Blast from the past: Translations Verbatim in 1992

Last week of December 2024, I found an ancient Translations Verbatim newsletter. I’d been in business for three years when this circular went out in December 1992. November 2024 was the thirty-fifth anniversary of Translations Verbatim’s founding. This newsletter is thirty-two years old.

I’m reposting it here, because so many people mentioned on its pages are still in my life. Business friends became real friends, real-life friends became unwavering supporters. In a world that seems at times to be so impermanent, with technology changing a million miles a minute around us, it’s good to recall people who give our lives meaning.

Enjoy this moment of nostalgia. And in thirty more years, I hope some of you reading this are still in my life and work! It can happen.

Without further ado, here is Word of Mouth, published December 1992.

Word of Mouth, December 1992.

Great beginnings

The new year of 1993 begins with a profound sense of gratitude for past successes and anticipation of future joy. With the exchange of cards over the holidays came remembrances of people, places, and things that made 1992 an unforgettable year.

If we tried to list everyone who touched our lives, we would exceed the space limits of this newsletter before we were halfway done. We have attempted to express our gratitude to each of our valued customers throughout the past year.

Each Thank You uttered has been from the heart. It is incredibly rewarding to like both one’s job and customers too. We know we are lucky.

Great job!

Karthik Srinivasan of St. John’s School correctly translated a Latin document and won a Pizza Hut gift certificate for this work. Pat Ludtke of Southwestern Distributors, Inc. is currently tracing her family back through its long and unusual emigration to the United States and ran across a marriage certificate issued in Constantinople, Turkey for her Austrian ancestors who came to the US via Italy. We sent this marriage certificate to the Latin departments of seventeen high schools in the Houston area known to offer Latin, and Ms. Kathryn van der Pol of St. John's was the only teacher to respond to our request. We sincerely appreciate her cooperation, as well as Karthik’s excellent work.

The job for Mrs. Ludtke is part of our ongoing family, personal, and genealogical work (read our Finding Family essays!). While Translations Verbatim may be known for its excellence in financial, legal and technical translations, we are determined not to forget our roots. We believe that the most interesting history is usually found in dry, dusty photo albums, family Bibles, and “official documents.” If you are interested, please drop us a line!

Great Charcoal Chicken

Wolfgang Wahle of Advanced Nautical Products, Inc. won our November drawing. The winning job turned out to be the eighth translation for his company, a translation of installation instructions for the shaft seal of the German-made feathering propellers ANP sells.

Coopers and Lybrand was busy that day, so the drawing was held at the home of my neighbors, Tim and Gretchen. Their daughter Miss Jennifer, 5, drew the winning entry, while Jonathan, 6, and Bridget, 3, drew the runners-up (Jennifer Schultze of Fitz and Floyd, Inc. in Dallas, and Stacey Haefele of the Treuhandanstalt in New York, respectively). Actually, all the entries were eventually drawn, thanks to the enthusiasm of the judges.

[2024 note: Great Charcoal Chicken was sacrificed to the Interstate deities of Texas when I-10 was widened. Houston’s loss.]

A sporting chance

Despite the heartbreak of the recent Oilers’ loss to Buffalo (a moment of silence, please), 1992 was a decent sports year. At least for us TCU fans. TCU beat Texas, old news perhaps by now, but nonetheless, news that leaves us hapless Horned Frogs feeling good every time we hear those words.

There is particular joy here at Translations Verbatim over that win. Thirteen years ago, on August 15, 1979, Mr. Floyd Thatcher, then Vice President and Editorial Director of Word Books in Waco, Texas, promised Denise Heap a box of candy on the day that TCU beat Texas (original letter still on file). We are still waiting, Mr. Thatcher! – If you don’t know what a Horned Frog is:

The last time TCU beat Texas, it was 1967, Denise was in 7th grade at Spring Branch Junior High School taking her very first German class, and Brad Gilbert was one of her best friends. His brother, Chris Gilbert, was a running back at Texas, and had broken all the UT rushing records on the books that very year. Chris would go on to set the NCAA record as the only running back with three seasons of 1000+ yards rushing.

It took Earl Campbell to break his record.

This may have nothing to do with translations, but it has a lot to do with 1992’s being a terrific year! Photograph is of me interviewing Chris on March 8, 1969.

[2024 note: I never got that box of candy, Mr. Thatcher!]

New customers and new businesses

Translations Verbatim is pleased to be associated with two new businesses from the ground up. Mr. Mark S. Hall and Mr. Wayne P. Bunch, Jr. have formed the law firm of Hall + Bunch here in Houston (with a branch office in Dallas). They specialize in European law and transnational litigation & arbitration. And Ms. Michele Meyer has started Write Away, a wordsmith company created to assist corporations and individuals with writing and communication skills, as well as offering public relations and freelance writing.

Change the world (or a corner thereof)

The Fulbright Association in Washington, D.C. is currently sponsoring an East-West exchange to provide Western literature and information to Eastern European and CIS countries. If you or your company are interested in getting involved in this form of practical diplomacy, please contact [deleted contact information]. The Association requests donation of current books, journals, software and hardware, in addition to help with the publication of “homegrown” literature in an area where printing costs are prohibitive. Likewise, any individuals or groups who could sponsor academicians or researchers here in the US should also contact [X]. Dr. Irina Korykoba, University of Maryland visiting professor of history from Seransk University in Russia, has said that “we used to have misinformation, now we have no information.”

Dr. Clare Colquitt at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in former East Germany, along with her mother, TCU’s Prof. Betsy Colquitt and the TCU Department of English, are providing their colleagues in Jena with PMLA literature that is either duplicate or (by American standards) out of date. This sort of exchange costs our government (and therefore us taxpayers) nothing, yet yields returns beyond belief. We at Translations Verbatim, along with several of our subcontractors, are committed to this and other logical means of sharing our language skills – whether in Eastern Europe or East Houston – using words where money has little or no meaning.

Leaving out the section recommending Quicken for business and Prodigy for email… Didn’t age well.

Op.Ed.

Coming through the holidays, I couldn’t help but think about life and death. I enjoy the work we do so much, it is sometimes difficult to take those necessary moments to reflect on less practical, yet essential matters such as being-born and dying. But this year, a translation done for Howard Itz, tracing his grandfather’s line back to the 1100s with the constant repetition of “born…died…,” in itself provided the framework for a few contemplative hours. The sudden and unexpected deaths of Sterling Castle, husband of Susan Castle (Sweetwater Country Club), and retired pianist-piano teacher Keith Mixson (TCU in Fort Worth) colored the picture.

It is appropriate that the deaths of these two friends should give clarity to life. I reject “modern” existential dogma that says there is no sense to life, that encourages destructive lifestyles in order to “get it all now.” Prof. Mixson taught me the beauty of the space in which science, language, and music join to celebrate life. His kindness, hospitality, and wisdom influenced my perspective, and my perspective in turn touches others. Thus, life becomes more than physical birth; it also breathes with purpose and energy on a level that does not end when “death” is recorded in official records.

Gearing up for a new year of translating financial statements, legal documents, and technical dissertations, these thoughts will likely get lost in the shuffle. But then again, maybe not. In 1977, Dr. Albrecht Weber of the University of Augsburg invited American students and professors over for a real Thanksgiving meal, even sourcing an authentic Butterball turkey. Because when he and his family were in America on an exchange program, colleagues included him in holiday celebrations, and he never forgot just how much it meant.

“We’re the best in so many words.”

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Image credits: Top image--Houston Chronicle business section, December 28, 1992. Image is public domain. Second photograph--Denise Heap interviewing Chris Gilbert, March 8, 1969. Photo © 1969 John Heap. Please contact me for permission to use.

Bottom image: How I feel when working on genealogy or history projects. There's a light, but the path isn't straight and we cannot see very far ahead. Shopify image, public domain for platform users.

No part of this post may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the copyright holder, except for the “fair use” of quotations that are properly cited and credited, including identification of the translator if applicable. No part of this post may be included in any Large Language Model without proper licensing from the copyright holder, Denise Elaine Heap.