-11/- Atcr,z, GLEANER June 11, 1985 RENOWNED ARCHAEOLOGIST ACCEPTS ATLANTIC UNION COLLEGE PRESIDENCY By Gary Gray, College Relations r. Lawrence T. Geraty, 45, accepted the official invita- A passionate interest in archaeology has consumed Dr. Gera- tion of the Board of Trustees of Atlantic Union College ty ever since he sat in Dr. Siegfried Horn's classes as a student. on May 2, 1985, to serve as twenty-third president. Coupled with a youth spent in the Middle East, he has pursued D this interest with vigor. Since 1972, he has led or participated in He was born in California to Adventist missionaries and grew up in the Orient and the Middle East. numerous trips to the Middle East to excavate archaeological Currently, Dr. Geraty is professor of archaeology and history sites, culminating in becoming the Editor-in-Chief of the Final of antiquity at Andrews University, where he also directs the In- Excavation Reports of the Archaeological Expedition to Tell stitute of Archaeology and is the Curator of the Siegfried H. Hesbon in Jordan. Dr. Geraty continues this commitment to Horn Archaeological Museum. Previously, he was an assistant editorial duties with a number of leading archeological publishing director of the Central California Conference, a journals. Dr. Geraty has edited four books, contributed to 20 pastor in the Southeastern California Conference, and a others, while also authoring 70 articles for denominational jour- teaching Fellow in Old Testament at Harvard University. nals and 35 articles for scholarly journals. An ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister, Dr. Geraty was Among the organizations which have given grants and educated at Pacific Union College where he received a scholarships to Dr. Geraty to help fund various research projects bachelor's degree and at Andrews University where he was in the field of archeology are Harvard University, the govern- granted both a Master's and a Bachelor of Divinity, summa cum ment of Israel, the National Endowment for the Humanities, laude. He has also studied in France, England and Germany. In and the American Schools of Oriental Research. He has also 1972 he earned a Ph.D. with distinction in Old Testatment and received a number of other awards and honors, including the Syro-Palestinian Archaeology with distinction from Harvard Baker Book House Award, Outstanding Young Men, and University. Who's Who in Religion. Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan named (L to R) Dr. Siegfried H. Horn, retired Seminary professor of Archaeology, Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan• Dr. Geraty in the Middle East. Dr. Geraty was chosen as an advisor on Archaeology to Prince Hassan. June 11, 1985, Vol. LXXXIV, No. I I. The Atlantic Union GLEANER (USPS 036-280) is published twice monthly by the Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 400 Main Street, South Lancaster, MA 01561. Printed by Atlantic Graphic Services, Inc., South Lancaster, MA 01561. Second-class postage paid at South Lancaster, MA. 01561. Annual subscription C4 nn DncTM ACM/ • 0,nr1 arlrlrocc rhanapc to Atlantic I Ininn /7! FANFR P Rne I IR9 Smith I.anracter MA (11561 him as an advisor in archaeology. He also holds membership in various scholarly organizations and professional organizations, mostly related to his work in archeology. In his introduction to the faculty and students of AUC on May 2, Dr. Geraty made a brief statement about what he envisions life at AUC to be. Part of that statement is quoted here: "I see us as a diverse community, recognizing and celebrating our dif- ferences but working together in unity as a family toward a com- mon goal. I see us as a worshipping community where lives and service are dedicated to God and His will for us. This means that we, our policies, our programs, have to be guided by Christian principles and standards. I see people as more important than institutions, and I hope that all the time the regulations and the institution will serve the students' and faculty's interests. I see us as a family, where people who are affected by a decision, will be involved in reaching those decisions. I see us as an intellectual community where thinking can flourish; where we are not mere- ly reflecting other people's thoughts. A place where excellence is fostered; a place where ideas can be expressed, remembering always our Christian context. I see us as a healthy, vibrant com- munity where the concept of wellness pervades our curriculum and activities, where the benefits of the Adventist way of life are demonstrated. I see AUC not only as an exciting place but a safe place, a place where students are safe socially, spiritually, physically and academically; safe enough to do a little risking now and then so that they can grow and mature." Dr. Geraty also announced that the Board of Trustees has voted an additional million dollars in subsidies over the next four years for AUC. About a half million of that amount will be available next year for renovation of the dormitories and mar- ried student housing. He has also expressed a concern about the high cost of college education. In relation to this, the board has also voted a $500 scholarship to each returning AUC stu- dent for the 1985-86 school year and has recommended a $300,000 scholarship fund be set up specifically for students. Dr. Geraty is married to Gillian Keough who is a piano teacher. They have two children, Julie who is 20 and Brent who is 18. They are planning to move to New England sometime this summer. Dr. Geraty will officially assume his new responsibilities on July 1. Dr. Geraty in authentic Arab headgear on one of his many trips to the Middle East. The Geraty family. (L. to R.) Brent, Dr. Geraty, Gillian and Julie are unbelievably hardy—tolerating cold, dampness, and endless walking and swimming. When hatchlings, only hours old, are led to water, their first instinct seems to be to dive, and they will swim farther than you'd think possible under water. The gander is very aggressive in protecting his nesting mate and both parents guard the young. In eight weeks they look like their parents. Before June 20, all adults (except those rare ones still nesting) shed their flight feathers and by the time they have grown new ones (usually by late July), the young can fly with them. When ice again covers the marsh- es, lakes and rivers, they head south where they can glean the harvested cornfields or graze on winter wheat or other grasslike plants. In recent years it has become common to raise Canada geese in government hatcheries and by private individuals (Federal and State permits required), and many areas have a resident population the year round. We have lived where this is true and fed them from goslings to adulthood in our yard. We have called them out of the sky to swim with us in the stream where they grew up with us. I once made a nest near our home that was immediately appropriated by the Canada geese and where they hatched a brood. I have some nesting now. But, whether they hatch in my yard or grow up in the wildest of wild, when they fly over honking and I see their The Thrilling Call powerful flight, I still get the same thrill that I knew as a boy in Maine when they irresistibly drew our eyes to the sky and we of Wildness watched 'til we could hear their call of wildness no more and they had disappeared into the hazy distance. When at last, after months of silence, we hear the rush of rivers again and bare patches appear in the fields, a thrilling sound of wildness drifts down from the sky. Sometimes it is faint and faraway—sometimes it comes closer—and becomes a loud clamoring a few hundred feet above our BIRTHRIGHT OR LENTILS? heads. Always it has an element of mystery because it speaks of a world inaccessible to us, a world, not limited to roads or land, far beyond the haunts of man. It can be heard anytime of day or night, in fog or bright sunshine. Nothing can quite compare with the call of the Canada goose. We look up, which is always good to do, and see them dimly through the misty clouds, or their V formation or long skeins way high in the sky—early morning, at sunset or silhouetted against the full moon. The long northern winter is ending. The Canada geese are heading for their nesting grounds. Some will go north of the arctic circle, to the Hudson Bay or the tundra. Almost im- mediately they will start nesting on a gravel bar by a river or high in a pine tree in an osprey nest. There is a large popula- tion near Loveland, Colorado, that have learned to nest in manmade nesting boxes atop eight- or ten-foot poles, away from ground predators such as coyotes. Normally, they lay five to seven four-inch-long white eggs two days apart, covering them carefully with small sticks or whatever rubbish is near, and eventually with down plucked from their bellies. This down not only makes the softest, best insulation possible, but also plucking it exposes the warm skin so that heat from the mother's body (about 102°) can be By Pedro Geli, Jr., Vice-president applied directly to the eggs. Twenty-eight days after incuba- Atlantic Union Conference tion begins some of the cutest babies in all nature are hatched. They are a soft, almost greenish yellow, mottled If we had the choice of having material benefits or assuring the with gray patches on top of their heads, sides and backs, so eternal salvation of someone, what would be our choice? Every that even with their black beaks, legs, feet and eyes, they are year thousands of parents and young people make important wonderfully camouflaged.