Q. In your June column about the real size of 2 by 4 boards, I think you left something out. When I visited the Hoover presidential library in Iowa, there was a display about Hoover’s role in standardization. Did you find any record of that?
A. I will get to this .question, but first I want to share the high points of Hoover’s career. He was a one-term president during the 1929 stock market crash and is usually remembered for an inadequate response at the onset of the Great Depression.
It may be surprising, but Hoover was lauded for his crisis management skills during World War I and the 1920s. In 1914, he was the leader of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (a non-governmental organization) which supplied food to the population of northern France and Belgium during the German occupation. He displayed extraordinary diplomatic skill, perseverance and courage as he traveled in war zones.
