trueblood

One of the guys who was in our meeting with State/AID yesterday is the head of the economic growth office for USAID Central Asia. His last name is Trueblood. After the meeting, as we were making our way back out of the embassy, I asked him if he was, by any chance, Quaker. He smiled and said that no one had asked him that question in a long time, but no, he was not. A relative of his had done some genealogical research and done the whole family tree and he was clearly really interested by it. He said he'd read Elton Trueblood's book many years ago and while in grad school in Minnesota had seen Elton speak right before he (Elton) died. And he maintains Elton Trueblood's Wikipedia page.

He clearly could have kept going - and he was so warm about the whole thing that I'd have loved to stay and keep talking with him about it - but the train was leaving the station. Oh well. A funny and unexpected side story on an otherwise pretty businesslike week.