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02/17/2005
A long journey back to her roots
Marilyn Dodgen
After living
21 of her adult years in Australia, Carolyn Saul has returned to her
roots in Humboldt County. She is the daughter of the late Lytton
Saul, who died in 1999, and his wife, Feriba, who died in 2003. They
were owners of Saul Studio (of photography) in downtown Humboldt
that was started by his father, Peter Frank Saul, in 1887.
When Carolyn left Humboldt to further her education, she studied
four years and graduated from Iowa State College in Ames (now Iowa
State University).
She taught in Hawaii at the Kamehmeha School. This was a school for
children of Hawaiian descent, established by Princess Puahi Bishop,
daughter of the last Hawaiian king.
Her next teaching job was in San Francisco. She met and married an
Australian, Bruce Logan, who was also a teacher. They went to Peru,
in South America, to teach in a staff school for a mining company.
They were there 15 years, and during that time, their son, Alan, was
born.
When a political coup in the government of Peru closed down the
mining company, they moved to Perth, in Western Australia. There
Carolyn re-trained as a librarian and worked in the public libraries
of Perth for two years. She then became employed by the Western
Australian Education Department, in one of their head office
libraries.
The library served as a resource for teachers in schools, as well as
artists and writers in the Education Department publishing arm. Her
last position with the department was in publishing, as an editor.
In 1991, she left the department to work as a freelance writer,
editor and teacher. She also earned her Master's degree at the
University of Western Australia.
Her first book, "The Power of the Rellard," a fantasy for middle
school children, was published in 1984. It was granted the Angus &
Robertson Writer For The Young Award. A novel, set in Peru, "The
Huaco of the Golden God," was published two years later, followed by
a sequel to Rellard, titled "Secrets of The Way."
In 1995, "River Child," a historical novel for adults set in the
Swan River Colony in 1839, was published. Her four novels have been
translated into Danish, Flemish, Dutch, and Italian.
In addition to novels, Carolyn has had 50 short stories published
for adults and children, as well as poetry and magazine articles.
She has also written and had produced two radio dramas for the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as several stage plays.
The play "Breast Stroke" has been produced for stage twice, in 1994
and again in 2003, and was adapted as a radio drama for ABC. It is a
play on the subject of women's breast augmentation, depicting two
women, one who has had breast cancer, and the other, who had the
procedure done for cosmetic enhancement.
The play was written as a group effort, with Carolyn and the actors
and director working together. In spite of it being a taboo subject
at the time, it was produced and it was nominated for the best play
of the year award in Western Australia.
Carolyn made several trips home to Humboldt during her years in
Australia. On one of those trips, she gave a program at the Humboldt
Public Library, telling her audience what was entailed in getting a
book published.
She has received many awards over the years, and one alumni award,
the Christian Petersen Design Award, came from her alma mater at
Ames, while she was still living and working in Australia. They
presented her with a bronze bust of Petersen, a noted sculptor who
was in residence on campus when she attended the school there, as
part of their award.
She works from her home, today, as an editor for a major textbook
publisher in Austin, TX, and New York City, NY. She is a language
editor producing text on-line books. She has her home office and
keeps regular working hours.
Carolyn's son, Alan Logan, lives back in Australia with his wife,
Sharon, and their four-year-old son, Cade, and one and one-half-year
old daughter, Tara. He is in banking.
In 1996, she met John Rucks, a widower, who introduced her to
sailing. On their first time out to sea, they were only 30 miles off
the coast, but both of them were sea sick due to rough water. She
eventually learned to enjoy sailing and that was good, because John
had spent a good portion of his life sailing.
He was born in a suburb of Perth in 1934, and attended Christ Church
grammar school. On the college level, he studied agriculture and
earned a teaching degree. He then taught biology to 16 and
17-year-olds for two years.
He then returned to the University of Australia and became the
senior science master at an Anglican girls college. He was the only
man on staff, where he taught physics and chemistry to students who
were failing their exams prior to entering university. It was his
job to turn this around, and he was successful in his mission.
He also became secretary of the Science Teacher's Association.
At age 29, he joined the Royal Australian Navy as instructor and
sailing master. He had a wife and two children, with a third one on
the way. He became Sailing Master of each depot where he was
stationed. He helped train sailors, including chiefs and petty
officers, on how to handle tug boats and also how to run a 50-foot
ship. John had lived on the water from the time he was a
10-years-old, when he built his first sailboat and fished from the
Swan River.
The pay was not good and he had a growing family to support, so he
left the Navy and moved everyone to a hog farm in Adelide, South
Australia, where he taught at Putney Grammar School, an Anglican
school where one of his sons also attended classes. They walked down
the hill together from the hog farm to the school.
A move back to Western Australia brought him to a job with the
Education Department, where he taught special science classes to
mentally challenged youngsters from dysfunctional families. Among
many trying situations, he had a student threaten him with a knife
at that school.
While in Western Australia, he became Emergency Service
Coordinator, a 40-hour a week volunteer job dealing with instructing
citizens in how to deal with emergencies, that included invasion or
nuclear attacks. The shire, which is comparable to our counties, had
a population of 60,000 people. He received the Citizen of the Year
Award, a prestigious honor, for his many hours of dedication to his
job as coordinator.
As he gathered more qualifications, he went on to teach physics,
chemistry and computing at the secondary level, ending up lecturing
in computer programming at Cowan University. After 15 years, he left
the educational field and went back to sailing.
During these years he owned five ocean-going yachts and sundry power
boats (usually referred to as 'stink' boats).
This venture took him and his wife on an eight-month voyage through
the Indian Ocean to the Seychelles Island, off the east coast of
Africa. He had his own 34-foot sloop, Jenica, a steel sloop with one
mast and no navigational equipment, which was a little small for
ocean voyages.
The Jenica had no refrigeration and no automatic navigational
equipment (only the sun and the stars). He steered with charts, a
compass and a sextant, and had to tie himself to the rail with his
belt to steady himself to use the sextant. He said he would set his
clock from the BBC reading and then get a reading and go below to
figure out where they were.
In 2000 miles, they saw only four vessels. It helped that he had
taught navigation while in the Navy and he had the North Star to
guide them only in the Northern Hemisphere.
They crossed over to SriLanka (formerly Ceylon) and bought tea;
Phuket and Indonesia; ran into a hurricane, taking shelter in an
atoll; passed Thailand; had to bribe a captain whose signature he
needed; met a top minister in India, where there was political
unrest between rebels and the government; and swam in shark-infested
water.
The recent, tragic tsunami event that took so many lives the day
after Christmas 2004, brought back memories of that trip around the
area and the people who suffered such devastation.
He said that regardless of many tense events along the way, they did
manage to arrive at the ports they were supposed to be heading
towards, and did make it home to Australia. After 50 years of
sailing, he was quite happy to give it up (no more sea sickness).
John and Carolyn came to the USA for a visit in 1997 and stayed. He
managed an RV Park in Austin, TX, and while there, became a U.S.
citizen. While living in Austin, he started a small pottery. In
Australia John had developed his interest in pottery and learned all
he could about a unique pottery called Agateware.
It is a pottery with a brilliant mixture of colors that result from
the blending of different colored clays and integrating those colors
into the green-ware at the potter's wheel. This is different from
applying colored glazes to the surface of pottery. This technique
originated in England or Japan, and, so far, John has not found any
other potters in the USA who use the agateware process.
This could be because agateware pots have a tendency to emerge from
the kiln with cracks. He says he still seems to lose the
best-looking pot to cracks in the firing process.
His training in pottery was acquired through the University of
Adelaide and Cowan University, both in Australia. He also had early
exposure to pottery making as a youngster, when his mother developed
an interest in it. It also helps that Carolyn, at one time, worked
with pottery and has an interest in his work.
From 1995, when he first learned about agateware, to 1996, when he
purchased his first wheel and kiln, he has continued to perfect his
technique, and every piece is a challenge. He has improved his use
of different clays, especially porcelain clay, which is more
difficult to handle. While living in Texas, he converted a hot-house
into a pottery shed and was able to have his kiln sitting outside.
This is something he cannot do in Iowa.
The pieces he makes now are not only decorative, but are also
useful. He makes several styles of microwave cooking pots and enjoys
using them in his own kitchen. His rice pot is especially unique and
practically foolproof when cooking rice in the microwave.
So far John has shown his agateware locally at a craft show at the
fairgrounds, and his pieces were on display for a month at the
Humboldt Public Library. He has a display of several of his pieces
at The Cottage, in downtown Humboldt. He also has his work displayed
on the lower level of their home, which overlooks the road to Gotch
Park and the south portion of Humboldt, from the hillside in Dakota
City.
Both he and Carolyn attend the Faith United Methodist Church. John
is getting acquainted with his new surroundings and enjoys visiting
with people. John has a quiet sense of humor and has said that he
has retired here to die and has already purchased his shroud. He
bought a fine black suit from Gary's Mens Wear in downtown Humboldt.
Dakota City and Humboldt are sure to benefit from their choice to
return here.
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