P₂σρ 9
University Daily Kansan Tuesday, April 26, 1960
University Profile -
Voice, Pipe Identify Jenks
By Tom Turner
GEORGE JENKS "The Midwest suffers from 'Squaritis'..."
He's a big man with a big voice — perhaps to match the size of his classes which always range above 300 students.
Every KU student who has ever taken Geography 6 knows George Jenks, associate professor of geography, his bow tie and his two authentic corn-cob pipes, a red and a blue one.
"The midwest suffers from 'squaritis,'" he quips good-naturedly. "City blocks, country roads and even private homes are all square-shaped."
Prof. Jenks is not a native Kansan. He was raised in Oneonta, New York.
At the end of the war, Proof, Jenks decided to do some graduate work at Syracuse University. He was then torn between his desire to be a high school principal and a war-found love of geography. He tried to combine his pet interests until the dean forced him to make a definite decision.
Does It Pay to Be a Pig?
HE DELIGHTS in chiding Kansas students about the geometrical arrangement of midwestern towns and road systems.
Prof. Jenks was awarded a master's degree in education in 1941 from Albany College—the year of Pearl Harbor. Rather than be drafted, he said he enlisted in the Air Force the day after the Pearl Harbor bombing.
Why did Prof. Jenks leave his native East for a job at the University?
PROF, JENKS recalled his anger as the dean forced him to declare himself a geographer or a school teacher. In his anger, he blurted, "I want to be a geographer."
"I've never regretted that rather heated decision since," said Frank Jenks. He now finds himself both a geographer and a school teacher.
In 1950, he was awarded his doctorate at Syracuse.
WARRENS, Wis. —(UPI)—Farmer Ben Mimitz, puzzled because milk production in his dairy herd was falling off, discovered that 30 little pigs were standing on their hind legs to get milk from his cows.
"In looking for a position, I had to again make a decision." Prof. Jenks related. "I had to ask myself: Do I want a place where I can get ahead on my own initiative and ability, or a place where my social environment would be most familiar and most pleasing? I chose the first alternative.
"I DIDN'T want to locate in Chicago or New York because I hate big cities, and I didn't want a job in Texas because I spent too much of my Air Force hitch there."
Prof. Jenks said he finds satisfaction in doing what he enjoys doing—where is not bound to a classroom—this includes freedom in research.
"Kansas has been a fine opportunity. I'm well satisfied with my 11 years here," Prof. Jenks said.
The professor, whose specialty is cartography, or map drawing, has done summer research projects in Montana, North Dakota, Kansas and Washington. D.C. since coming to Kansas. He is especially enthused at the prospects of working for the government in the current 1960 census this summer. He will work as a consultant in the geography department, designing population maps for different government census publications.
Alan Kimball and Edward Collisier, both Lawrence juniors, won four and lost four debates at the three-day West Point National Debate Tournament which ended Saturday.
KU Debaters Lose West Point Tourney
DO SIGHTS of erosion and lack of soil conservation make him particularly wince?
mitting his own pet program or purposes."
"These sights are no more disturbing to me than reading that automobiles have killed 40,000 people this year or that stream pollution is killing thousands of specimens of wildlife," answered Prof. Jenks decisively. "In other words, waste is everywhere, and it all alarms me."
Placing 19th among 36 teams, the KU debaters won three negative rounds and one affirmative round.
Prof. Jenks has a pet peeve—the American system of dam construction.
No race can prosper until it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.—Booker T. Washington
"In this type of democracy we do things on the spur of the moment without thinking about problems that will evolve," said Prof. Jenks.
"There must be some better system without being completely socialistic," he continued. "Now, the selection of dam sites is run through a system of pressure groups and politicians, each sub-
"We invest in dams and roads without too much planning or organization. State and national financial problems are somewhat like that of a family—certain objectives have to be set. I can't see any real organized objective in investing in such structures.
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