376
L.
WOIWODE
It's not all histrionics, as you seem to think.
It
actually is that bad.
You can blame that on my childness maybe - I do - but that
still doesn't help matters. I need to be alone for a few days so I've
gone to the cabin. Then I think Europe for a while and then we'll
see. It has to be Europe. Being apart and still being this close just
doesn't work, as I've so aptly demonstrated. There's one thing I
want you to think over.
If
it's to be Europe, can Owen come with
me? No, please, before you say no, think, think about it, think about
what I've said. Please.
It cleared up little, if any, of the mystery, and there the mystery
stayed. Three days later Owen's father was dead. His mother would
not allow Owen to attend the funeral, there were no relatives on
either side to console him or explain, and he really didn't find out
the details of the death, other than its cause, until he entered college
and learned that back issues of newspapers were recorded on micro–
film. He copied down an article which he still had with him.
AREA TEACHER FOUND DEAD IN LAKE GENEVA CABIN
Dr. Eugene T . Bierdeman, associate professor of history at the
University of Chicago, was found dead about 11: 00 A.M. today
in his summer cabin at Lake Geneva in Walworth County, Wiscon–
sin, apparently the victim of carbon monoxide fumes from an oil
heater, according to Walworth County sheriff's office.
Dr. Bierdeman was 39 and resided on Bonnie Brae Lane in
Clarendon Hills. He has been an instructor for seven years at the
University of Chicago, the institution from which he obtained his
doctorate in 1941. His area of specialty was the 15th Century.
His immediate superior, Dr. Warren Schilling, said today to
reporters, "Weare shocked and grieved to learn of this tragedy.
Mr. Bierdeman was not only an exemplary teacher but a friend to
us all. He was emulated by his colleagues and loved by his students."
'Discovery of the body was made by Chief Deputy Wayne Bur–
nett of the .Walworth County sheriff's office, who went to the cabin
at the request of Bierdeman's wife to find out why Bierdeman had
not returned home or appeared to teach his classes this morning.
According to Chief Deputy Burnett, the oil heater had not been
functioning properly, he learned from Mrs. Bierdeman, and Bier–
deman had specifically made the trip to the 3 room cabin
in
Linn
Township to repair it over the weekend. Burnett said that the stack
of the vent pipe was not tall enough to permit proper venting.
Bierdeman had removed the stack, apparently to add to it two
additional sections of pipe that were found in the vicinity, but had
proceeded no further, possibly because of the approach of dark–
ness, speculated Burnett. Burnett said that Bierdeman apparently
assumed that it would now be safe to. operate the burner.
'But Burnett said that the vent pipe from the heater itself let
