Evening star., 1955-07-03
By JAMES WALDO FAWCETT|


lector, has done 1t again. This
time he has bought and used
q ticket for Pan American
Airways' 50.000th flight across
the Atlantic. He made his
tory when he prepared eight
years in advance for BEING o
paying passenger on the first
commercial crossing from
Europe to America by air In
1899. The ticket and other
souvenirs Of his premier
: transoceanic fight now are
treasured possessions Of the
Smithsonian Institution, and
similar relics OF Mr.. Eck's most
recent excursion will be added
to them.
It is part Of his achievement
as q professional voyager that
he documents his travels thor
oughly and carefully. Each Of
the trips completed by Mr..
Eek results in q book Of a
single copy-a systematic
bringing together of all the
papers, diary notes, literary i'm
pressions. photographs. draw
ings, newspaper clippings.
coins, currency and - Of
course-stamps collected in
relation to it. These volumes
eventually may be conveyed to
the Smithsonian, but the Ma
tional Geographic Society
likewise is interested in ac-
quiring them.
Meanwhile, Mr.. Eek. nearly
80 years old, is planning new
expeditions. He and his wife,
the former Emily M. Kleb, in
tend to sail from San Fran
cisco on a Norwegian freighter
for Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, New
Guinea, ETC., next January.
They circumnavigated tn e
globe between February 5 and
June 4 this year in Isthmian
cargo ships. the IS. Steel
Director and SIS. Steel De-
signer.
Mr.. Eek thus far has been
around the world five times,
Mrs. Eek four. They share
innumerable memories of
strange places visited and Curl
Gus adventures encountered.
One Of these involves their re-
cent visit to the Tai Mahal at
Agra in India to which they
fiew from Bombay. Another
concerns their pilgrimage to
Baalbek in Lebanon. They
were In four of the Hawaiian
Islands on their way home and
walked over still-hot lava
where q volcano was in full
eruption during their visit.
Born at Pleasant Plain,
Iowa. July 10. 1876, Mr.. Eek
was a philatelist before he
travelled beyond the borders
Of his native State. He was
educated at Iowa State Col
1ege at Ames and spent a
portion Of his youth as a tele-
phone engineer in Chicago
and at Trinidad, Colo. Later
he specialized in the science Of
railway signaling and wrote
technical articles on that
phase Of transportation. He
was in the 1st Colorado Vol
unteers in the Spanish-Amer-
lean War and then spent
three years in the United
States Army transport service
before becoming a captain in
the engineers in World War I
assigned to expediting stfa-
tegic shipments.
1t was while acting as as
sistant to the operating vice
president Of the Southern
Railway System with head
quarters in Washington that
Mr.. Eek first decided to be a
quasi-professional world trav-
eler. He visited every State in
the Union ION business" CO.
incidentally watching the de-
velopment of aeronautics. Fiji
teen times he crossed the Pa
cific by boat, twice he sailed
the Arctic seas, once he went
to Australia and New Zealand
and once he voyaged around
South America through the
Straits Of Magellan.
In 1885 he flew from Cairo
to Capetown and later, with
his wife. did 10000 miles
through the interior of Africa
in an automobile. Alone, ne
was a passenger in the first
Danish plane to hop from Los
Angeles to Copenhagen over
the North Pole, November II,
1854.
The total number of miles
negotiated by Mr.. Eek as a
paying traveller. he believes,
approximates 100000. All his
trips are bracketed with stamp
collecting. He visits stamp ex-
hibitions, shops and stores
wherever possible. On his most
recent excursion he flew in a
PAA plane from New York to
Paris on a ticket showing the
indicia Of PAA's 50.000th fight.
He returned to his home, 705
Thirty-flrst street. Arlington.
Va, by way Of London and
Shannon yesterday.
Mr.. Eek declares: "The
beauty and the wonder Of this
world are within the reach of
everybody who is willing to
SNlAn ovnd caua ~ f,.o o,,al i,xfaIIi