Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we have a letter written by students regarding a faculty member who taught Russian at UC Berkeley Extension. The letter was signed by 18 students, but I am showing only Harry’s signature. This was the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism was going strong.
September 8, 1950
Dear Sir:
Having just learned of the abrupt termination of Mr. Karnaugh’s position as teacher of Russian at the Far Eastern Language School, we, former and present students of Mr. Karnaugh’s, urge that he be allowed to continue to teach at this school.In our contact with Mr. Karnaugh we found him to be a conscientious, patient, and very capable teacher. He has constantly sought to improve and adapt his methods of instruction in accordance with the needs of each student. His patience, his encouragement, and his personal interest in his students have won him the regard and respect of all of us.
In view of his excellent qualities as a teacher, the reason for dismissal must have been other than that of incompetence. Allow us therefore to point out that Mr. Karnaugh has in no way imposed upon us any personal views which he may have.
We feel that the dismissal of Mr. Karnaugh would constitute a great loss to the students and to the school, and we urge again that he be reinstate in his position.
Sincerely yours,
Since Harry’s was the first signature, I wonder whether he wrote or co-wrote the letter. This appears to be a carbon copy. All of the signatures look like they were written by the same hand and pen, probably Harry’s. I don’t know whether Harry signed his full name on the original. His use of his initials H.L.L. is reminiscent of his father’s common signature: H.S.M. Cohen.
I also see echoes of Harry’s grandfather in this letter. Although he never met his maternal grandfather, I expect his presence loomed large in their household. As we saw in the January 6 post, Adolf Löwy published a left-leaning newspaper in Helene’s hometown of Bilin in Bohemia. He wanted his newspaper to give voice to and protect the voiceless. One of the reasons Harry gave up a traditional career to run a printing shop was because of how well he understood the power of the press.
I found Nicholas I. Karnaugh listed in the “AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGES: List of Members and Subscribers, September 1, 1950.” Bulletin of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, vol. 8, no. 1, 1950, pp. 1–9. JSTOR.
I could find little information on Professor Karnaugh. I do not know whether he was reinstated. In a newspaper search, I found that from 1960 to the early 1970s he taught Russian to kids and adults in Ontario, California.