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Thanks to the Internet and the Times-Union Web site, two former friends were able to find each other after more than 35 years.
And the two men are about half a world away.
In 1966, Stan Hepler, Warsaw, won a Rotary Club-sponsored essay contest on why he'd be a good representative to a foreign country. For winning the contest, Hepler got the opportunity to stay in a foreign country as an exchange student.
Initially, Hepler said, he asked to stay in Switzerland, but there were no openings there. Youth for Understanding, an organization that places exchange students, sent him to Denmark.
Upon learning he was going to Denmark, Hepler initially asked, "Denmark? Where is that?"
When he arrived in Denmark, Hepler's host family was still on vacation so he stayed with another family for a short while until his host family, the Svarre family, returned.
Arne Svarre, like Hepler, was also about 17 at that time.
Via e-mail, Svarre wrote, "Stan stayed with me and my family in the summer of 1966 just for one month. The reason why his stay was arranged, was that I was going to California after the summer to spend a year as an exchange student. So the organization Youth For Understanding contacted me asking for a family to Stan, and we said OK. Though my parents didn't know any English at all. Stan and I were both 17 at that time. I had finished my 10th year, almost similar to your junior year of high school.
"I was living in the country at a farm with cows and pigs, so there there was farmlife, but I think we went to Copenhagen once, and went to see a restored Viking Fort from the year 1120."
Hepler said the trip was a cultural shock for him. Since Arne's parents didn't know a lot of English then, Hepler said they had to communicate a lot using hand signaling. However, he said, the trip was good because he got to discover people around the world are "just like us" - they, too, want to be healthy and happy.
"It was a very, very interesting experience," he said.
Hepler flew to Denmark. But going home, he got to travel by ship, extending his vacation.
Svarre said, "Maybe the greatest experience was the trip back to the U.S. in a very big Ocean Liner called Arkadia.
"So Stan and I sailed together along with about 1,000 other students from Europe who were all going to spend the next year as exchange students. The liner was as big as Titanic and since we were not traveling first class, our cabins were way down just below the water.
"During daytime we were having classes so we could learn something about the American society and in the afternoon and nighttime there was dancing and entertainments. At dinner we had to dress up in suits and ties and there was a waiter for every table. It was very formal with a plan for every student where to sit. The liner was not only for the students. I think that there might have been about 500 regular passengers. The voyage took nine days and we sailed from Germany to Holland to England and then to Canada, down the St. Lawrence Seaway to Quebec and Montreal."
"I haven't seen him since then," said Hepler of Svarre. "... It's one of those memories I think about quite often."
He said the Svarre family was "a wonderful host family" and has thought about them often.
Svarre said, "We stayed in contact the next year while I was in California and we were both seniors in high school. But after I returned home to Denmark we stopped. I think it«s typical for boys to do so."
Recently, Svarre decided to see if he could find Hepler via the Internet.
He said, "When you get older you look at things in another way and I have often thought about what has happened to Stan.
"So one day - because I have plenty of time due to a minor foot operation - I wrote 'Stan Hepler' in The Google search-area and wow there it was. But I was not quite sure and I looked him up in People Search. Then I mailed your newspaper because Stan had written an article about problems after a storm on an airport in Warsaw, asking if you could find his e-mail address. And so you did, and Stan and I have told each other what has happened in all these years, well at least a bit of it."
Today, Hepler, 52, is the director of aircraft maintenance for Biomet. He is married with children.
Svarre is a teacher, "mostly working at the school library, also taking care of the computers. I have a wife, Marianne, and two kids at 25 and 27. And of course we have often talked about going back to see some of the people I have met, and now when I have found Stan there really is a good reason to go, so you never know if one day we will see each other again. It would be great," he said.
