SARASOTA, FL, October 29, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Dana Darwin Mallett Hummel with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Hummel celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Summary: Ms. Hummel is a retired research librarian and information technology specialist having a diverse career with the military, U.S. Embassies and Washington D.C. 'Think Tanks'. Fluent in Spanish, she helped abused women who had escaped deplorable conditions from embassies in Washington D.C. For her work in that area she received an Outstanding Women of Fairfax, Virginia award. She assisted her husband who was the U.S. Embassy Military Attaché in several Hispanic countries. She was a member and distinguished president of the Fairfax County Public Library Board. Four large libraries were built under her leadership. She was active politically and served as a delegate to a Virginia State convention. She was a leading fund raiser for two U.S. universities. She taught Spanish at high schools and English as a second language. She was a Soccer Mom before the term was invented. In her retirement, over a 14-year period she was a board member and ten-year president of her condominium association. Athletically active from youth she mastered horsemanship, rock climbing, mountain climbing and taught skiing in Aspen, Colorado. In retirement she won a two-day women's golf tournament. She is an excellent cook and has won many awards for her needlework including a sweepstakes ribbon at a Sarasota, Florida major arts festival.
Dana Harriet Darwin was born in Oklahoma on May 4, 1935. She later moved to Colorado with her family, where she graduated from East Denver High School in 1953. There, she was awarded the school's highest academic award, the Virgil Medal for Latin. She chose to take her College Boards (College Entrance Examination Board [CEEB]) for Smith College in Latin. In 1957 she earned a BA in art history, with an emphasis in architecture, from Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts). Shortly before graduation she was awarded a teaching fellowship at the Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum. Following her graduation, she and her classmate from Cheyenne, WY embarked on a 3½ month trip around Europe (for which they had been 'saving' for four years). Returning to Denver she met with her friend of many years, banker Peter Roosevelt.
Upon learning about her plans to move to Aspen, where she would be teaching skiing, Peter suggested she meet his sister, Elizabeth, who would be there. Later, the two women agreed to share a modest apartment. Toward the end of the season Elizabeth's cousin arrived in his private airplane. He was on his way to visit his parents at their home in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was a fortuitous moment because Ms. Hummel had been corresponding with Frank Lloyd Wright's staff whose architectural center, Talieson West, was located in Scottsdale. She accepted his offer to accompany him to Scottsdale. During her meeting with Mr. Wright he invited her to join his Fellowship of his school. She accepted.
Later, through friends she learned that public television station KRMA in Denver was producing a new series of educational programs. Her time at Winterthur had expanded her communication skills for lecturing about antiques, architecture and furnishings. On November 18, 1957 she was interviewed by Mr. Willsea, Director of Radio and TV. He hired her on the spot. Broadcasting began in early December and continued into 1958. Near the end of her series she decided to return to Aspen. Toward the end of ski season, Ms. Hummel was invited to a party in another ski area by a doctor and his wife who knew her parents. It was at that party that she met the military man who would become her husband. Captain Charles Stuart Todd Mallett (French in origin, it is pronounced [Mah-Let]). He preferred using Todd as his primary given name. His facial features resembled those of President John F. Kennedy and his brothers, Robert and Ted. He had been sent by West Point to help the new Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs adopt an environment similar to West Point's.
Captain Mallett's duties included coaching the cadet's ski team plus recreational rock and mountain climbing activities. Dana had participated in those kinds of climbing ventures before meeting him. In fact, her climbing interest lead to the beginning of their relationship. Starting as a teenager she had climbed 14,309-foot-tall Uncompahgre in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. She had conquered four of Colorado's highest fifteen 14,000-foot peaks before she was married. On July 11, 1960, with her husband, famous Long's Peak at 14,259 feet was climbed. It is the fifteenth highest in the state. In total she had scaled eight of that states 56 fourteen thousand-foot mountains. Included was Mount of the Holy Cross, Colorado's 55th tallest. Of course, there are others that are not members of the 14,000-foot Flagship Class. She climbed several of those, for example, on June 29, 1958, Apache Peak at 13,441 feet. As an aid to visualizing those mountains, timberline in Colorado varies from 11,000 to 12,000 feet. Timberline is an altitude above which no trees will grow. As an undergraduate at Smith she climbed other mountains for skiing purposes because there were no available ski lifts. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is an example. She joined four Dartmouth students who planned to climb Mt. Washington in order to ski down its slopes. She was the only 'girl' in the group. It was a grueling climb. Not only did they wear backpacks containing food, water and camping equipment, skis topped off their loads.
On September 6, 1958 she married Todd Mallett. In Colorado Springs she joined and became active in the Junior League. Via the League, her first contribution was helping to conduct a braided rug workshop designed to help arthritic persons manage their daily lives. It was a form of group activity that worked their hands by using coordinated movements. It was teaching by doing the craft. She made an oval rug which accompanied them during their travels. Little did they realize then their careers would include 35 moves in the U.S. and overseas.
After living in Colorado Springs, they were sent to The Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth, KS. He was promoted to major. There, he worked with various officers from foreign countries. Their first child, a girl, was born on August 12, 1959.
Shortly thereafter, the Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, General 'Westy' Westmoreland conceived and formed what was to be the military program known as The Foreign Area Specialist Training College. It was centered at the Army Language School at the Presidio of Monterey, California. His reasoning for the program was since the political power of many countries is in the hands of the military, not the president or other elected or appointed officials, U.S. embassies should adjust to that reality. Thus, the U.S. military attaché section of embassies should be reinforced and improved. Mutual military experiences from the attaché section would be shared with the host countries' military leaders and power holders to gain their trust and confidence. The military attaché section should be fluent in the language, culture and history of their assigned country(s). As a result, embassies would be more admired and influential than before. The Mallets were tailor-made for the program.
Gen. Westmoreland had been Captain Mallett's Eagle Scout leader when those two families were stationed At Ft. Sill, OK. Dana loved languages and hoped she too could attend. However, the school was strict and had a rule that only the wives of general officers would be allowed to enroll. As luck would have it, the Commandant of the school came from a family who were old friends of her husband's family, and she was allowed to enroll. At that time the enrollment numbered about 26 men, ranging from privates to captains, majors and one general officer. The Malletts placed their daughter with a Portuguese woman nearby during the day so Mrs. Mallett could be at school all day for a year. In college she had taken French, so Spanish came a bit easier for her than other students. At the end of the year she and another officer were named the Top of the Class.
The other part of Westmoreland's conception was that Part 2 had them going to Stanford University, which is adjacent to the city of Palo Alto, CA. There, they attended the Institute of Hispanic-American & Luso-Brazilian Studies under Dr. Ronald Hilton. With those two studies under their belts, each military family was assigned a different country in which to serve. Theirs was Mexico.
In Mexico, to expand her knowledge of Spanish culture she took several courses from three differing colleges. One was strictly for women. Her husband became the Military Attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. The formalities of military life at that level are deep-seated. Not only are there the various forms of uniforms for events, but mannerisms of conduct are expected as well. That being the case the wife of a command or staff officer is demanding. Within the U.S. military it is busy enough, but when entertainment in the form of dinners and dancing and other events are laid out for members of the host nation as well, it can be challenging. Frequently, wives of visiting dignitaries need to be occupied with shopping tours, visits to historical places and sightseeing.
The Mallett's activities were not confined to military matters, but were extended into the Mexican community as well. In this case it was through her membership in Junior League International which had a chapter in Mexico City. The League accepted her plan for a puppet theater performing in Mexico City orphanages. Her husband was an accomplished woodworker. He crafted a portable puppet theater. The show was the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. There were three hand puppets: the two children and the cannibalistic witch. Her major part, besides being a member of the cast, was to make the costumes, theater curtain and other paraphernalia. The puppet shows were in October, 1962. The performances were such a great success they took the theater and play to their Panama assignments and gave shows at orphanages there. Her husband was promoted to lieutenant colonel July 23, 1963. Also, during the Mexico assignment a second daughter and a son were born. At the end of 1963 preparations were made for the next assignment which would be stateside.
They moved to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina where her husband reported for duty in March of 1964. He was appointed as battalion commander of the 325th, 82nd Airborne.
In August of 1965 they arrived in Panama for an embassy assignment. He was the military attaché. After settling in, she again established contact with the local Junior League. On November 24th the Malletts gave their puppet show to an orphanage. Their first Panamanian assignment ended July 2, 1966.
The next tour of duty was at The National War College at Fort McNair which is in the Washington D.C. area. It began in mid-August 1966 and included work at the Pentagon. He studied and graduated the NWC, then became a professor at the Inter-American War College which also was at Ft. McNair. He, following the rules of primogeniture, is a member of the hereditary Society of Cincinnati. Not only were the dining and the balls exquisite at the Anderson House but the social networking was especially worthwhile. Through the years, when they would be in Washington for a Society event, they would stay overnight in the North Carolina room at the Anderson House. Along with her distaff duties at the time there were household activities including the raising of their three children. At night she undertook postgraduate coursework at several institutions such as the Catholic University in Maryland.
In June of 1967, while at Ft. McNair, Lt. Col. Mallett received orders to proceed to the war in Vietnam. She, with the three children and Elena her nanny and housekeeper who had been with the family since their early days in Mexico City, traveled to Denver. There, renting a home a half block away from her parents, she applied to Denver University's Graduate School. After passing the necessary graduate school entrance exams, she enrolled in its Library and Information Science Master's Degree (MLIS). Simultaneously, Elena was sent to the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, to improve her English. The coordination for that was Dana was off to DU in the mornings followed by two of the three children attending public school. Then Elena did housekeeping. Dana returned home in the afternoon and Elena went to Opportunity School. After school, the oldest child was involved with the Girl Scout Brownies. All gathered for supper. The Mallett beehive took time on the weekends to visit the nearby Rocky Mountain Front Range for recreation and occasionally lunch or supper. She completed the degree in one year. Her husband had returned from Vietnam three weeks before so he was able to be at her Denver University's Graduate School Commencement.
The Mallett team's second tour of duty in Panama followed. They arrived on October 11, 1968. This time the assignment was not to the U.S. Embassy. Instead her husband was made the commander of the 193rd Infantry Brigade (reinforced). As pointed out before, she was engaged in all the normal activities of being the wife of a commanding officer. There were many. On top of those she elected to accept a paid job as head librarian at Howard Air Force Base.
Besides those duties she pressed forward with yet another idea and project. The Malletts still had close ties with the State Department crowd. She proposed to the Ambassador that the embassy get together with the Panamanian military and prepare a social event to include selected members of the host country. It would be a mutual appreciation of and sharing between the two parties. The affair would be Panamanian dancing with appropriate Panamanian costumes. It would be held at the Brigade Commander's home which had the advantage of a large sheltered concrete parking area. It could easily be converted to a dance floor with space for a band and socializing. And, it was a perfect place to hold dance classes in advance. The Ambassador agreed. A well-known Panamanian dance master was engaged. He was Domingo Dominguez. Naturally, he went by his nickname, Mingo Mingo. Native costumes were purchased from a local store. Dana bought costumes for her children. Later, when they returned to The States, her children wore their Panamanian costumes for Halloween. It should be noted that Panama is one of the richest countries when speaking of traditional music and dance. Panamanians love to gather and dance whether it is amongst friends and family or for local or national celebrations. It was a great success.
She also found time to volunteer and give aid to patients of the Palo Seco Leprosy Asylum in Panama. She brought food, clothing, anything she could find, to give to the sufferers of Hansen's Disease. She never went there empty handed.
The Malletts left Panama on April 17, 1970. A two-year hitch at the Pentagon as a member of four-star General Richard G. Stilwell's staff followed. In addition, Col. Mallett was involved with the Inter-American Defense Board and its subsidiary the Inter-American Defense College where he taught. Mrs. Mallett performed the distaff's military duties plus running a household and being a soccer mom before the phrase was invented in 1982.
In March of 1972 they went to serve in the U.S Embassy in Madrid, Spain. This was during the reign of dictator Francisco Franco. At that time Madrid was highly regulated. It was so safe the Mallett children could and did travel by themselves on public transportation to visit friends living in other areas of the city. The duties and activities were much the same as at previous embassies. A facet of her homelife is best illustrated as they headed home to Virginia. Their oldest daughter pleaded for a short road trip to Portugal. It was agreed upon. The two youngest children stayed in Madrid. While in Lisbon Mrs. Mallett visited a well-known needlework shop. She purchased a large one-meter square canvas and several smaller ones that originated from the island of Madeira. Designs were outlined and yarn colors indicated on each of the canvases. But all were tucked away for many years. Her military husband died in 1988. She married a widowed doctor, George Hummel and they both retired to Sarasota, Florida. For four years they summered on Deer Isle, Maine. The large canvas was retrieved and she stitched it on her lap during their roundtrip drives. It was needlepoint with some petit point in certain areas. But then, it lay in the linen closet because she was loath to frame and hang it on a wall. Finally, one evening, as they played bridge with a couple of 'Old Mainers,' the visiting husband offered to build a card table out of cherrywood. Its top would display her work. She agreed. Her job was designing it, locating and buying cherrywood Queen Anne legs along with matching wood, and then finding all the brass pulls for the drawers. Her needlepoint initials and (the finished date) 1991 appear on a corner. The canvas was dispatched to Rhode Island to be blocked and returned. Then it was countersunk into the table's top and covered with a large heavy sheet of glass. It has seen many a fast game of bridge. In early March of 2018, she entered it in Sarasota Florida's Festival of the Arts. On the 17th, the day of the closing dinner and voting, it was awarded The People's Choice which represented the sweepstakes prize of the show. She is also skilled in other homemaking skills, such as interior design.
Returning to 1975, the Mallets returned to the United States from Madrid and resided in Falls Church, Virginia, which is included in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. As Colonel Mallett was engaged with the National War College and the Inter-American Defense Board, she continued her distaff side military duties. She also placed the interests of her school age children ahead of her own. She spent a significant amount of her time transporting her 'brood' to youth sporting events and watching them play. Her goal was to raise the children in an academic environment combined with the promotion of body fitness and strength. Her two girls and son had tennis lessons combined with game play. Already they were good swimmers. Her son turned out to be an exceptional athlete in football and, wrestling which began with youth sporting clubs. In high school he was the captain of the football team. He had the lineman position of tackle and played offense as well as defense. In wrestling, after five years of training (junior high and senior high school) his team was the state's champion for three years in a row. In his senior year he was second in the state championship. The daughters had tumbling lessons. One was in a cheerleader clinic. All had piano lessons. All were active in the scouts. She did the best she could to give them the 'tools' to survive, thrive and hopefully prosper in whatever the future would be.
By time her two younger children were in their teens and semi-independent, Mrs. Mallett was able to expand her activities. She secured a position in Fairfax County as an assistant Librarian at the Holmes Middle School. From there she switched to JEB Stuart High School in Falls Church where she was a substitute teacher for mathematics, business classes (typing), history and art. Most of her time was spent as substitute Spanish teacher because the regular teacher had been in an automobile accident and had a long recovery. She was active in the Falls Church Episcopal as a member of the Alter Guild, as a Lay Reader and a member of the Vestry and its president.
She also was one of the two paid secretaries for The Reverend John Yates. In addition, she was doing hospice care of her mother who moved in from Denver. Her mother died in September, 1979.
That year her oldest daughter had finished college and had difficulty finding a job good enough to support her. She took her to the Northern Virginia Business School for enrollment. The school had a promotion going on which allowed a second person to sign up for free. The two of them entered and both did well. The business school had an arrangement with The World Bank to supply it with their graduates as substitute employees. The World Bank employed Dana as a full-time employee and assigned her to its African Division.
Overlapping with her professional occupations was her work in immigration. She had become aware that women who were brought into the U.S. by foreign diplomats, who had the right to be accompanied by staff and household servants, were often compromised by the diplomat. They escaped from their situation by fleeing into the Washington, D.C. area. They had no documentation to be in the country. She helped them find lodging, etc. while she worked on getting them a return flight to South America. One woman she helped was Irma. She found her housing, sent her back to Argentina and continued with her getting the correct papers to return to the U.S. and obtain a job here. She allowed Irma to reside in a tiny apartment Mrs. Mallett owned and many years later, put the apartment in Irma's name. In 1983 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Committee of Women bestowed a Special Achievement Award to Mrs. Mallett for helping those women. She was one of seven women to be presented that award among 80 other candidates. She still keeps in touch with Irma.
Following her positions in The World Bank she was employed by BDM International, aka Braddock Dunn & McDonald. BDM is known as a Washington D.C. 'think tank.' Her position was BDM's Corporate Librarian. She was instrumental in conceiving a bona fide Information Services Center in a time before the public knew of the internet. She had government Top Secret clearance which allowed BDM becoming more modern in respect to its information center. She likewise incorporated computer-assisted, automated information search and retrieval systems and was responsible for training library personnel.
While employed by BDM, she was elected Trustee of the Fairfax County's (Virginia) Library Board. The twelve-member Board, thereupon made her the Treasurer. A few years later she was elected to be the President of the Library Board. Fairfax County, at that time had 24 libraries, of which four were built between 1979 and 1982, while she was the President. Hennen's American Public Library Ratings ranked the system as one of the top ten library systems in the United States (for its size of 500,000 + residents).
Well-known in her community for her leadership, her civic involvement began to take shape between 1979 and 1982, during which she distinguished herself as the President of the Ravenwood Civic Association. In 1981 she served as a delegate to the state convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, of a major political party. Continuing from that date until 1986 she was on several campaign staffs and assisted in election campaigns for state and national offices.
Among other altruistic activities in Denver, she was a major fundraiser for her alma mater, Smith College, in Massachusetts. In Virginia, she was also involved as a member of the Seven Corners Task Force, the Mason District's Annual Plan Park Review Task Force, the Mason District's citizen advisory panel on traffic at major intersections, and a local area citizen's advisory group that focused on neighborhood crime prevention. Moreover, she found success as a board member and president of her local condominium association in Sarasota, Florida from 2004 through 2018. While president, she was involved in major building and landscaping projects. She continues to volunteer her efforts even today having raised, beginning in 2011, significant funds on behalf of the new Alfred R. Goldstein Library at The Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota.
While using a bit of her BDM annual vacation time at a golf resort in southern Virginia she met George P. Hummel M.D. who was a professor at Ohio State University's College of Medicine. After an 18-month courtship he became her second husband on February 5, 1988. She returned to BDM, announced her marriage and gave the company notice that she was retiring. Dr. Hummel continued teaching medicine at OSU but with a reduced schedule. He owned a vacation cottage in Sarasota. They settled there for a while and decided that Sarasota Florida would be the place for their retirement years. They disposed of their mutual properties in Ohio, Virginia and the Sarasota cottage. Prestancia, a golf course community became their home. Dr. Hummel was an excellent tennis and golf player. Mrs. Hummel never had played golf, nor had a golf lesson. He became her teacher. Much of their social and retired life consisted of four to five games of golf a week. Their enthusiasm led them to join the Southern Seniors Golf Association that set up tours to golf resorts in other states. Mrs. Hummel, a natural athlete, gained much experience from those different locals. Back at home Mrs. Hummel's golf schedule centered around weekly play with ladies' groups plus couples. She made two separate holes-in-one followed later by a two-day ladies' championship contest played August 23 and 24, of 1990 which she won. In 1997 Dana and George took three months of Italian to prepare for an intensive six-week course in that language at La Universita Italiana per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy. After a brief stay in Rome, they returned to Sarasota. Sometime afterward, Dr. Hummel developed a lingering illness which proved fatal. Mrs. Hummel cared for him for many months which included hospice at home. He died March 6, 2003.
A long-planned cruise with 40+ friends around the South American Continent set sail from San Diego, CA that October. A former high school classmate Clyde Hill, a world explorer and administrator at the San Diego Zoo, had suggested two inland spots, Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls for wildlife and geological observations.
While he was at college in Boulder Colorado, her brother Darius (her only sibling) had a severe motorcycle accident coming down Boulder Canyon. He suffered a concussion. When he was finally released from hospital, his mother moved him into her basement apartment where he could live comfortably. Unfortunately, their mother died in 1979 upsetting that arrangement. Mrs. Hummel traveled to Denver to bury her and to see to the sale of her house. She also found a nice small ground floor apartment for Darius. He lived there for some time until he had a stroke which placed him again, in a hospital. She returned to Denver where she found a continuing care facility where he could live under moderate care. It soon became apparent that he would do better in one near his sister. She found such in Venice, just a short drive away. Darius was flown to Sarasota. She found that families who take an interest in the facilities of their loved ones, seem to get more care and attention from employees and staff. What caught her eye was a deplorable looking area enclosed on three sides by the facility's three wings. At one point it was just grass, but that had begun to die from neglect. The area also was ugly to look at through the windows of the care facility. She discovered she could appeal to the Venice Board of Bon Secours Hospital Foundation for a grant. She appeared before the Board and made her case. Using her architectural skills, she had mapped out a lovely garden area with new grass, cement paths for wheelchairs and a shelter to sit on benches and enjoy sandwiches and drinks. Flower beds were sprinkled all around. That would be Darius' Legacy to the facility. The grant was approved. Mrs. Hummel and her husband enjoyed frequent visits with her brother. Darius died on July 7, 2006.
An unexpected Christmas card arrived following Mrs. Hummel's October, 2003 South American Cruise. It was from Clyde Hill, her high school classmate whose career was with California's San Diego Zoological Garden. He had advised her where she go for wildlife and geological experiences. "How was your trip?" he asked. From then on, he was "Grateful to Ms. Hummel's mother who had taught her to reply to correspondence." Being a dutiful daughter, she replied. That started back and forth letters, then telephone calls. To avoid the summer heat of subtropical southwest Florida, for years Ms. Hummel had escaped to Maine. In July, they agreed to meet there. They had not seen each other for 51 years. Serious bicoastal courtship followed. Visits to their respective children and their families were made. In December, 2006, Clyde retired. After distributing much of his furnishings to his three sons he arrived in Sarasota in March of 2007.
How would this woman of energy, intelligence and wit care to be remembered? She says a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is attached to her refrigerator, sums it up.
To laugh often and love much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give of one's self, to leave the world a better place whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Her favorite Prayer:
"Life is short and we have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us. So, be swift to love and make haste to be kind and the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you now and always. Amen."
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