The Wrangell sentinel., 1930-08-28
DR. OWEN LEAVING SOON
 FOR EVERGLADES, FLORIDA

pr. Robert Joseph Diven. minis ter of the Wrangell Presbyterian Church and missionary to Alaska since 1912, announced this week that he was compelled because of i'll health to seek sunshine in the south. Frequent and severe attacks of Influenza in recent years is the cause of his leaving, after nine and one-half years in the service at Wrangell. He has accepted an in- yitation to take charge of a church of the same denomination in the new town of Everglades, Florida.
 Dr. Diven is a Pennsylvanian by birth, a New Yorker by adoption, and a pioneer Alaskan missionary by inclination. A little incident per taining to his coming to Alaska is characteristic of the mans decision. For months the Home Mission Board had been casting about for a man to take charge of the mission work in Alaska It was while listening to such a plea from representative of the New York headquarters, preaching from pulpit in Portland, Ore, that Dr. Diven decided to en- ter this field. He scribbled on the back of an envelope: 'I will go to Alaska" and sent the message to the speaker. Within 30 days he was on his way north.
 Dr. Diven served in Petersburg, Sitka and Nenana before coming to Wrangell. It was in Nenana. during the construction of the Alaska Rail- road, that he found his proper ele- ment. Many foreigners, particular ly Slavonians, were engaged in the construction work and he organized a night school for their benefit.
 During his stay in Sitka Dr. Div en began to interest himself in short story writing. This interest con inued in a more or less desultory fashion throughout the years he spent in the interior, but his efforts did not gain full recognition until after he came to Wrangell.
 Members of the Chamber of Com merce here will recall his firm but sympathetic refusal to continue longer as the secretary of that or ganization, because he had work of a personal character that he felt he should do. This was his writing.
 St. Nicholas was the first publica- tion to accept his work and he con tinued to write for that publication until he finished his first book, "Rowdy." A second book followed, entitled " Tim Towser," and third is scheduled for spring publication. This is a father-and-son story with an interior Alaska background, a background which Dr. Diven knows and loves. The Century Company is getting out the book and it will be illustrated, as were his other books, by Charles Livingstone Bull.
 Influenza has not treated me very well during the past years, Dr. Diven said when interviewed by a representative of the Sentinel. 'T am not sick but feel that I need more sunshine than I am likely to get on the Alaska coast this winter. A fine minister and his family are ready to occupy the manse as soon as Mrs. Diven and I step out.
 Although I am going some dis tance away, just assure the people of Wrangell that they are all too yividly impressed upon my mind and heart to be forgotten. When return, in year or two as a tourist, I shall expect to be shown around a ride to the Shoemaker Bay Insti- ute; a picnic in the park, where l shall hope to make the coffee as usual, and then go out with some of my friends to rub noses with the bears at Anan. Mrs. Diven and will miss our delightful associations here more than any of the people can imagine"