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Henry Gurr Wishes To Dedicate This Biography, To The Memory Of His Grandparents, George Alexander Smart And His Wife Edna Foreman Niswanger Smart. Without Edna’s good thrift and George’s good investments, the financial resources for writing this book would not have been available.
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Announce Publication of the, Sarah Vinke eBook Biography Now Available.

TITLED: A WOMAN OF QUALITY: Sarah Vinke, ‘The Divine Sarah’ , and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's 'Metaphysics of Quality' , in his Book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" .

After a tentative slow start in early 2015, James Essinger and Henry Gurr biography of Sarah Vinke “The Divine Sarah” of the ZMM book, is now finally publicly available =>

The Sarah Vinke Biography, is accessible in TWO versions:

Also, Since Sarah Was VERY Important To Robert Pirsig, And The Creation Of ZMM,
… We Hope You Will Please Help Get The Word Out =>

Sincerely Henry Gurr SVB Coauthor, Project Coordinator & Sponsored.

Additional Extensive Detailed Sarah Vinke Biography Information Is Here:

Learn About Henry Gurr “Big Trip Out West", For Following Purposes =>

Since technical problems may crop up at ANY time!! Please email me pronto, if something unexpected happens!

To See Henry Gurr’s Photo Report Of His “Big Trip”

AFTER This 5 Albums Page Comes Up, Please Scroll Down To SECOND Album => “Illustrating Henry Gurr’s Travel For His ”ZMM Book: Sarah Vinke Biography” “Book Signing Tour” => 1) First In Iowa, And Then 2) In Montana, And Then 3) Follow-Up ZMM Research & With MANY ZMM Route Photos, In Montana. Click Here. Then please read description, then click on photo to enter Album. After this you may click on any photo several times to get largest view.

WITH THE ABOVE MENTIONED, PUBLICATION OF THE SARAH VINKE BIOGRAPHY , WHAT FOLLOWS IS A NOW SOMEWHAT OUT-OF DATE EXPLANATION OF => The Original History, Research, & Writing Of Our New Sarah Vinke Biography. … A Joint Project of Project Author James Essinger, with Project Originator, Researcher, Coordinator, & Financial Sponsor Professor Henry S. Gurr.

AN OUTLINE OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE – CLICK TO GO TO

I. Preamble and Some General Guidelines
II. ZMM Book’s Sarah Vinke: A Woman of Quality! Proposed Magazine Article by Henry S Gurr (Full Text available on request.)
III. A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Click Here For => Full Text Of A Proposal To Write A Full Length Biography of Mrs Professor Sarah Winifred Jennings Vinke.
VI. Links to Additional Reading Related to the Above Material.

ATTENTION: Do You Know Facts, Details, or Information About Professor Sarah Vinke?

Her Biography Urgently Needs Your: Information, Stories, Letters, or Knowledge About Her.

Please Send Email to ZMMQ SiteMaster Henry Gurr =>

Ideally we would like a trunk filled with Sarah Vinke's saved Letters and Mementos. But, since this is unlikely, we seek to track down ANY of her former possessions or evidence of her efforts, be they magazines, articles, scraps of paper, photos, wedding photos, or larger physical possessions, such as: oriental rugs, pianos, dishes, apartment locations, or even papers that are descriptive of such items, etc. Since any documents, or physical artifacts, are precious to their owners, we will seek merely copies, or photographs of these.

If you have materials to contribute Biography Author, Henry Gurr (see email below), will gladly pay contributors for their expenses, time, and effort. (Of course, for payment, suitable prior arrangements need to be mutually agreed upon first. Please contact me via email. HenryG__USCA.edu <= Please put the correct symbol, the @ sign, in the blank)

Please, Please, Contribute Your Knowledge of Professor Sarah Vinke.

Years are passing and it is urgent to do what we can to reach those few persons who are yet still living! ----- THEREFORE

Preamble and Some General Guidelines:

We believe that Mrs Professor Sarah Vinke (of ‘Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ fame), deserves a good biography!

Proposed title: “ A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', “
Proposed Sub-Title “ and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance “

Mr James Essinger, as biographer, is a natural step since he has recently written an extensively researched biography titled A Female Genius: Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace.
… Mr Essinger’s book, about Computer Pioneer Ada Lovelace, has received wide acclaim and could even be well-received as a movie. Mr Essinger’s A Female Genius, has been released in the United States as Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace launched the digital age.

A) The need and importance for writing a Biography of Sarah Vinke:
This biography would be about a VERY intelligent and VERY interesting woman! It would tell how she was a positive influence on many people. Most particularly, it would fulfill the ultimate goal of finding enough about Sarah Vinke, to say how she came to be aware of the Ancient Greek "Arete" and, from this, tease out why she introduced the corresponding concept of "Quality" to Robert Pirsig, Author of the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

B) Beyond the above the principle reason for this Biography is based on the importance of the ZMM book itself and the absolutely vital role Sarah Vinke played in that book, and the key inspiration she gave its author Robert Pirsig to focus on “Quality”. Hence our desire to fill out the Sara Vinke & Montana State College portion of how ZMM came to be written. We trust that ZMM Enthusiasts already are convinced of ZMM’s importance: And in due course of time, we hope everyone will arrive at such a firm conviction.

C) A good biography seeks out the threads of a person's life: It seeks out items such as public records, us census, archives, land records such as where she grew up, and photos (Google Street View) of what happens to be on her old farm now, what her parents were like, parental influences, her education, and what all these were like, though there are ever more items.

D) Although at present, there is far from sufficient information available, we are still hoping to find suitable ways to move forward!!

We believe it's THAT IMPORTANT

Here Are Our Thoughts On How Sarah Vinke’s Biography Should Turn Out:

We believe that a person of Sarah Vinke's importance in our cultural heritage deserves a proper, well-researched, accurate biography that constitutes an engaging, thought-provoking, and true story of her life from her childhood onwards and which, as far as possible, allows the reader to enjoy and be stimulated by the actual experience of having met our heroine Sarah.

In the long term, say a year, we would ideally have a published biography of substantial length along the lines of James Essinger's above mentioned biography, about Computer Pioneer Ada Lovelace. Good biographies typically start with the childhood of the person in question, their parents, background, and growing up environment, schooling, and other formative experiences. In regards to Sarah Vinke, the farm where she grew up and its land are still there, as well as the many of the surrounding physical structures. Also the locations of her schooling, elementary through PhD in Greek & Roman Classics, etc.

Moreover, Mr Dennis Gary, Has Already Done Considerable Research using Internet Family Tree & Genealogy websites (such as Ancestry.com). And Dr Anthony McWatt has found =>

Ideally, a biographer will integrate all this life information and make (nay weave!), a story of that person’s life just as if the biographer was actually in that person's skin.

In the case of Sarah Vinke, we believe it is especially needful to “tease out” just why Sarah said (to only Robert Pirsig apparently) “Are you teaching Quality?” This is especially intriguing because, as of now, there is no clear pattern from Sarah’s life as to why she would do this!

The information from Henry Gurr's ZMMQ Site will be utilized to the greatest extent. This most especially includes Mr. Dennis Gary’s Memories of his Mentor, Mrs. Professor Sarah Vinke. Also to be included are letters to and from ZMM Author Robert Pirsig, as well as all of the ZMMQ WebSite Pages, listed under Menu Header “Historical Research At Montana State University Re ZMM”.

Instructions => How To Find The Above Mentioned “Information From Henry Gurr's ZMMQ Site”, Please =>
A) Study the Main Menu at left, especially at Sub-List Headers

B) Alternatively, you may try a Google Search limited to the ZMMQ Web Site. This way, about half of the Google results for specifically about Sarah Vinke will have useful information (in approximately the first 4 pages), by your doing the following 5 steps: =>

Sarah Site:http://venturearete.org/ResearchProjects/ProfessorGurr/Documents/

Instructive Examples of Good Biographies + “Working-In An Advertisement” For Ray Bradbury Click Here., Author Of The fascinating book Zen and the Art of Writing!!

Instructive Examples of a good biographies can easily be found for any famous person, including famed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Most particularly I mention Bradbury Biographies because 1) He is a well-known individual/. 2) There are good biographies of him, and 3) This is my chance to mention Ray Bradbury’s Fascinating Book Zen and the Art of Writing!!, of which Bradbury says “I like to think is one of the better books on writing.” Click Here.
Two Instructive Examples => Good Biographies Google Found For Famed Science Fiction Writer, Ray Bradbury:
http://www.amazon.com/Bradbury-Chronicles-Life-Ray-P-S/dp/0060545844
http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Ray-Bradbury-Jonathan-Eller/dp/0252079051

(Footnote: James Essinger says my introducing of Ray Bradbury’s ''Zen and the Art of Writing', into topic of “good biographies”, an example my “tendency to work-in advertisements for my favorite topics”!!! And yes, he’s entirely correct: I am guilty as accused!!

Information About => A Proposed Magazine Article by Professor Henry S Gurr, Titled.

A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

This Proposed Magazine Article Will Discuss the Following:

Why is so little known about a woman who inspired some of the most exciting and influential thinking of the twentieth century? Why has there never been a biography of her? Why is she not a better-known figure?

Very few people would recognize the name Sarah Vinke, yet millions of people have read about her. One of the reasons why her full name isn’t well-known is because the book that mentions her, and which catapulted her to fame, doesn’t in fact mention her surname.

That book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (1973), which has sold more than five million copies to date and still sells about 100,000 copies per year. It’s taught as a Literature Text or Philosophy Text at perhaps forty percent of colleges and high schools in the United States.

Years Are Passing, And It Is Urgent To Do What We Can To Interview Those Few Persons Who Are Yet Still Living!

Please Send Email to ZMMQ Sitemaster Henry Gurr =>

Our Proposal To Write A Full Length Sarah Winifred Jennings Vinke Biography, With the Following Title:

A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance .

The true story of Sarah Vinke.

By James Essinger, with assistance of Henry Gurr

INTRODUCTION

From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (1973)

“All this comes back now. This was his office. A find. This is the room I am looking for!”
“I step inside and an avalanche of memory, loosened by the jolt of the print, begins to come down. The light on the print comes from a miserable cramped window in the adjacent wall through which he looked out and across the valley onto the Madison Range and watched the storms come in and while watching this valley before me now through this window here, now… started the whole thing, the whole madness, right here! This is the exact spot!”
… “And that door leads to Sarah’s office. Sarah! Now it comes down! She came trotting by with her watering pot between those two doors, going from the corridor to her office, and she said, ‘I hope you are teaching Quality to your students.’ This in a la-de-da, singsong voice of a lady in her final year before retirement about to water her plants. That was the moment it all started. That was the seed crystal. …. “The one sentence ‘I hope you are teaching Quality to your students’ was said to him, and within a matter of a few months, growing so fast you could almost see it grow, came an enormous, intricate, highly structured mass of thought, formed as if by magic.”
… “I don’t know what he replied to her when she said this. Probably nothing. She would be back and forth behind his chair many times each day to get to and from her office. Sometimes she stopped with a word or two of apology about the interruption, sometimes with a fragment of news, and he was accustomed to this as a part of office life. I know that she came back a second time and asked, ‘Are you really teaching Quality this quarter?’ and he nodded and looked back from his chair for a second and said ‘Definitely!’ and she trotted on. ….
… “A few days later when Sarah trotted by again she stopped and said, ‘I’m so happy you’re teaching Quality this quarter. Hardly anybody is these days.”
… “Well, I am,’ he said. ‘I’m definitely making a point of it.”
… “Good!’ she said, and trotted on.”

--o0OOO0o--

In the above passages from his masterpiece, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the author Robert Pirsig introduces his readers to a lady called Sarah, whose actual name was Sarah Vinke, though her surname is not mentioned in the book.

Sarah is presented as a cheerful, friendly, warm-hearted, positive, slight, and even slightly comic character, a kind of cheery, thoughtful all-American lady, nearing retirement from her teaching career, who inspires Pirsig to focus his teaching on ‘Quality’.

Pirsig never asks Sarah for clarification on what she actually meant by that word, Quality, and it is clear Pirsig does not think that asking her for this clarification would be either desirable or necessary.

Robert Pirsig subsequently explained in a press interview more about the nature of his interaction with Sarah. He explained how in 1959 to 1960, he was in the town of Bozeman, Montana, teaching English and how he found himself having to confront problems with his teaching. =>

“I had a textbook in front of me that told me what to tell students, and I could see the students sitting back there bored and I was not connecting [to them] in any way. I didn’t know how you could teach English in such a way they would really learn it, other than to simply imitate what I was telling them. And this became a deeper and deeper problem as I went on. And I tried all sorts of experiments.”

“And then there was a really sweet old lady there named Sarah Vinke. And just to tease me a little she said, ‘Well, I hope you are teaching Quality to your students, you know’. She knew very well, that I didn’t know what she meant by that, but it was part of her wisdom to keep asking that question.”

During this press interview, Pirsig described his friend Sarah as ‘the divine Sarah’ and he remarked:

“So she was gradually drawing me into this question. “What is Quality?” And that got me into the situation where I wanted to teach something about English honestly, but I found that the way [the teaching environment] was set up, I wasn’t teaching anything honestly. I was just teaching them rote things [such as]: Get your sentences straight. Don’t dangle your modifiers. Organize your outlines and all this stuff. But it really, really, wasn’t there. And then came this comment from this lady, a former Greek scholar, who said, ‘I hope you are teaching Quality.’ And that began this migration which has led us here.”

Pirsig stated unequivocally that it was important to him that Sarah was a Greek scholar. As he explained =>

“If you are going to up-end all human understanding, you’ve got to go back t the beginning. And our Western understanding does really start with the Ancient Greeks. God knows why…. God doesn’t know how they got started on that particular questioning which led to their love of reason and their ability to organize things… it was lost… The Romans never really picked up on it. But I asked [Sarah] the question: ‘Did the Greeks, the Ancient Greeks, think that Quality was part of their thought?’ And she [Sarah] said, ‘It was every part of their thought!”

Then Pirsig with excited emphasis exclaimed =>

“And SHE had a sense of Quality! A brilliant teacher! They [her students] called her “The Divine Sarah!” “

--o0OOO0o--

Pirsig subsequently spends many thousands of words in his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” '' discussing what Quality means to him, or perhaps what the idea of Quality embodies. Reading Pirsig on Quality, one is reminded of what the poet W.B. Yeats observed towards the end of his own life: that ‘Man can embody truth, but not know it.’ Pirsig clearly sees Quality as something that can only be understood and recognised in a specific application, and that outside the application, the concept of Quality is fairly meaningless. As Pirsig says in his book =>

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig is, in effect, proposing the goal of Quality as a kind of secular religious objective, a kind of accessible Zen for the world and antidote to mental, cultural, and economic confusion, despair, and mediocrity.

--o0OOO0o--

Robert Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has never been out of print since first being published in 1974. To date, the book has sold about four million copies and still sells about 100,000 copies a year around the world, in numerous languages.

The book is essentially a philosophy book, framed within a long motorcycle trip in the United States. We can reasonably assume the narrator of this book to be Pirsig himself. This trip is made by the narrator with his son Chris (Chris rides pillion on Pirsig’s bike) and with a married couple who have their own bike. The account of the trip is interspersed with long, well-articulated and almost always very clearly written and highly accessible philosophical material.

Pirsig says, in effect, that the precise meaning of quality is something that readers of the book, and people who hear about the philosophy of Quality and set out to make sense of it, need to work out for themselves. Pirsig suggests that Quality is the fundamental force in the universe, stimulating everything from atoms to animals to evolve and incorporate ever greater levels of Quality.

One of the endearing things about Pirsig as a philosopher is that while he can talk about things in a highly abstract way, he appears to be at his happiest as a philosopher when he is being down-to-earth. In particular, it’s clear that at its core Pirsig sees Quality as our Inner Harmony, our inner Excellence, that leads us to create anything that is really well done, well made, well delivered and well-conceived. As he said in an interview subsequent to the publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and referring to the book:

Of course, the importance of quality in products and services was something that had been fully recognised long before Pirsig wrote his book. But what he said that had never been said before is not only that Quality, once attained, becomes a kind of Godhead, but also that it acquires a kind of life, and even life-energy, of its own.

This biography, A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the first ever biography of the charming lady, Sarah Vinke, who inspired Robert Pirsig to embark on his lifelong inspirational quest to understand Quality and to teach it to his students and, above all, to bring the concept of Quality to the understanding of his readers.

It really is no exaggeration to say that Sarah Vinke inspired some of the most exciting and influential thinking of the twentieth century. Today, as tens of thousands of new readers thrill every month to the ideas in Pirsig’s immortal book, the indirect influence of Sarah Vinke on these readers has never been greater.

But who exactly was Sarah Vinke and what were the origins of her thinking and her influence?

These questions are what this biography sets out to answer.

MORE ABOUT SARAH

A) A summary of Sarah’s life: (With thanks to Montana State University Library Archives.)

Sarah Jennings Vinke was born on April 28 1894 at Dallas Center in Iowa. She was the daughter of Elizabeth Adams Jennings and Jacob Jennings. Sarah earned her BA degree at Grinnell College in 1914 and gained her MA and PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 1921 and 1923 respectively.

Sarah taught Latin and History in High Schools in Iowa between 1916 and 1920. From 1921 to 1923 she was an assistant in Classics while she completed her education at the University of Wisconsin. She was an instructor in English at Montana State College (MSC) from 1923 to 1926. Between 1926 and 1927 she attended university in London and travelled in Europe. She then returned to the United States, where she was Assistant Professor at MSC from 1927 to 1932, when she left teaching to marry Doctor Louis Vinke, Professor of Animal Husbandry at MSC.

After the death of her husband in 1935, Sarah returned to teaching and became Associate Professor of English at Colorado State College. She returned to MSC in 1945 as Head of the English Department, but soon gave up administration, which she did not enjoy as much as she enjoyed teaching, to devote her full energy to her teaching career.

In 1962 she retired due to failing health.

Sarah was widely regarded at MSC as having been a vital force in extending the intellectual frontiers of students in the Humanities area. She was considered an inspired teacher, capable of developing within her students a passion for literature and for Greek mythology, especially in students who had limited educational backgrounds because of having been raised in isolated Montana communities. Her influence was widely known at the time and she became famous after Robert Pirsig mentioned her influence in his book Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance.

Sarah’s publications include Catullus, Stylistic Study published in the University of Wisconsin Studies in 1928, Self-Criticism in Speech in Western Speech 1949, and Books I’ve Enjoyed published in the Montana Library Association Quarterly 1960.

Sarah was one of those teachers whose own education never really ended. She took post-doctoral studies at Cornell University in 1929 and at the University of Chicago in 1936. In 1948, during a spell at Anatolia College in Greece, she taught extension classes in English and in 1949 she fulfilled a lifetime ambition to visit Istanbul. She returned to Greece and Turkey in 1951 and in 1954 and 1956 she toured Europe.

Sarah was a devoted member of the branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in the town of Bozeman in Montana. In 1927 she represented the Bozeman Branch at the International AAUW Meeting in Amsterdam. Later in her life, in 1954, she was a member of the National Committee for AAUW International Study Grants. In 1955 she went to Washington DC to help select foreign women students to receive grants, and in 1956 she was representative to the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) in Paris. Sarah was the first fellowship chairman of the Bozeman Branch of the AAUW and was a compelling force in broadening the intellectual horizons of Bozeman women who worked with her. In 1961, she was honored with a $500 grant in aid established in her name. Soon after her retirement she was offered an honorary doctorate by MSU, but she declined this honor because she could not travel to attend the ceremony due to poor health.

Sarah died on January 24, 1978, at a retirement home in Bradenton Florida, after suffering poor health for some years.

B) “The Sarah J. Vinke I Knew” – by Dennis Gary

C) “More of the Sarah J. Vinke I Knew” – by Dennis Gary

SVB METHODOLOGY

The overall aim of the biography is to set down in a chronological narrative all the information that is known about Sarah. There is still unquestionably information that can be found out and the authors will be talking to people who knew Sarah or knew people who knew her. The aim is to present as full a picture as feasible of this woman who had such an influence on Robert Pirsig and indeed on hundreds of other people who fell under her spell. In telling her story, the biography aims to be an important related publication to Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance and to complement Robert Pirsig’s own comments in that book.

The biography will also go into some detail about what Sarah meant by the notion of Quality and what Robert Pirsig meant by that idea. It is clear that the notion of Quality has become a fundamental and vital cultural element in not only the western world but also in other parts of the world. Of course there is a practical manifestation of Quality at an economic level where the passion for Quality is a passion which is ever more pronounced in economic life. But ultimately Robert Pirsig was talking about something additional to commercial quality. He was talking about a way of seeing life and a way of conducting one’s life and it is understandable that many people have seen in his passion for quality a way of understanding and illuminating their own lives. This role of Quality in culture and in thinking will be a significant part of this biography of the lady who, according to Pirsig, led him to see the importance of Quality and to spend much time thinking about it.

THE MARKET FOR SVB

The authors see there as being three main market sections for this biography of Sarah Vinke, A Woman of Quality.

The first, and possibly the most significant market sector, is what might be termed ‘Pirsig’s pilgrims’, that is the millions of people who have read and enjoyed Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance and are intrigued by wanting to know more about Sarah. In some ways it is strange that no attempt to write her biography has yet taken place and the authors feel strongly that this is an omission that must now be rectified.

The second area of the market is that of the historical biography of influential women. Sarah Vinke was unquestionably influential; indeed, those who see in Robert Pirsig’s philosophy one of the most important philosophical endeavours of the twentieth century, naturally believe, as do the authors, that Sarah is an especially influential and important figure. Her life as a well-educated and inspiring teacher who had an enormous effect on the lives of many people who knew her, makes her one of the most interesting women in the history of the United States.

The third market sector is that of philosophical publications. A Woman of Quality Sarah Vinke, 'The Divine Sarah', and the Quest for the Origin of Robert Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, in Book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is going to be to some extent a philosophical book which by implication raises and answers questions about how people can be inspired by the original thinking of a woman like Sarah Vinke and her influence on those around her.

THE AUTHORS OF SVB

James Essinger

James Essinger is a writer and historian who has been deeply interested in the lives of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace for many years. He began his writing career writing books about business and management. His first trade book was Jacquard’s Web (Oxford University Press, 2004), which tells the story of the relationship between the Jacquard silk-weaving loom and the modern computer. This book touches on the work of Charles Babbage and documents Babbage’s fascination with the Jacquard loom and the thinking the loom inspired in Babbage, who freely admits that he got the idea of using punched cards in his Analytical Engine from Jacquard’s use of them in his loom.

James’s next book next non-fiction trade book was A Female Genius – How Ada Lovelace Lord Byron’s Daughter Started the Computer Age (Gibson Square: 2013). This was also published, with about 5,000 words of new material added to it, in October 2014 by Melville House Press in the United States under the title Ada’s Algorithm: how Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace launched the digital age. This book is currently the subject of considerable interest as the basis for a feature film or a TV series. Spanish rights to the book have also been sold.

James is also developing an idea for a new biography, Machines of the Mind, of computer pioneer Charles Babbage.

Emeritus Professor Henry Gurr

Henry Gurr was born in 1937 and grew up on a farm in north central Ohio. Following in the steps of his educator father, at a young age he developed an interest in electronic, mechanical and construction projects. He dreamed of building a model of an atom, with its electrons whizzing in orbits around the central nucleus, that would welcome visitors to the Gurr farm.

Noting Henry's fascination for things mechanical, a family friend suggested that Henry apply to Cleveland's Case Institute of Technology (CIT, Now Case Western Reserve University). Dr. Gurr graduated from CIT, in 1959 with a B.S. in Engineering Science, concentrating in electronics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and instrumentation. Hobbies have included: Auto Repair & Maintenance of all our vehicles & farm tractor. Design & build, a 4000 lb. Six Passenger Two Wheeled Car, with successful public demonstrations.

Continuing his education at CIT, he received a PhD in nuclear physics in 1966. From data collected in in the East Rand Proprietary Gold Mine, Johannesburg, South Africa, Gurr’s PhD Dissertation (guided by Nobelist Dr. Frederick Reines), established that nuclear matter is highly resistant to disintegration, with a half- life exceeding the cube of the age of the universe. He continued with Fred Reines, in neutrino research, at one of the Savannah River Plant's nuclear reactors, near Aiken SC, establishing that the Interaction-Strength of the Neutrino Particle with the Electron Particle was in agreement with V-A Theory of Nobelist Richard Feynman. This effort took fifteen years to eliminate overwhelming problems with nuclear radiation background, especially stray neutrons from the reactor.

In 1975, Dr. Gurr accepted a position on the physics faculty of the University of South Carolina at Aiken, where he taught Sophomore Physics, until his retirement in 2002. His subsequent career at the University of South Carolina Aiken has been devoted to finding better, more satisfying ways for students to learn physics. To this end, my students were supplied with a vastly increased "hands-on real-world experiences" in their physics labs and lectures. This is in wholesale agreement with Robert Pirsig’s book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: (ZMM).

Professor Gurr’s interest in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", (ZMM) began with student’s handing him the book in 1985, and with eventual needed understanding, was used in support his physics teaching, ~1995-2002. ZMM Literary Study has continued with research into historical background of the book’s development & writing. Complimenting this is a Photo Documentation & Research Trip, completed in 2002: This investigation resulted in over 1800 photos (and GPS coordinates) taken along The ZMM Route, from Minneapolis to San Francisco. Gurr has always returned home, from his ZMM Research, greatly stimulated.

Dr. Gurr and his wife Suzanne are the parents of two daughters and a son. The Gurr’s live in Aiken, South Carolina in a passively heated and cooled solar home, designed and constructed (1980-1984), by Dr. Gurr.

SVB PROPOSED CHAPTER SUMMARIES

CHAPTER 1 – SARAH VINKE AND ROBERT PIRSIG

This first chapter looks at what Robert Pirsig wrote about Sarah in Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance and enlarges on his idea of Quality and how Sarah influenced him to regard this as a vitally important part of his own personal philosophy.

CHAPTER 2 – SARAH’S GIRLHOOD

This chapter looks at Sarah’s birth and her girlhood up to the age of about sixteen.

CHAPTER 3 – SARAH’S SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

This chapter details Sarah’s secondary education and her time at university and takes her story up to around the age of 40.

CHAPTER 4 – SARAH AND HER TIME AT MONTANA STATE COLLEGE.

This chapter looks at this phase of Sarah’s life and in particular at the time when she first met Robert Pirsig.

CHAPTER 5 – SARAH’S LIFE AFTER ROBERT PIRSIG

This chapter looks at the remainder of Sarah’s life and at her adventures and travels.

AbvCmpsd James Essinger & Henry Gurr 21March 2015
File = EssingerJames5000WordBiogProposal=A Woman of Quality - proposalHsg04

Links to Additional Reading Related to 1) Mrs Professor Sarah Vinke of the ZMM Book , 2) The Above Magazine Article, or 3) The Above Biography Book Proposal.

1a) Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960
1b) Further Photos of Faculty, Administrators, and Students at Montana State College: 1956-1960

2) Following the Footsteps of My Mentor, Professor Sarah Vinke: My Life as an English Teacher, and Other Memories

3) Dennis Gary’s Values in Thought and Action: My Standards at School and in My Career

4) Memories of Deer Creek Mountain Ranch (an MSC Faculty Outing)

5) Henry Gurr’s Montana State University Archives Page

6) Archives Commentary and Connections to Memories of Sarah Vinke, Louis Vinke, Allan Kittell, and Robert Pirsig

7) “Books I’ve Enjoyed” by Sarah Jennings Vinke, with added commentary by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr (Originally published, 1960, in the Montana Library Association Journal)

8) Commentary Regarding "Book I've Enjoyed" Sarah Jennings Vinke and Information About Viewing on the Internet by Dennis Gary and Henry Gurr

9) Pirsig Memory, “The Divine Sarah”

10) Vinke, Pirsig, and the Origins of “Quality” and MOQ

11) Shirley Luhrsen and Sarah Vinke: Letters to and from Bozeman

12) HomePage & WebSite: James Essinger Writer, Editor, Literary Agent And Public Relations Consultant.

13) Peter Voulkos's website Voulkos & Co.

14) “THREATS TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT MONTANA STATE COLLEGE” -- a monograph by Robert G. Dunbar.

15) Howard Dean, Nemesis to Robert Pirsig while Teaching in the MSC English Department

16) Pirsig, MSC, and Zen, a selection from In the People's Interest, A Centennial History of Montana State University

17) Interview with David Swingle, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, on Robert Pirsig, ZMM, MSC, and Bozeman, Montana

18) Interview with Kay Campeau, Bozeman, Montana, on Robert Pirsig, ZMM, MSC, and Bozeman, Montana

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And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good—
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"
Robert Pirsig in his “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”..
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ATTENTION: Do You Know Facts, Details, or Information About Professor Sarah Vinke?

Her Biography Urgently Needs Your: Information, Stories, Letters, or Knowledge About Her.

Please Send Email to ZMMQ Sitemaster Henry Gurr =>

Ideally we would like a trunk filled with Sarah Vinke's saved Letters and Mementos. But, since this is unlikely, we seek to track down ANY of her former possessions or evidence of her efforts, be they magazines, articles, scraps of paper, photos, wedding photos, or larger physical possessions, such as: oriental rugs, pianos, dishes, apartment locations, or even papers that are descriptive of such items, etc. Since any documents, or physical artifacts, are precious to their owners, we will seek merely copies, or photographs of these.

If you have materials to contribute Biography Author, Henry Gurr (see email below), will gladly pay contributors for their expenses, time, and effort. (Of course, for payment, suitable prior arrangements need to be mutually agreed upon first. Please contact me via email. HenryG__USCA.edu <= Please put the correct symbol, the @ sign, in the blank)

Please, Please, Contribute Your Knowledge of Professor Sarah Vinke.

Years are passing and it is urgent to do what we can to reach those few persons who are yet still living! ----- THEREFORE

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