Epilogue

In bringing these proceedings to a close, the editor cannot help but make some observations about a very remarkable family -- that of Arthur Newell Talbot and his wife Virginia Mann Hammet Individually Arthur and Virginia were very bright, active, distinguished and productive people; and they instilled in their children not only important values of life and conduct, but also deep appreciation of the importance of education. It certainly was no accident that all their children graduated from respected colleges -- either Illinois or Radcliffe -- and that they all married college graduates. The importance of education was carried to the next generation as well: all the ten grandchildren attended college, and of these, four earned a doctorate -- one in each of the four families. And of the more than 20 great-grandchildren, the great majority have graduated from college.

Talbot family and others, 1994, in Urbana, III.

But there is more to the story than just education. There is a drive to discover new principles and to apply them in everyday life in a creative way. Peter Westergaard's successful opera, The Tempest, which was twenty years in the making, required the same painstaking attention to detail -- combined with a "passion for looking for the abstraction that will fit all cases" -- that Arthur Newell Talbot's exhaustive studies of stresses in railway track required. Perhaps Arthur Talbot II said it best when he wrote recently. "I for one am proud of the fact that he was a pioneer; and I think each of his descendants, in his own way, continued Grandfather's quest for development and service." Phil Talbot also notes that his grandfather had a "practical turn of mind", which in retrospect helps to explain many fortuitous events in the lives of Arthur and Virginia's children.

Above all, there is deep respect for colleagues, fellow workers, and friends. The farmers who farmed Talbot's farms when Talbot and his children were alive, and the farmer's children who continue to farm and manage the same farms today, all speak highly of the professional and trusting relationships they have enjoyed with the Talbot family.

It has been a pleasure to learn about, and to document, this family's many and varied accomplishments.

Roberta Brown Barnes -- Acknowledgments
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