Volume 7, Number 2, 1998


International links started with Foreign Study Plan

Herbert L. Lank, EG '25, was part of the first University of Delaware group to study abroad. In 1923, he and seven other juniors sailed to France and spent the academic year studying at the University of Nancy and the Sorbonne. After graduation, Lank was hired by the DuPont Co. and, because of his language proficiency, was given assignments in France, Argentina and Quebec. Lank felt that study abroad changed his life in far-reaching and unexpected ways. In a 1970 interview with oral historian Myron L. Lazarus, Lank explains the international connections.

"My wife and I met in France in 1923. We married in 1927-and then I went back to France to work. So, our first child was born in France, and automatically was a French citizen, of course. He's a DC-8 captain with Air Canada and buzzes all over the world. And, our second child was born in Argentina and our third child was born in Argentina. We all came to Canada in 1942 and all subsequently became Canadian citizens. The boy who was born in France married an Irish girl he met in London. The second boy married an American girl he met in Stockholm. And, the third boy married a Canadian girl he met in Switzerland. So, these things start off with the Foreign Study Plan and they get into very ramified situations-both corporate and personal."