News Scrapbook 1968-1969

SD Library Ancient Treasure Fill Donohue Room Set of 10 [ouis XIII Chairs Used by Modern Scholars By DON LUND l\lost universities are not so fortunate as to afford ~tudents the opportunity to study art treasures spanning 900 years. The Donohue Room of the .Men's Library at the University o[ San Diego allows one lo peek into the past !Without much ado. You may enjoy an aura of history while sitting on one of 10 chairs dating to Louis XIII while you read up on criminal pro- cedure and punishment during the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria. (You'd best be fluent in German.) You may even rest your elbows on one of two sturdy 17th century tables from a Cistercian (Trappist) Monastery in Spain as you study the workmanship of a 600-ycar-old icon stripped or its once-proud gems during the Russian rcvoluhon in 1917 Donor Friend to Founders of School, !uilding Most of these rare items of history were donated lo the uni versity by Daniel Donohue, a close friend of its founder, th late Bishop Charles Francis Buddy, and a classmate of the li- brary's founder and director, the Rev. Charles Dollen. The Donohue Room is enriched with walnut paneling and 17th century Florentine doors. An expensive tapestry, also donated by Donohue, on the west wall compliments an authentic nurs- ing madonna made of papier-mache, traced to the Anjou region of France in the 17th century. Its author is unknown but may have been of Gennan ancestry or training because of the fat and happy babe. Madonna Icon Stripped of Jewels in Russia The bronze. framed madonna above the fireplace dates to tie ::llonastery Kazan, 300 miles north of :'rloscow, and is p<'rha11~ 13th or 14th century. As was tradition, it was passed from mother to eldest daughter at marriage. lts jewels -...err stripped when the revolution was born. The icon is a gift of m1 other university benefactor, the late Adm. William Standley of La Jolla, who donated four other works of art to the room. The 10 tapestry-upholstered chairs defy description. :The were made in Aubusson, France, in the mid-1600s and refle t the richness of that period. The tapestries have suf[icient red to accent and actually strengthen the beauty of the decorations Unusual is that the set has remained together through the years from the time of its purchase from a chateau in Tours by Donohue and his late wife, Bernardine. Irreplaceable Chair Almost Discarded Here The greatest danger to breaking the set occurred at th u1'1- versity when three of them were inadvertently used c1s stai;<' props and one discarded in the trash pile. The love seat in the room, purchased by Mrs. Donohue, is in teresting in that il is a forgery, intended to imitate the Aubu • son school. She was so intrigued with the forger's c ertnc-~s that she took it home with her. ''The Constitution on Criminal Proceedings" was publi 11ed in 1769 in Vienna and was considered a model of liberalism of that time. Its contents, however, vividly illustrate methods of tor- ture to extract confessions from "wrongdoers." The icons have been authenticated by Genie d'Arsen of Los Angeles, art critic. They embrace the 11th century and origi- nally were property of the monks at Sokolski in Siberia. They depict religious propertv including a Resurrection scene. Slotkin Donated 16th Century ManuscriP.t Other artifacts include pages of a 16th century manuscript donated by Stanley Slotkin of Abbey Rents, from an original choir book or Gradual; a medieval chained book with an in- scription of the teachings of St. Luke; papal vestments and rel- ics of saints and past devotions. Since the library is a partial depository of local historical material for the San Diego and Imperial County Knights of Co- lumbus, and the La Jolla chapter of the Military Order of World Wars, some of their materials are housed in the Donohue Room. Donohue, a resident of Los Angeles, is a papal knight of SI Gregory and a Knight-Commander of the independent Order of the Knights of Malta. Mrs. Donohue was made a papal count- ess by Pope John XXIII.

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USD Appoints Director Of Development A San Diego newspaperman and former diplomat has been appointed to the University of San Diego as director of devel- opment. The provost of the university, the Most Rev. Bishop John R. Quinn, has announced that Mi- chael C. Newman, of the editori- al staff of The San Diego Union, will join USD Sunday as first director of development. T h e appointment is pa1t of an ex- pansion program recently un- dertaken jointly by the College for Men, the College for Women and the School of Law on the Al- cala Park campus. Bishop Quinn said: "Mr. New man is one of several new ad ministrative appointments and changes made subsequent to th much c l o s e r coordination be- tween the :Jen's and the Worn- en·s college and the Jaw school. Complete coeducational courses are now available at the two in- stitutions for the first time." Newman, w h o s e newspaper career began in London, Eng- land, where he was born 48 years ago, served from 1963 to 1965 as a delegate to the United Nations and was first secretary attached to the British Embas- sy, Washington, under Lord Harlech, responsible for Tihode- sian affairs. DIPLOMATIC POSTS He was previously director of pub.lications and director of in- formation services for the gov- ernment of the federation of Rhodesia a n d Nyasaland. He served as information attacbe in London, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Europe. In 1963, :\Tewman was sent lo Washington, D.c:, as the first information adviser and public information officer for the Rho- desian Federation at the British m bassy. He resigned from this post in 1965. Newman joined the editoria staff of The San Diego Union · December, 1965, and also be came a lecturer in political sci- ence at the University of San Diego. In 1967, he was awarded: tile George Washington Medal! of Honor of the Freedoms Foun- ldalion at Valley Forge for edi- 1 torial writing. Educated by the Jesuit fath- l'rs of Wimbledon College, Lon- don, he served his apprentice- ship to newspaper work in Fleet Street, London, while attending · Clarks College and the London School of Journalism. He was 1 011 the London staff of King Fea- tures Syndicate and Internation al News Service until the war ,vith Germany was declared by Britain in 1939. MILITARY CAREER . He served six years in mili- tary service, first in the Royal Artillery and for five years in the Royal Air Force as pilot and !light instructor at the Central Flving School. Newman settled ]in Rhodesia i 1 1948 as editor of New Rhode- a magazine and Salisbury Ad ' rtiser, a weekly newspaper e. later became editor of Rho S'lan Farmer and then joined the Natural Resources Board a public relations officer. In 1954 he was appoifttcd to London a info:i:mation attache to the high commissioner of the new Feder- ation of Rhodesia and ~yasa land, as the first of several dip- lomatic posts. When Newman resigned from government a n d diplomatic service in 1965, he settled with his family in California. One son, Francis, has· been editor for the last two vears of the MiraCosta collegr newspaper. Newman's daughtrr. Patricia, will be a frfshman at the USD Coilege r[ Women this semes- tl'r. Anot:;er son, P;iul is m high school. r '

TillE-WORN - Supporting leg of 300-year-old table once used in a conference room at a Cistercian

.:Vfonastery in Spain shows wear. Table remains sturdy and is used by students.

Evening Tribune Photos By Freel Gates

)IADO... ~A KEEPS VIGIL - Mounted on west wall of Donohue Room, a nursing madonna made of papier-mache adds solemnity to room. It was made in the Anjou region of France in 17th century. The artist is believed to be German.

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RARE TR~ASURl'~-Stl'ipped of its jewels by Communists, Sibcric111 icon measures J(i by 18.

hce, rcl·onstructccl in Donohue Room. Hign, ala- l>aster frame adds 1o der·ur and of(<>rs rnntrusl.