UMUC - European Division - Mason G Daly - Rough approximation of what I said in toasting Jim and Penny Umphrey at their wedding reception - November 1 1963 - Heidelberg

Europe;Hoffmann, RosemaryRough approximation of what I said in toasting Jim and Penny Umphrey at their wedding reception. Heidelberg, 1 November 1963. There is no doubt that this university crowd will never forget the marriage (I should say marriages) of the Umphreys. The German area schedule was not the shambles that it might have been. Dad Wheaton bore up remarkably well. The library office and Mother Bersennbrugte remained calm and efficient. But there were unmistakable signs of erratic behavior during this last week, among other than the principles. The scars and wreckage of the week are noteworthy. I even understand blood tests were not necessarily confined to those of the bride and groom. We might have avoided all of this if we had been just a little bit more alert to that which was going on directly in front of all of us. By the time we realized what was happening and tried to rearrange the offices in order to get Penny Jackson a little more out of the line of traffic and attention in the directors' offices, it was already too late. The damage had been done. Indeed, before any of us knew it, the courtship was over. Penny we have a law in Maryland which says that favoritism cannot be shown to nephews and other relatives. It is the law of nepotism. Now you are by no means a nephew, but you are now one of those other relatives. If Jim Umphrey bestows upon you any undue patronage by reason of relationship, according to law we may have to refer the whole case to the state supreme court. But since we didn't warn either of you about this law in our Employees' Handbook, and since we now have the traffic in the offices somewhat rearranged, and since we just don't know how we could operate without you, we suppose we had just better defy the laws of the land. We already know we cannot defy love and the legality of two marriages. We are wildly pleased that Jim and Penny and little Tink are now one family -the Umphreys. We are not a little glad that this week has about run its course. We may have felt a little cheated that we were left out of the romance until the point when only the legal and logistical arrangements remained. We know that the Umphreys have a fabulous future ahead of them, and we are delighted that we will, because of nepotism -share in that future. For all of us with Maryland in Europe, I propose a toast to the assured happiness of Jim and Penny Umphrey