed it off the jack to get the rear
of the bus around the corner.
I will never forget my departure. The students at the
dorm arranged a parade to the Bahnhof. We had two cars,
motorcycles and scooters, and about twenty people. They
got me a liter of beer and we sang all the way to the
Abteil. 14 Unfortunately, in all the excitement. It turned out
to be on the wrong train. But one of the quieter students
noted the problem in time to make the change!
1) The reconstruction (after WWII) 2) A bucket ride 3) Dick is fat 4) Bakery 5) A tall, old-fashioned, tiled stove used for heating 6) G sharp 7) Kegeln is a sport
similar to bowling 8) The king’s box 9) The Niebelungenring series, Tannhäuser, and Der Fliegende Holländer, all operas by Richard Wagner. 10) A district of Munich
favored by students 11) Egg liqueur, liver dumpling soup, hot mulled wine 12) A pre-Lenten celebration in Catholic parts of Germany 13) a dance in which the dancer
slaps his shoes 14) compartment
Richard (Dick) Hillsley was raised in Larchmont, NY. He took his undergraduate degree from Cornell University before
spending his Fulbright year at the Technische Hochschule München. Later he was awarded a Ph.D. in control engineering
from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his career as an engineer Hillsley worked for 32 years at IBM
(eventually becoming Manager of the Space System Analysis Dept.), four years at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory,
and four years at Lockhead Martin. Among his accomplishments are the design of the Frequency-Azimuth display in the
BQQ5-C sonar system for attack submarines, climbing the tower beside the Saturn rocket, and four test cruises on atomic submarines
including the Technical Evaluation Cruise for the BQQ5-C system, and one trip, which circumnavigated the globe.
Together with his wife Audrey, Hillsley has “31 children”—6 children, their spouses, and 19 grandchildren.
A Voyage of Discovery
by Stephen Tonsor
DURING THE SUMMER OF 1953 my wife Caroline,
our two children, and I lived atop 9,000-foot Rufneck Peak
in the Sawtooth wilderness of central Idaho. We were
employed by the Forest Service as forest fire “look-outs.”
We came down off the peak in late August and journeyed
to Germany. This was not my first contact with a Germanspeaking
land. After three years of service as a cryptographer
in the U.S. Army in New Guinea and the Philippines, I
returned to the University of Illinois and then, because
Germany was closed, I attended the University of Zürich
in Switzerland 1948-1949.
After our orientation program in Bad Godesberg
the four of us traveled to Munich where I finished my
dissertation on Ignaz von Doellinger, the leader of the
anti-infallibalists during the First Vatican Council.
Through Gerda von der Leyden, the daughter of
Friedrich von der Leyden, the great authority on medieval
German poetry, we rented the country house of the movie
actress Heidemarie Hatheyer, then married to Kurt Reiss, a
German Jewish journalist who spent the war years in the
U.S. (Heidi Hatheyer had been a star in NS films of the
Hitler era.) The house was located in Kirchseeon, a village
on the edge of the Ebersberger Wald.
I mention this because, while I completed my doctoral
dissertation and heard lectures at the university my understanding
of post-war Germany and German society and
culture was formed by my experience in Kirchseeon. Frau
Gerda and her family, living across the road from us, were
a source of constant assistance and pleasure. Her children
accompanied us on hikes to surrounding towns and
through the forest. An old church, dating back to the Thirty
Years’ War lay just across the fields. The Rogation Days 1
processions circled through the fields. Many trips and a
considerable amount of time spent in the new Germany
could not alter the intensity of these first impressions.
LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY were especially
interesting. As a result of my experience in Switzerland I
was familiar with Continental university instruction. To sit