Monday, March 26, 2012

Plainfield Mayor Leighton Calkins - Golf Innovator

Leighton Calkins


1868-1955


Leighton Calkins was the Mayor of Plainfield from  1915-1920,  and was instrumental in the completion of the  City Hall building.  A plaque in City Hall describes  the story of the building of Plainfield's City Hall.  Leighton Calkins' only son, Wolcott, is listed on Plainfield City Hall's World War I memorial as a casualty.




According to Plainfield Country Club's The First Hundred Years, "The origin of the modern handicap system comes from the one devised for Plainfield Country Club by Leighton Calkins in 1904."  This book also states that "Calkins coined the word "par" to describe the standard best score, borrowing from the financial phrase "the par value of stocks."




Leighton Calkins died in 1955, and his will was probated in Union County, New Jersey.




In the Third Paragraph of Will, there is beguest:  "to Muhlenberg Hospital, a corporation under the laws of the State of New Jersey and located in Plainfield, New Jersey, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000) on condition that in consideration of this gift a room in the private pavilion be named as a memorial to my dear wife, Nella Bond Calkins, - marked by an appropriate tablet."



Questions:   What is by law the remedy for the loss of this
                     endowed room to the Plainfield community?


                     What happens to the inscribed memorial tablet?  


http://www.usga.org/news/2011/October/History-Of-Handicapping--Part-III/



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