A Quilt of Leaves

"A Quilt of Leaves"

Atlanta Olympic Games 1996

During the Atlanta 1966 Olympic Games, Gary worked as the Competition Manager for the Shooting Sports at the Wolf Creek Shooting Venue, and he and Ruth Ann lived in Sharpsburg, GA for five years – two years before the Games, and three years after the Games.

One of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games cultural projects was established by the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee and called the Georgia Quilt Project.  This project celebrated American quilting traditions through “A Gift of Quilts” project.  This project called for two handmade quilts of various designs to be presented to each participating nation – one to the nation’s opening ceremony flag bearer and one to the National Olympic Committee. The project created 400 different quilts that are now distributed throughout the world.   During the Games, 397 quilts were on display at the Nicholson Gallery of Atlanta History Center.

The Georgia Quilt Project produced a book with colored pictures of 400 of the quilts. 

The cover of the book about the Quilt Project, and one interior page showing eight quilts.

   

Knowing that her mother would be interested in the project and looking at all the pictures, Ruth Ann sent the book to her.     Included in the book was the pattern for the “Quilt of Leaves."

This design was selected to exemplify the “Look of the Atlanta Games.”  The design features laurel leaves to symbolize victory and olive branches to symbolize peace.   The design adorned tickets, program books, trading pins, etc.

Ruth Ann’s mother, Helen Bell, hand made the “Quilt of Leaves” as a surprise gift.   It was presented for display in the 1996 Olympic shooting venue.    It hung in the Olympic Family area of the Wolf Creek Olympic Shooting Center where members of the International Olympic Committee and other dignitaries were received during the Games.    Helen Bell received an “ISSF Diploma of Honor“ for her work in providing this important part of the celebration of the 1996 Olympic Games.   

Ruth Ann Anderson, working as an Olympic Volunteer in the VIP area of the
Wolf Creek Shooting Venue, welcomes the President of the ISSF, Olegario Vazquez Rana and his wife Gela to the Olympic Family Area.

Today Helen Bell would be thrilled to know that her surprise gift of the “Quilt of Leaves” again hangs in a place of honor at the Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center at Camp Perry, Ohio.

"The Quilt of Leaves" at the Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center

Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center
Camp Perry, Ohio
(photo credit CMP)

Helen Bell

Who Got the Bigger Bear Hug?

Ruth Ann’s Grandmother, Frieda Curtin, lived only 30 miles away from Hastings (Nebraska) in a town called Grand Island.   At the time, Grandma was in a wheelchair and when she heard about the plans for a parade in Hastings, nothing was going to keep her from going.

Ruth Ann’s aunt, Francis Waldo, also lived in Grand Island and offered to take grandma to the parade.    I’m sure they had to leave early in order to park, and find a good spot along the parade route.    Grandma wasn’t going to allow anyone to block her view.    They found a good spot along the parade route, and waited with 8000 other people to see the returning Nebraska Olympian hero.

Gary and Ruth Ann were traveling the parade route in an open convertible.    When Gary saw grandma sitting on the sideline and waving furiously, he asked the car driver to stop (which meant stopping the parade), got out and ran over to give grandma a great big hug.    Ruth Ann also stepped out of the car to greet grandma and Aunt Francis.

Gary and Ruth Ann along the parade route, Gary Anderson Day, October 26, 1964.

They hopped back in the car and the parade commenced.  Unfortunately we do not have a picture to commemorate  the moment, but grandma Curtin talked about that for the rest of her life, and Ruth Ann isn’t sure who got the bigger bear hug in that moment.

Frieda Curtin, Ruth Ann's grandmother

Farm Boy Meets City Girl

HOW GARY AND RUTH ANN MET

Gary and Ruth Ann (Bell) met at Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska on October 2, 1963.  It's an easy date to remember because that is the birthday of Gary's sister, Karen.

Hastings College is a small Presbyterian liberal arts college (then about 800 students) in the heartland of Nebraska.   Ruth Ann (from Cheyenne, Wyoming) chose Hastings because she wanted to attend a small church-related school and to be near her grandparents who lived only 30 miles away in Grand Island.  

 Gary completed two semesters at the University of Nebraska Lincoln before he joined the Army in the fall of 1958.  He enrolled at Hastings College in the spring of 1962, immediately after his discharge from Army active duty.   By then he had several scholarship offers from colleges with rifle teams, but Gary did not feel that collegiate rifle shooting, as it was practiced at the time, would help him prepare for the 1962 World Championship and 1964 Olympics, which were his primary shooting goals.  College rifle teams had matches every week and were still shooting on the old, big NRA targets.  He felt he could improve his scores more by focusing on his training for the next international championship rather than on traveling around the country shooting matches that had limited value.  

Another reason he chose Hastings College, which did not have a rifle team, was because he wanted to become involved in other activities like student government.  Gary put himself through college with the GI Bill, National Guard pay, working as a dorm counselor and Army active duty pay during the summers.   Especially after his victory in the Tokyo Olympics there were honoraria from speaking engagements, but those generally had to be limited to mileage and actual expenses in order to protect his amateur status and eligibility to participate in the Olympics.  Then it was forbidden for an Olympic participant to receive any payments related to his athletic performances.

The Hastings College student body ate breakfast and lunch cafeteria style, but for dinner, the students ate together family style with six students seated at each table in the dining room.     It was open seating, and by luck, or fate, Gary arrived late on the 2^nd of October so he took the first empty seat he could find.  He ended up sitting next to Ruth Ann.    By the time dinner was over, Gary had asked Ruth Ann to the weekend football game (their first date).  When he returned to his dorm, he wrote her name on the inside cover of his Greek textbook so he "wouldn't forget it."

Ruth Ann returned to her dorm and told Jan Wood (an upperclassman) about meeting Gary, and having a date, and Jan said "Ruth Ann, do you know who he *IS?*     He's FAMOUS!   He has gold medals on display at Bellevue House!"  (the Student Union).   Gary's World Championship gold medals from Cairo were on display there at the time.

Dating continued, often at the library to study or at the National Guard Armory where Gary used the range for his training.    Hastings College had a strict curfew for women, and Ruth Ann had to be back in her dorm and checked in by 9pm on weekday nights. 

Gary and Ruth Ann attend a spring formal at Hastings College.
  Ruth Ann's mother made the dress.   

During the spring semester, Gary was elected to be the Student Body President for the 1964-1965 school year, which was to be his senior year.  That summer he qualified to go to the Tokyo Olympics in October (blogs on the 1964 Games are coming). After he returned from Tokyo with a gold medal, there were huge demands on his time that included a trip to the White House, national TV appearances and speaking engagements.  He ended up missing 10 of the 16 weeks in the 1964 fall semester, but with generous support from the Hastings College faculty and class notes provided by his friends, he completed all his courses.  As long as he turned in his papers, took all the tests and got his other work done, he was OK.

Gary and Ruth Ann became engaged on January 25, 1965.    Gary bought the engagement ring from Meyer's Jewelers in Hastings.  The owner was the father of a very good friend and classmate of Gary.   Gary asked Ruth Ann if she would like to take a walk in a nearby park, where he presented the ring with these words, "Will you accept this ring as our pledge of a lifetime together?"

Gary and Ruth Ann's engagement picture

Gary graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History (Magna Cum Laude) from Hastings College on May 23,1965.    Gary and Ruth Ann were married on June 13, 1965 in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming.    

Gary's college graduation day

June 13, 1965

After the summer of 1965, Gary and Ruth Ann moved to San Anselmo, California, where Gary was enrolled as a divinity student at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS).    While he was in the Army, he began to feel that he had a call to the Christian ministry, having been encouraged in this regard by his hometown pastor, Rev. James Darroch.  Enrolling in a seminary became a way to explore that call.    SFTS at that time had a reputation for outstanding scholarship and an esteemed faculty.

During his three years in Seminary, his sense of call diminished, even as he excelled in Hebrew Old Testament language studies.  After his first year of Hebrew, his professor, Dr. David Noel Freedman, appointed Gary to be one of his Teaching Assistants, a position normally reserved for post-graduate students.  Gary calls Dr. Freedman his greatest teacher and the person who taught him the most about the disciplines of real scholarship.  He graduated from seminary on June 13, 1968 with a Master of Arts in Religion (Summa Cum Laude). By the time he graduated he had already taken several post-graduate courses in Ancient Semitic languages and had received a post-graduate fellowship for a year of study in Germany.  That would become a time to decide his future.

Gary teaching a Hebrew class at SFTS

Signing a Hot Dog Bun

Tony Packo's Cafe in Toledo, Ohio gained world-wide fame when M*A*S*H character Max Klinger, played by Toledo native Jamie Farr, made mention of the restaurant in several episodes. The restaurant displays several M*A*S*H mementos on the premises.

When actor Burt Reynolds visited Toledo in 1972, he made a stop at the restaurant and was the first celebrity to start the tradition of "bun signing" when he penned his signature on a Packo hot dog bun. Ever since then, celebrities who visit the restaurant sign a "bun"—now a plastic, air-brushed look-alike—and have it placed on the walls of Packo's.

On a visit to Packo's in April 2012, our grandchildren, Max and Annaliese Georgi, (ages 10 and 14) started to ask why grandpa's signature wasn't on a bun. We searched out the restaurant manager and told him he had a two-time Olympic Gold medal winner enjoying lunch.

He quizzed Annaliese about what sport, what years and she had the right answers. Overhearing this was a customer about to leave Packo's .....

The manager was very nice, brought out the bun and just like that, Gary's signature is preserved forever on a hot dog bun. I sent the manager a picture of GLA shooting in 1966.

Max and Annaliese were so excited that we pulled this off. And that customer, about to leave?   He came back in, just to shake Gary's hand. 

Gary and the manager of Tony Packo's Front Street

The hot dog bun, signed.

Max and Annaliese Georgi with grandpa's bun 

Gary Anderson - Olympic Gold Medal 1964-1968