Eugene Harold Kone papers

Kone, Eugene H.

Public relations consultant in science and education; bus. and res., 280 Knollwood Drive, New Haven, Conn. 06515; m. Estelle L. Alpert, 3/25/38; children: Allen Jay, b. 10/24/42; Carolyn Willa, b. 3/16/50 (both in New Haven).

Director and associate director, Yale University News Bureau, 1941-51, except for Naval service in World War II; active duty from July 1943 to Jan. 1946 with final rank of Lt., U.S.N.R. and assignment as communications officer aboard USS Wisconsin, a battleship attached to 3rd and 5th fleets; awarded five battle stars for Pacific operations; vice-president, Martin Wright & Associates (public relations), North Guilford, Conn., 1951-56; owner of own consulting business since 1956; also director of public relations, Am. Inst. of Physics; public relations consultant, The Rockefeller Institute; coordinator of public relations, Southern Conn. State College; former board member, New Haven Family Service and Conn. Society for Mental Health; former secretary of Conn. Valley chapter, Public Relations Soc. Of America (now member, N.Y. Chapter); former member of executives committee, National Assn. of Science Writers; also member, Am. Assn. for the Advancement of Science and accredited, Am. College Public Relations Assn.; author: Yale Men Who Died in the Second World War (Yale University Press, 1951) and articles in Parents' Magazine, Coronet, American Mercury, Think Magazine, Yale Alumni Magazine and Physics Today; received Silver Anvil Award, Public Relations Soc. Of America, on behalf of Am. Inst. of Physics for seminars for science writers.

Gene's wife, who received her B.A. at the University of Connecticut in 1937, works with him in public relations, acts as asst. director of public relations for Southern Connecticut State College and in other public relations capacities. She is also collaborating with him on a biography of Leo Szilard, scientist, to be published by G.P. Putnam's Sons. A former social worker she is past president and board member of the New Haven Board of Welfare, a former board member of the New Haven Community Council, a board member of the New Haven Family Service, and a member of the budget committee of the New Haven Family Service, and a member of the budget committee of United Fund of Greater New Haven. Their son, Alley Jay, now in the Class of '66 at Yale where he is majoring in history, was an AIESEC trainee in Dublin in the summer of 1955 and has been an asst. scoutmaster in New Haven, and has worked in the officer of Senator Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania, and in the Second National Bank in New Haven. Carolyn Willa, a sophomore at Day Prospect Hill School in New Haven, is on the editorial board of the school newspaper, an honor student, and interested in dramatics. Gene's relaxation comes through travel, occasional golf, reading, and writing.

He writes, "Dear Yalies: With a career in writing and public relations which started at Yale, a son at Yale, and a brother on its staff, I feel as though I have never left the stimulating and rewarding atmosphere of the university. If anything, I would like to pay tribute to William C. DeVane, the gentle scholar, the man of wisdom, who meant so much to me personally, and to my wife, who worked while I struggled through college and has never ceased to be my inspiration, and to my two children who have never ceased to mystify, delight and confuse as well as amuse us. If I have made any small contribution, it has been to aid the public understanding of science. I feel privileged to be a liberal arts man loose in the scientific world, helping to report advances in our 20th century technological civilization and acting as a bridge between the man in the laboratory and the citizen whose life is so affected by science."