JUDYTH: "The Indiana Biological Association": SOLVED
Barb Junkkarinen
drink ... stay with me here.
In her book, page 25, Judyth relates cancer research and presenting a
paper after starting her freshman year at St. Francis College (now
called the University of St. Francis) in Ft. Wayne, Indiana:
QUOTE
In a matter of two weeks, living cancer cells arrived, shipped in from
New York, and I was growing melanoma cancer, although in much more
primitive conditions than at Roswell. Most of the nuns at St. Francis
had little idea what I was doing, and my newfound friends wondered why
I was allowed to keep such late hours.............. I had also been
driven to Notre Dame itself, to present my paper there to the Indiana
Biological Association, accompanied by two doctors and a highly
trained lab associate, all three of them nuns,......
END QUOTE
There is no shortage of posts where Martin repeats over and over that
Judyth presented a paper to the Indiana Biological Association while a
freshman at St. Francis ... and that she was the only student invited
to do so....sometimes he changes it from only student to "only
undergraduate."
QUOTE
On Mar 12, 12:37 pm, "Martin Shackelford" <msha...@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:
[.....]
At St. Francis, she had the support of the
American Cancer Society, and presented a paper to the
IndianaBiological Association, the only student invited to do so.
END QUOTE
In Oct 2007, Martin posted:
QUOTE
6) THAT work was considered significant enough for her to be the ONLY
student invited to present her paper at the Indiana Biological
Association.
END QUOTE
In July 2006, Martin posted:
QUOTE
Three Franciscan nuns (two of them doctors) accompany Judyth to verify
her competence to present her research paper on melanogenesis at a
university seminar sponsored by The Indiana Biological Association.
Judyth is 18 years old.
END QUOTE
Martin's facts change a bit in posts talking about this from year to
year .. there are more quotes available through google, but both
Martin and Judyth remained true to the "Indiana Biological
Association."
The only problem with that is ithat the Indiana Biological Association
doesn't exist. Never did.
I googled .. found nothing, which seemed odd.
I contacted the State of Indiana Commission on Public Records...
The central office referred me to the Records Center.
The Records Center referred me to the Archives and the State Info
Hotline.
According to the person at the hotline, there is no state business
license, but the state archives would have a paper trail of some sort
for any official association. The gal there suggested I could also
call the Northern Indiana Chamber of Commerce .. that one sounded like
a no-goer to me. So I went with the Archives first.
Per Ellen in the state archives reference room, there was no Indiana
Biological Association in either of her indexes ... which cover
everything from 1852 - 1970. She did say that if it had been dissolved
AFTER 1970, she wouldn't have it ... it would be at the Secretary of
State's office.
So, off I went to the Secretary of State's website and found an online
business service with immediate gratification that searches for
organizations, associations, businesses ... all kinds of entities.
It turned up nothing telling me "No Entity Names found" for my search
criteria ... I searched for both Association and Society.
So, I called Mary at the Sec of State biz services office, and she
told me yes, the online service should have everything existing or
dissolved since 1970.
I had also sent off queries to the biology departments of a couple
universities.
This reply from Indiana State U was typical of what came in:
QUOTE
Barb,
I asked one of the retired biologist who was chairman
of the department for many years and he has never heard of the Indiana
Biological Association. I didn’t find it mentioned in our online
catalog or on the rare book library webpage.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help,
Roger
END QUOTE
I also contacted the library at St. Francis ... no info there either,
but the librarian I dealt with sent out feelers ... and I ended up
with a nun busy digging in their archives.
NADA.
[I have not provided website links, phone numbers, contact info for
any of the above because, as you will see below, it is not necessary.]
Coming up empty., and then, God bless him, I got an e-mail from a
biology professor who suggested I might try the Indiana Academy of
Science.
Never heard of it, so off I went to their website ... thinking, on one
hand, perhaps it had originally been called the Indiana Biological
Association ... or that, at the very least, if anyone would know about
any Indiana Biological Association, they would.
Their website is at:
http://www.indianaacademyofscience.org/
Quite an organization ... oldest in the state ... soley to promote
science and education, etc. And very nice and helpful people belong to
it.
It was founded in 1885, filed with the Secretary of State in 1887,
...so there went any notion it had once been called the Indiana
Biological Association.
I contacted the secretary, who is a Professor of Immunology at Ball
State. I told her I was looking for where a student had presented a
paper the Fall of 1961, that I had been told it was for the Indiana
Biological Association which doesn't seem to have existed, but
suspected it could have been for the Academy as, from their website,
that looked like the perfect venue for a talented student ... and, I
gave the name Judyth Vary.
This professor is terrific and immediately said she would do some
digging and would send out an e-mail to colleagues also part of the
Academy.
In the mean time, I was receiving replies from biology professors at
other institutions, none had heard of the Indiana Biological
Association. Kinda funny ... just a few hours after I got this thing
solved, I received an e from a very funny biology professor at St.
Francis suggesting I might try the Indiana Academy of Science. :-)
One professor at St. Francis who was quite helpful was able to verify
a side question ... Judyth commented on St. Francis having a medical
technology program. She seemed to think that was going to take care of
her pre-med courses .. I won't go there. But, the professor, who has
been there since 1962, did confirm that they had a very strong med
tech program at the time.
My immunology professor/academy secretary wrote later in the day to
ask if I had heard from someone who told her they thought they had
some info for me. I hadn't. But in the morning I had the whole ball of
wax solved thanks to the Indiana Academy of Science Librarian.
She, and the secretary, are my heroes. :-)
She wrote:
QUOTE
Dear Ms. Junkkarinen:
I am writing to you to help to answer your query regarding the Fall
1961 Indiana Academy of Science meeting. Judyth Vary was a
co-presenter of a program entitled "Studies on the Increase in vitro
of Mitotic Activity and Melangenesis in the RPMI HA # 5 (7113) Strain
Melano."
It was presented to the Academy's Committee (also known as a
"Section") on Bacteriology at the Fall 1961 Meeting. The meeting
occurred on October 19, 1961 at Indiana State College, Terre Haute,
Indiana.
I have attached a bitmap (bmp) scan showing some more information
about this presentation.
I was not able to find an original program for the fall meeting in our
Archives collection (of course as luck would have it the collection
skips both 1960 and 1961), but this was published in v. 71 of the
Proceedings.
Citation for the scan:
"Studies on the Increase in vitro of Mitotic Activity and Mela
ngenesis in the RPMI HA # 5 (7113) Strain Melano." Proceedings of the
Indiana Academy of Science. V. 71 (1961) p. 71.
This article appears as an abstract only and is not available in full
through the Academy's Proceedings.
I hope that this has helped to answer your question about Judyth Vary.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Anika [........], Librarian
Indiana Academy of Science
Indiana State Library, Catalog Division
140 N. Senate Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
END QUOTE
It's actually a jpg that I received. I will reply to this post and
attempt to post the jpg. If it does not appear, somebody let me know
as my newsreader still doesn't show me posts with attachments.
What it is, is a short synopsis (abstract) of what was presented. It
notes Judyth Vary co[presented with a Sr. M. Clare Francis (long since
deceased I learned from a nun at St. Francis) and amongst the
scientific jargon, it notes that, "Although results are inconclusive
at this date, indications suggest that specific...." and at the end it
mentions an area for "future endeavor."
Searching for the incorrect name of the organization made this
impossible to track and verify ... almost. :-)
So here is how it stacks up....
CONFIRMED:
A paper having to do with melanoma was presented the Fall of 1961.
WHAT JUDYTH NEGLECTED TO SAY:
She was a CO-PRESENTER
DENIED:
A bunch of nuns going along to vouch for her....one of those nuns was
presenting WITH her.
Presentation at Notre Dame ... it was in Terre Haute at Indiana U and
this was the regular Fall meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science.
First student/only student asked to present a paper ...NO. That is
what the Academy DOES.
And Martin posted it was considered "significant" ... yet it made it
into the Proceedings as an abstract only, it was not published in the
Proceedings.
This is not an "academy" like a school. It is an academy of science
people ..including some lay people .... many members/officers, like
the secretary, are professors at local colleges and universities. They
band together in the interests of science and LOOK for interesting
projects students, scientists, etc are woking on.
I asked that specific question of the Academy librarian, and this is
the reply:
QUOTE
You're very welcome, Barb!
It was quite normal for students and other "laypeople" of all types to
become members, attend meetings, and even present and publish in the
Proceedings. Certainly not always a tenured professor, in other
words.
In 1961 there was also a Junior Academy of Science which sought
membership from Indiana high school students and they had their own
meetings where even younger scientists could present on their own
research and writings.
Before the meetings there is a call for papers and presentations and
then the Committees decide which papers will be heard.
Again, hope this helps and please let me know if I can be of further
assistance.
~Anika
END QUOTE
I can hear the, "Big deal, so she just got the name wrong" response
already. They can save it.
A couple weeks before she gave the paper, reporting to someone in a
letter that it was the Indiana Biological Association, is one thing
.... a bit odd, for a giddy whiz kid ... but then after having
actually been there...meeting and greeting ... the oldest such
organization in the state ...didn't she pick up a program? ... that
really stretches credulity.
But she ran with Indiana Biological Association for all these years
... and what that did was make it almost impossible to fact check and
discover that, once again ... just like Roswell Park, the green
glass,the Russian class (and other things as we shall see), a grain of
truth has been inflated and embellished beyong recognition ... all,
seemingly, for the drama, to point out how special and important she
was ... and to make it a credible (Judyth thinks) stepping stone
culminating in her ultimate glory in Ferrie's kitchen.
So, now, I guess I best don my helmet and flak jacket ... and prepare
for more incoming from Martin and Pamela on my distortions, vague and
cherry picked information, "pseudo" verification, tilting at
windmills, lack of any real research, etc.
Heck, they can't possibly latch onto my confirming Judyth did present
a paper that Fall ... this documentation is no different than ones I
have sought out and presented on other topics .. so how could they!
But, of course, if they do (and of course they will!) ... they also
have to accept the information from the same source that relates there
was nothing unique about a student presenting at one of their
meetings.
A co-presenter.
No need for a motorcade of nun doctors to vouch for her.
And on and on.
This was easy to find once I had the Indiana Academy of Science.
Looking for the Indiana Biological Association it wasn't possible to
find out if a paper was presented at all ... let alone that there was
a co-presenter, that she wasn't the first/only student to present, and
on and on.
All these years her supporters yukking up the Indiana Biological
Association and the rest of the tale. Obviously, no one made the least
little effort to fact check any of it.
Indiana Biological Association: SOLVED
Reality not quite matching the story: TYPICAL.
Maybe I'd better put on my boots too.....
Barb :-)
Martin Shackelford
proven that Judyth did indeed present a paper on melanoma to an
Indiana state group. In fact, she presented the paper twice, and Barb
is wrong when she states there was no "Indiana Biological Association"--
partly because she was wrong to assume it was the state scientific group,
when in fact it was a lobbying group.
Barb knows all this now, and yet simply reposts her original attack post.
Martin
"Barb Junkkarinen" <barbRE...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:tr8p24dedgpfprm6h...@4ax.com...