Around the World

For the past nine years Paul Sigmund has divided his time between the U.S. and the rest of the world, spending a good half of this period in Europe, partly as a scholar, partly as a soldier, one year as NSA vice president, and almost all the time as a tourist. The rest of his time was put in here at Cambridge, culminating in a Ph.D. in political theory this February, an appointment as instructor in government, and the elevation to the role of Quincy senior tutor for the coming year with the compensation (as if any were necessary) of a plush five-to-six room suite with complete kitchen. In one sense Sigmund has arrived.

After graduation from Georgetown in '50, Sigmund went to England on a Fulbright, studied for a year at the University of Durham, and "lived in a genuine medieval castle, built by William the Conqueror. It had central heating that worked except for Sundays when they tried to heat the Cathedral, too; and there was a policy of 11 o'clock close-up that meant anyone coming home later had to scale two walls and a dry moat, then climb the castle wall itself. But there were plenty of cracks."

Sigmund spent Christmas and Easter vacations on the continent with Stan Miles, now senior tutor at Dunster, the first in Italy and the second in Spain. "It was really comic opera in Spain. There were four of us--all over six feet--and our luggage, all loaded in Stan's Morris Minor. The unloading process resembled a circus act, and occasionally small crowed gathered to watch."

After summer school at both Heidelberg and Grenoble ("I wanted to learn French and German, but didn't until somewhat later") Sigmund came to Harvard, and attended GSAS in political theory along with Miles, Hoffman, Brzezinski, and Mavrinac. The next year ("I spent the summer as a car hop in a drive-in restaurant") he began assisting in Gov 1, and the year following was given residence at Dunster and additional work with Gov 106. Then after his third year here he received a grant for study towards his thesis--study which would take him back to Europe. And Sigmund did return to Europe, though not quite to study.

In the summer of '54 Sigmund organized the NSA international student relations seminar here in Cambridge ("I had been interested in NSA as an undergraduate, but only mildly active"), and at the NSA congress in August was elected international vice president, "really a full time job." He tried keeping tutorial through the fall but found the combination impossible. "I remember calling once from Chicago to cancel a meeting." And anyway Sigmund wanted to go to South Africa and write a report on segregation in the universities there. "I got as far as Europe, but the South African government refused me a visa so the trip has to be scrapped."

That summer Sigmund attended student meetings in both England and Finland. "The Finnish was the best, since there was some attempt by Communist front groups to take over the World University Service. And it was Geneva talk time, too." After a third meeting--this one in Canada--he returned to Europe and the start of the thesis.

His topic was Nicholas de Cusa, a 15th century political theorist from the delightful town of Kues in the German valley of the Moselle, the heart of wonderful wine land, "Nicholas library was endowed with proceeds from a vineyard he owned and it's still standing. They celebrated the 500th anniversary last December and issued a postage stamp for the occasion. Really a charming place."

Sigmund did other research at Heidelberg, Paris, Cologne ("I worked best in Cologne; Paris was lovely, Cologne was duller") and in the summer went to Tunisia for a student meeting. "The Russians were terribly active. One fellow constantly took notes on everything, even on rug factories." Then came Yugoslavia and a seminar on the unification of the student world. The Chinese were there in full force ("Their leader spoke perfect English learned on a U.S. air force base during the war"), and one of the Russian "student editors" who visited the United States recently was a member of the Soviet delegation. "This fellow boldly told the assembly that 'in Russia we feel a student is in the university to study, and not to govern'--which caused quite a gasp from the professional student government types. Most of them hadn't studied in years. Another Russian tactfully amended his naive colleague's statement the following day."

Then after a study of student conditions in East Berlin, later published, Sigmund flew via Athens to Ceylon for an international student conference with Algeria the first order of business. "We finally recognized the Algerian student organization, though not until the French walked out. Still the French were rather used to walking out, and not just from student meetings."

Sigmund returned to Europe from Ceylon, with steps in the trigger-happy Near East ("It was Suez time"). The Air Force then extended an invitation ("I had a ROTC commission from college"), and he spend a year and a half ("Just long enough to learn to ski") with Air Force Intelligence in Germany and France.

His service days completed in January '58, Sigmund returned to Cambridge, a tutorial slot at Winthrop House, and a temporary end to travels. He spend the year writing his thesis ("with just a short break for a trip to India"), again assisted in Gov 1 and Gov 106, and this spring was named head tutor in Riesman's Soc Sci 136. And now, along with Master Bullitt, tutors named and unnamed, eighty hand-picked sophomores and juniors and many many uninterviewed freshman, he stands on the threshold of Quincy. Let's hope the threshold holds up.