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3.    "WING OF EXPECTATION" BOOKED FOR FORD THEATRE

      A committee to seek financial support to send a University
opera company to Washington has been formed under the leadership
of Joseph Graves Jr., Lexington businessman, and Mrs. Lucile
Blazer, board member. The opera, "Wing of Expectation," authored
by Dr. Kenneth Wright of the music department, will be presented
May 14-15 in historic Ford Theatre in Washington and in Lexington
May 10 at Guignol Theatre. The opera is based on the tragic life
story of Mary Todd Lincoln. The cast will include students,
faculty, and members of the community, plus three professional
singers from New York appearing in the lead roles of President
Lincoln, his law partner Billy Herndon, and Mary Todd.

      Mr. Graves said the University will recognize as patrons
those persons who provide significant financial support. Names of
the patrons will be published in the opera programs in both Washing-
ton and Lexington. Arrangements for the Washington performance, in-
cluding tickets, are being handled by the Kentucky Society in the
capitol city. Co-chairmen of the Washington committee are Lewis A.
Moss and Ralph E. Becker. Mr. Graves and Mrs. Blazer said the
following have agreed to serve on the committee: Mrs. Courtney
Ellis, Mrs. Joseph H. Murphy Jr., Mrs. Floyd Wright, Mrs. Burton
Milward, Mrs. Roy B. White Jr., Mrs. Paul Little and Dr. Thornton
Scott, all of Lexington; Mrs. Richard Cooper, Somerset; Edward T.
Breathitt, Hopkinsville; Mrs. Harry A. Hamilton, Corbin, and Mrs.
N. N. Nicholas, Owensboro. Honorary members are: Mrs. Louie B.
Nunn, Frankfort; Mrs. Otis A. Singletary, Dr. Holman Hamilton, Mr.
William Hull, Dr. A. D. Kirwan, Lexington; Bruce Peyton, and Gale
Price, two student members. Dr. Hugh Henderson, director of the
School of Fine Arts, said "the University accepted the Washington
invitation because it offers a unique opportunity for the University
and the Commonwealth to attain national recognition of our rich
Lincoln heritage and cultural enterprise. The theatre and music
departments already are at work on arrangements." Dr. Raymond Smith
will direct the production and Miss Phyllis Jenness will direct the
vocals.



4.    DR. BIRKEBAK STUDYING THE ALBATROSS

      The albatross which Samuel Coleridge made famous in his "Rime
of the Ancient Mariner" will get the full attention of University
engineer-scientist Dr. Richard Birkebak, who is completing work for
NASA on the moon rocks. Dr. Birkebak recently spent two weeks on
Midway Island in the Pacific, studying the flight and behavior of
the Laysan albatross under a National Science Foundation grant, en-
titled "a collaborative study of the albatross flight and bioenergetics."
The albatross is known to American servicemen who served in the Pacific
as the "gooney bird."

      Dr. Birkebak holds two other NSL grants, one to study the physi-
cal properties of frost and snow and the other an equipment grant
using a computer control data acquisition system to save time in
engineering studies. While the albatross study is not for NASA, it
is Dr. Birkebak's understanding that other people in the space pro-
gram are interested in the navigational capabilities of the albatross.