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Herbert Pickett, Jr. writing:

      Cooperstown Academy continued to grow and seemed to prosper in the new building. With the end of the war, good teachers were available. Dad decided that a prep school rather than a middle school was what he wanted, and he kept the boys for the higher classes. I believe there were fifty or more students. Mother and Dad got into community activities. They went to Church regularly, but never officially joined. Dad was a Trustee for a while, but after an argument over misplaced values, he resigned. When they first came to Cooperstown, before this era, he was elected to the town School Board. He enjoyed the men on the board, but soon found public schools and private schools had little in common, and he resigned. He was invited to join the Rotary Club, and this he liked and entered into it with enthusiasm. He became editor and writer of the "Oil Can", the club's newssheet, and elected President. In 1948, he was elected District Governor of Rotary clubs in the area. Rotary sent him to Quebec for training, which was held in the Hotel Frontenac. He found the other governors a congenial lot, and he made friendships that lasted to the end of his life. His job was to visit and speak to all seventy Rotary Clubs in his district. With his speaking ability, humor, personality and enjoying the company of men, he was very popular.

      At the governor's training meeting in Quebec, he became acquainted and friends with Oscar John Thorlakson, District Governor of Iceland, (7 clubs.) who was a Lutheran Pastor. They kept in touch, and Oscar's wife became ill. She needed treatment unavailable in Iceland. They wanted to come to America but couldn't afford it. Dad told him to come to America. Larry, then chief resident at Boston Children's Hospital, would see that she got the best treatment possible. In the meantime, Dad arranged for him to speak at Rotary clubs, joint meetings, Ladies Nights all over his district with a healthy stipend. This was done. On Mother's last cruise, the Lindblad trip to the Arctic, they lay over in Iceland a day or two, and she had a great reunion with Oscar.

      Mother's chief activity was working as a volunteer nurse's aide in the hospital. I don't know how much she did in the running of the school, managing the food service and the housekeeping as she did at camp. She had health problems, as might be possible in a woman of 50. She had two major operations, a hysterectomy one year, a gall bladder the next.

      About 1949, Mr. Clark's financial advisor recommended that the school be closed, as it was a considerable financial drain on the Clark Estates, and he didn't think it would ever stand on its own. So Dad got a golden handshake, and they really had to live in Craig Lynn.

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