UMUC - Asia Division - Mason G Daly - A few words that I think I expressed at the Sayanora Party for Jo Leo - August 13 1958

Europe;Hoffmann, RosemaryA few words that I think I expressed at the Sayonara Party for Jo Leo, 13 August 1958 ­ Although we have committed you to some noisy conferences with campus officials when you get home, we presume, Jo, that your official connection with the University of Maryland at home and abroad comes to a close when you leave us . Your official connection has never been dull, it has never been quiet, it has never been unproductive. You have managed as no other university administrator that any of us has known to be capable and to be a character. As a capable administrator you are not quite indispensable, but you are the next thing to it. The greatest compliment I ever heard paid you came from our big roving Dean: "Of all that Admissions-Registrar gang Leo is the only one who has blood in her veins, has any damn Spark -she's alive.” As a character you will remain indispensable to all of us -just because of that damn spark. You may shatter the calm of a room by just walking in -in fact you always shatter its calm -but you do light it up. You may charge a telephone or intercom line to the frazzle point, but you project a personality of charm, authority, and determination while you do it. The life won' t go out of our little organization when you leave, Jo, but the glow will change. We will expect you to remember our calm often enough to shatter it with a report on your doings, the price of mushrooms in Pennsylvania, some­ thing. We promise not to let you forget us. We will send you copies of every information letter, catalog, calendar, revised form, and we will keep you in Toriis for the rest of your natural life. We are here giving you the symbolic Torii bowl, a cup truly intended in your case to be seen as something overflowing with affection and gratitude for your time and your trials with us