This morning I visited the website of the United States Metric Association, www.metric.org where I found the minutes of the first meeting of the American Metric Association which was held in 1916. My dad's father, Howard Richards, Jr. was one of those present. He was named Secretary. I wonder whether that means that he actually recorded the minutes. Perhaps there was a stenographer. The document is typed. Was Grandfather the typist?
As far as I could tell, all of the founding members were men. But, most remarkably, the guest speaker who addressed this founding meeting was a woman: the Italian educator Maria Montessori. Here is an excerpt of the her talk, as translated by her interpreter:
Wow. Maria Montessori has long been an idol of mine. I had no idea that my grandfather had ever met her. And I had never thought about her use of the metric system in working with children.
She would only have been 46 in 1916, when my grandfather was 39. I wonder if the group posed for a photograph?
As far as I could tell, all of the founding members were men. But, most remarkably, the guest speaker who addressed this founding meeting was a woman: the Italian educator Maria Montessori. Here is an excerpt of the her talk, as translated by her interpreter:
That is very neat!
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