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also, more than his share, as a member of the Benedictine community at Lisle. He has served on Building and other committees on major projects of the institution. Since 1916 he has been secretary of the St. Procopius Abbey Chapter, and since 1917 a member of the Seniors’ Council. In the summer of 1921, we may add. he visited England and the European continent, particularly Czecho-Slovakia, where he studied educational conditions. Since 1926, also, he has taken an active part in the organization of the St. Procopius College Alumni and is, at present, honorary president and director of the St. Procopius College Alumni Association.

Moreover, despite these arduous duties, he has found time for numerous sermons and speeches, and is favorably known among the Czechs of the Middle West for his eloquence. His inspirational talks to the students, too, have been of great value to many a discouraged or undecided student.

Thru correspondence, also, he has, during his administration, rendered invaluable service to thousands of American youths of Czech and Slovak extraction, by securing them positions and by advising them where to continue their studies.

Thus, for fourteen years, he has gone about his work, rendering a service not only the land of his extraction by educating men who would be a credit to the culture and ideals of their ancestors, but also serving America, his adopted country, by turning out intelligent, high minded citizens, who would be able to “see life steadily and see it whole.”

HON. GEORGE A. HRICKO. From the obscurity of a coal mine to a seat in the State Legislature and to the presidential chair of a national union may seem a grade too steep for one to scale; yet, George A. Hricko, of Olyphant, Penn., has achieved that feat within a brief score of years.

Hon. George A. Hricko, a well known member of the State Legislature from Lackawanna County, is a leading business man in Olyphant, Pa, where he carries on a general insurance business with offices in the Olyphant Bank Building. He was born in in Luzerne County, Pa., Oct. 8, 1883. His parents returned to their native land, Czecho-Slovakia, shortly after his birth, and he therefore spent the early years of his life in picturesque Slovakia.

In 1894 the family returned to Pennsylvania and located in Olyphant, where he continued his schooling and at the same time was employed in the coal mines. He furthered his education by attending night school and, when he was twenty-one years of age, he became interested in the produce business, in which he was engaged until 1910. Since that time he has been active in the business life of Olyphant, where he is engaged in the insurance business.