This book is divided in two parts. The first, by far the larger, is a recording of events in the history of the Sherwood family, whose origins lie in the marriage of Frank P. Sherwood and Frances Howell on February 14, 1948. As might be anticipated, the first story is about a very happy honeymoon in San Francisco. The last story in Part One relates an experience of the family that grew out of the 1948 marriage, now numbering 11 people. They helped Frank and Frances celebrate their 50th anniversary with a weeks outing in Devon, England. In between these two quite delightful events, there were less welcome occasions when things did not go so well. The pets in the family, the experience with smoking, and the family finances also are subjects found in these chronicles. Part Two reverts to an earlier period before Frank was married, and it is essentially concerned with famous people he encountered as a young man. There are brief reports on President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the baseball star Ted Williams, and famed screen actress Ingrid Bergman, all of whom Frank met before his marriage in1948.
Thomas Sherwood (1586-1655) and his wife Alice and their family emigrated from England in 1634 and settled in Massachusetts. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in Connecticut, New York and California.
The title and subtitle say a great deal about the character of this book. These are stories about people who inevitably stand out in a crowd for their personal attributes, their ethical standards, the ways in which they have coped with great problems, and their remarkable achievements. Significantly, fourteen of the sixteen stories in this book are about people who have in some way contributed to better government. Several have worked directly in government, others have been teachers, and still others have found ways to make contributions. Not all the stories are about people in the U.S. The two stories from Brazil involve people who stayed at home and did their good work there; in the other two instances, already blossoming careers at home were ended by extreme governmental changes. In all cases, however, these are people who must be admired for their extreme dedication to the highest ideals of service. In effect, this book can be considered a primer on government that works. The two whose stories did not directly concern government contributed mightily to a better society. One was a highly productive author, who, in later years concentrated on children's books and wrote more than 50 of them. The other pioneered a wholly different journalistic undertaking, the city-regional magazine. Today these publications are found throughout the country and are distinguished by their design quality and their commitment to the communities they serve.
The counties of Florida play a special role because of the settlement patterns of the state. Nearly half the population lives outside a city, and many others reside in a small municipality. For many citizens the local government they know and on which they depend is one of 67 counties. These units cover every inch of Florida and so every citizen is a county resident. The quality of life, then, depends very much on the functioning of these counties. They must be organized, managed, and financed so as to provide a huge variety of services to a society that is heavily urbanized. This book seeks to make the reader well aware of these obligations, and it introduces a companion principle, home rule. The counties must have the operating freedom and the resources to meet their responsibilities, and that flexibility must be provided by higher levels of government, particularly the State. The finances of counties, as well as other local governments, were being publicly debated in 2007-2008. Two chapters of this book provide important perspectives on the issues involved.
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