Anne Turkos “Ask Anne” needs you! For once, we are reversing the roles and hoping our readers can help solve a mystery. There is a giant sea turtle in the University Archives that was transferred here during the renovations of the Gossett Football Team House. The plaque on the base states that the turtle was given to the university on April 19, 1952, by Captain J.L. Enyart, the Commanding Officer of the Naval Medical School in Bethesda. We have always speculated that this turtle was part of a bet about the 1952 Sugar Bowl, but we have never been able to confirm this.

Q.Do you know something about this giant creature (pictured left)? If so, contact “Ask Anne” at terpmag@umd.edu.

Q.What happened to the Botany Herbarium? As a graduate student in the early 1960s I collected plants and put them in the herbarium. -Charles Philipp ’63 M.S.

A.This collection is now known as the Norton-Brown Herbarium and is under the care of Charles F. Delwiche. We have the personal papers of John Biting Smith Norton and James Reveal among our historical manuscript collections here at the university, and those two men played such a formative role in creating and sustaining the herbarium.

According to Delwiche, they are still collecting specimens, albeit on a limited basis.The Maryland Department of Natural Resources staff is the largest contributor of specimens at present, and we also receive exchanges from other herbaria.

Q.In April 1948, I saw the Terps play Yale in baseball. Obviously I didn't know at the time, but Yale had a first baseman by the name of George H. W. Bush. I am wondering if he was in the lineup that day. -Fran Zeltman

A.It took some digging, but we finally found the answer to your query! President George H.W. Bush did play that day, but the Terps shut him down at the plate. He went 0-4, but recorded 10 putouts and one assist.

Q.Is it true that Julie Andrews received a degree in fine arts from your university? -Greg Jaszai, Budapest, Hungary

A.Julie Andrews (right) was never a student here, but she received an honorary D.F.A. (Doctor of Fine Arts) degree at commencement in 1970 in recognition of her lifetime achievements.

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