Evening star., 1938-05-23
U.S.. Employe Works SO Years
Without Hour of Sick Ledue
Req. Arthur p. Buck of
Land Office to Retire
Nest Week at 20.
By PHILIP H. LOVE.

Df h Ao
Thirty-six years in the Government
service without even so much as an
hours. sick leave!
That is the record established by
chief of the Division of Accounts and
RECEIVER of Public Moneys Of the
General Land Office, Department Of
the Interior, and pastor of the Chris
tian Church Of Cheverly, Md.
"But I wasn't always so healthy,
Mr.. Buck admitted today. II had
the general run of childhood illnesses
measles, mumps, chicken-pox and
whooping cough-and, as a young
man, I was so sickly that my folks
didn't think could stand the trade
I'd chosen. I was a wheelwright then
building and repairing buggies,
wagons and the like, you know-and
it was hard work.
Il stopped being sick. however, when
I changed my philosophy of life" he
added; when I realized that man has
spiritual quality that transcends the
physical-that, as st. Paul said, In
Him we live and move and have our
being"
His most serious illness wasn't an
illness at all--it was the result of
an accident" MIR. Bucks wife inter-
posed. "He was only IA at the time,
and shotgun exploded in his hands
1t injured his left hand so severely
that the arm had to be amputed be-
low The elbow.
HE was learning wheelwrighting,
working for his father, and everybody
thought he'd have to take up some
thing else. But it hasn't hindered
him to any noticeable extent"
To Be 70 Next Sunday.
Records on file in the General Land
Office show Mr.. Buck went to work
as a clerk in the accounts division on
June l. 1902, at the age of "a. He
will celebrate his 10th birthday ami
versary next Sunday-"by preaching
my usual sermon" he said-and will
retire from the Federal service two
days later.
Born on farm in Ashtabula Coun-
ty, Ohio, and reared on another in
Pawnee County, Kans., Mr.. Buck spent
his early manhood in what is now
Major County, Okla.-also on farm.
That was Indian Territory then
the Cherokee strip-and my wife and
I were homesteaders," he explained.
Mr.. Buck came to Washington the
day before he went to work for the
Government, having taken a Civil
Service examination in Oklahoma.
For the last "a years he and his fam
lily have lived in Cheverly-on "a cou-
pie Of acres of land" at Harmon ave-
nue. and Prewitt street, on which they
raise flowers, vegetables and fruit.
With the Bucks at present are their
widowed daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Ryan,
and her daughter, vinette, 13, and
their son, Robert, a Department of
Agriculture employe. Another son
and daughter-Delno, a steamfitter,
with son, II, and Mrs. Mura Shaw,
who has three children-live near by.
Still another son Aruna is q mem
Der Of the Military Academy Band
at West Point, N. Y.
In Present Job Is Years.
Mr.. Buck has held his present
position for about Is years. As re-
ceiver of public moneys he has COL
lected from $4,000, 900 to $4,000. 900 q
year for sales and rentals Of public
lands-mostly oil leases-yet. he has
never been required to post more than
$1,000 bond. During the last year.
it was said at the General Land Of
fice, his receipts totaled nearly $7,000.-
600.
About seven years ago, Mr.. Buck
said, members of the church of which
he is now pastor got tired of having
q minister one week and not having
one the next" He volunteered to act
as minister temporarily-and after
two years was asked to take over the
position on a permanent basis. Since
his ordination, five years ago, he has
preached to the 43 members Of his
congregation every Sunday morning.
HE prepares his sermons right here
In the ONCE" said . fellow employe