MEET YOUR VV COUSINS

Florence VV Davis, Membership Chair

Introducing members of the NAVVF could fill columns of this newsletter from now to the middle of the next millennium, I think! In fact, it's hard to decide which VV to write about next. So for this issue, I've decided to share with our readers some of the interesting VVs I met in the Internet search I mentioned in the previous issue.

Let's start in New York, since that's where the VVs first put down roots in the new world. At the Faculty House of Columbia University, we might meet Van Valkenburg, a white-haired gentleman who has tended bar there for the past 33 years and served drinks to many well-known scholars and notables. Van's picture appeared in the university's magazine last fall.

I didn't encounter any more VV bartenders but I did find a number of authors writing in varied fields. Norman VV whose delightful mysteries were reviewed in earlier News Notes also writes about environmental issues in New York. Nooger and Neville VV have written a series of books on basic electricity and electronics. Paul VV not only writes about race car engineering, but also does research on the causes and possible cures for tinnitus (ringing in the ears,)

In the arts, I found Jesse VV, an artist and illustrator, and John P. VV, a film producer in California. Michael VV is a landscape architect as well as a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Faculty members in other schools include Dr. Janet VV, Professor of German at the University of Michigan, and Elizabeth VV, a researcher in the Botany department of the University of Washington. Ellen VV is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Jamestown Community College in New York. Dr. Mac E. VV was Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois and a fellowship award was established in his honor to be given each year to an outstanding engineering student. Horace B. VV, II was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado, and an annual lecture series was established in his memory.

VVs have held political offices in this country for generations. One list I found included Daniel Edgar VV, a member of the Indiana legislature in 1867, and Robert Bruce VV, a US Representative from New York during the Civil War. Robert later was the US Minister to Japan and ended his career as a Justice in the Florida Supreme Court. More currently, Jerry VV, a real estate developer, has run for City Council in Kirkland, WA. In a campaign interview last year, he said, "To me the shortest distance between two points is a Van Valkenburgh!"

Also in local government are Woody VV, on the Planning Commission, Fredericksburg, VA; Tara VV, in Juvenile Probation in Wayne Co., MI; and Laura J. VV, Assessor, Athens, NY.

This list could go on and on. Probably there isn't a profession or occupation known that a VV hasn't held somewhere in this country at one time or another. If you have access to the Internet (perhaps at your library if you don't have a computer) check some of these folks out for yourself. Or look in your local telephone book. Add your own names to the list. Share your stories here in the newsletter. We're a talented and interesting bunch, we VVs! Let's tell the world about us!

ARE YOU A DESCENDANT OF CONNELLY VV?

If you are descended from Connelly VV or his sister Katie, who attended the district school in Masonville, Delaware Co., NY in 1876, you might be interested in a report card that I found recently in a Tucson, AZ, antique shop. It gives the name of the teacher, and the names and ages of all 47 students. Katie was 18 at the time and her brother was 15. The town name caught my eye first because my great-great grandfather Francis VV lived in Masonville about 25 years earlier

Looking in The VV Family in America, I found Katie and Connelly weren't my direct ancestors. I'm Br. 7 and they turned out to belong in the 8th generation of Br. 1 (p. 33 , Vol. I). So if one of you reading this is a descendant of Connelly or Katie and would like to have this card, I'd be delighted to send it to you. Just drop me a note if you're interested. The other thing that intrigues me is how did this little card make its way to Tucson?