The Gift Merritt Kimball shared with the World
By Felisa Legaspi
The story began entering the short hallway with lines on a world map indicating all the fascinating places that Merritt and Beverly Kimball traveled over their 64 years of marriage. Merritt then pointed out his art and artifacts from Nigeria, Bali, Malaysia, Italy, Philippines, and Pakistan. But, this is not a story entirely of their travels. It’s the story of the many countries where he taught. This is the story of Merritt Kimball and how he shared the gift of knowledge, around the world.
Lets start at the beginning. Back in 1945, Merritt was on active duty with the U.S. Army. He was given the choice of transferring to candidate school in Roswell NM or Stanford. Always wanting…show more content… There he taught for the US Navy. Merritt loved every minute of the 2 years they spent overlooking the Bay of Naples. Merritt was also proud that one of his physics student’s continued with his education and attended Harvard University. Later, Merritt was recruited by Harvard, where he completed his graduate work.
After a year in New Jersey teaching for a brand new school district, the Shell Company Merritt Grant, brought him back to Stanford University. Not far from Palo Alto, he spent 4 years teaching at Capuchino High School in San Bruno, and by 1967, he was asked to head the training program back at Harvard for the Professors of Physics. So once again, they packed up, and off they went.
It was not long before they realized they missed the exceitment of traveling to foreign countries and The Ford Foundation was the answer. They sent them to Columbia and then on to the Philippines where they spent 4 years, as an education authority. Merritt was now an advisor to the schools of the Philippines. There they met and adopted Niele. The family of two became a family of three. Soon Niele, attended Business School. But, when the Kimball’s were transferred to the University of Lagos in Nigeria, Niele went too. They loved Nigeria and often while Merritt was working, Beverly and Niece would explore everywhere. Once even sailing on a barge from Liberia to Sierra
