Serenity and Service for Thought 



The NATION'S CAPITAL, with its high con- 

 centrations of brain power,, now has its own Think 

 House, centered in a mountain-locked island of rural 

 retreat outside Warrenton, Va. 



There, isolated in 1200 acres of rolling pastureland, 

 is a new conference center designed to provide the 

 atmosphere for clear thinking. It is called Airlie 

 House, itself the brainchild of the Nation's only den- 

 tist-physician-lawyer, Dr. Murdock Head. 



Modeled in purpose after New York's famed Arden 

 House, it is no plush, rococo retreat. The facility is 

 an assembly of Georgian manor houses, lodges and 

 guest accommodations, redesigned to modern com- 

 forts, such as air conditioning and wall-to-wall car- 

 peting. It is a working conference center away from 

 the distractions of busy offices or ordinary conven- 

 tion assemblies. 



At Airlie House someday, some of the world's 

 thorniest problems may be challenged for the "best 

 interests of the public"— the founding phrase which 

 sets it above and apart from swank, commercially 

 operated resort hotels. 



It has its horse country recreations— riding, hunt- 

 ing, fishing, hiking, tennis and skeet shooting. But 

 primarily its chief attractions are solitude, service 

 and serenity for thinking men and women concerned 

 with the public's problems. 



Here big wheels and little cogs can be brought to- 

 gether. Participants talk, and listen to each other, 

 and ponder. They agree and they disagree, and they 

 carry their impressions, their sometimes changed and 

 sometimes reinforced ideas back home with them. It's 

 something like oldtime town meetings, or discussions 

 around the pot-bellied stove in the country store, re- 

 vived and modernized. 



Such isolation and total submergence in the sub- 

 ject matter can spell the difference between an, effec- 

 tive conference and an ineffective junket. 



Airlie House, named for a Scottish Lord, is oper- 

 ated by Airlie Foundation, a nonprofit organization 

 chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its 

 proximity to Washington makes it readily available 

 to Congress, government agencies, research and edu- 

 cational centers and industry without the problems 

 of excessive expense or travel time loss. 



Its rates vary with the type of conference, the 

 number of participants, and the services required. In 

 general, they have ranged from $20 to $25 a day for 

 each participant, a charge comparable to convention 

 headquarters hotels in major metropolitan areas of 



the United States. 



One recent conference at Airlie House attracted 

 more than 100 leaders of industry, education, armed 

 forces and the government. This was the third annual 

 Strategy for Peace Conference, whose previous con- 

 claves were at Arden House. 



The conferees discussed such things as the inter- 

 relationships of mihtary strategy, technology and 



arms control; disarmament and military stockpile in- 

 spections and control; the economic aspects of dis- 

 armament; changing emphases in the United Nations, 

 and the economic and social development of emerg- 

 ing nations. Previously, AirHe House had accommo- 

 dated sessions of the American Religious Heritage 

 Society. 



Conference subjects may be as broad as the world 

 has problems. Any group with a serious problem of 

 public interest to discuss is eligible to stage a gather- 

 ing at Airlie House. 



The organizations which sponsor conferences there 

 pay the costs. Some pass these costs on to the parti- 

 cipants; some bear part of the costs out of their treas- 

 uries. The founders of Airlie House are seeking funds 

 to sponsor or help sponsor worthy conferences which 

 may never otherwise be held for lack of leadership 

 and funds. 



The food is good, and ample, and usually served 

 cafeteria or buffet style. Millionaires may be used to 

 higher luxuries and services than can be made avail- 

 able at present charges, but unless such demands be- 

 come important, the facihty will continue on its 

 present course, says Dr. Head. 



Dr. Head is the three-letter man of the professions. 

 He earned a dental degree, and when he found that 

 barred him from certain surgeries, he entered medical 

 school and won his M.D. Then he found that dentists 

 and physicians needed legal help, so he studied law 

 and won a degree in that profession. 



Now chairman of the Institute of Forensic Medicine 

 at George Washington University, he is content that 

 his brainchild, Airlie House, is here to stay. The 

 money he and his influential friends raised to set it 

 up and get it going, he said, is a good investment for 

 the Nation. 



He's going to develop other interests, like medical 

 research in the special clinic on the Airlie Farms 

 estates,-and television programming and the making 

 of documentary films. By Nate Haseltine 



Staff Reporter 



^ Airlie House stenographers, sec 

 retaries put the spoken words into printed forms 



