That's Gene West

Clergyman, mus1C1an, teacher and world traveler- that's Dr. Thomas Eugene West, '27.

He returned January 18 from his latest journey, a World Mission tour with 25 other American Baptists. The two month tour began on December 2, when the travelers left New York for East Berlin, making the trip by jet on the same day.

They attended Moscow Central Baptist Church on December 8, and reached New Delhi , India the next day. Before Dr. West reached Winthrop Mass. and home base, he also had visited Cakutta , Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo, and Honolulu .

But this dedicated man -is even more than a world traveler, musician, clergyman and teacher. He's also been a physical fitness devotee and a cook of some note. During World War II he was chaplain for the 442nd Combat Team of the famed JapaneseAmerican "Go for Broke" unit in Italy.

Dr. West's new pastorate is at First Baptist Church in Winthrop , Mass.

He took on this assignment after he received the degree of Master of Music from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music and the Arts in Italy. Along with the degree he received a citation of Doctor of Cultural Arts from the conservatory, where he has studied intermittently since 193 7.

As a clergyman, the Surry County, Va., native has held pastorates in Front Royal and Charlottesville in Virginia, Williamsburg in Kentucky, Marion, N.C., the Dudley Street Church in Boston and Grace Baptist Church in Somerville, Mass. While in Williamsburg he was president of the Kentucky State Baptist Assembly for two years. He also spent one year as visiting pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rangoon , Burma.

As a musician, he has written carols, hymns, poems, pageants and religious dramas and has served on the executive committee of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Dr. West's work as a church soloist and in light concerts helped pay his college and seminary expenses. He took his first piano lesson in 1910 and has since studied in Richmond, Louisville, Cincinnati, New York, Boston, London, Milano , Rome and Firenze.

As a teacher, he has served such institutions as Randolph-Ma con College (public speaking, freshman English and glee club director), Cumberland College in Kentucky (Bible, voice and piano), the University of

Shanghai in China ( sociology and psychology), and Judson College in Burma (Bible and music).

As a world traveler, he has visited 52 countries. These visits have enabled him to work with people of every race and to study the influences all major religions of the world have on people.

Italy is one of his favorite foreign countries. There he studied music over the years and there he served with the JapaneseAmerican Nisei combat team in World War II.

Dr. West has a special pride in these men. Although they suffered heavily, they never gave up an inch of ground, they never had a case of AWOL and they won many combat decorations.

Once at his Boston church he was telling about the Nisei troops and ended his comments with the statement that not one had ever gone AWOL.

One of his listeners told Dr. West he was wrong "about that AWOL business," and that he was in a position to know. "Well," Dr. West said with his customary mildness, "I am always willing to be enlightened ."

The listener then replied , "One of your men was in the hospital with me. He had been wounded. He went AWOL from the hospital to get back to his outfit in the front lines."

Dr. West has long been an advocate of physical fitness. A favorite activity is a long walk in the morning. And unless the weather is too severe, he's likely to be found taking a swim during his leisure time.

The world travels stimulated his interest in cooking. His specialties today are foreign dishes.

Dr. West has been married twice. His fi7st died wife, Miss shortly afte Alma Clayton of Ashland, r their marriage in 1933. In 1948, he married the former Gene Newton We~thampton, '34, of Richmond, who wa~ then on the staff of the Baptist Foreign Mission Board. Since the Wests moved to Winthrop, she has continued to serve as secretary to the executive secretary of the Massachusetts Baptist State Convention.

Thomas Eugene West, in the pulpit, and on the roof of the playground he directed for five years when he was pastor of Boston's Dudley Street Baptist Church.