IRS, Showing Good Form, Completes a Forward Pass

--A “Dear Dad” letter forwarded by the Internal Revenue Service in Ogden, Utah, reunited a man with his two children he hadn’t seen in 27 years. Henry Morgan, 59, received two letters from the IRS on Feb. 24. One assured him that neither his address nor any tax information about him had been given out. The other letter was from his son. It began: “I know this letter will take you by surprise, in that you probably thought that you would never hear from your children.” With help from the IRS, Army Master Sgt. Hank Morgan, 37, and Cynthia Morgan Dion, 36, tracked down their father--whom they hadn’t seen since their parents split up--after they learned his Social Security number. The family was reunited this month in Phoenix. They figured that their father was still in the West because he hated cold weather. So Hank Morgan wrote the IRS in Ogden and Fresno, explaining their plight. The letter found its way to IRS Supervisor Jay Hammer in Ogden. “It’s a rather common request,” said Hammer. “It’s nice to hear that we can help.”

--Former Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager and golfer Juan (Chi Chi) Rodriguez topped the list of nine “rags-to-riches” Americans named in New York as winners of the 1986 Horatio Alger Award. The awards have been handed out annually since 1947 by the Horatio Alger Assn. of Distinguished Americans to people who rose above adversity to stand out as role models and heroes.

--The bearded mayor of Portland, Ore., Bud Clark, is crossing into the art world as a Roman god. Clark has agreed to model as Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, earthquakes and horses, for Washington sculptor Raymond Kaskey. The work is for a Maryland park. Chris Tobkin, an aide to the mayor, said Clark was confident that Kaskey’s artistic license and talent would manage to create an excellent-looking Roman god. Clark has previous modeling experience. Before becoming mayor, the bar owner gained national attention posing for an “Expose Yourself to Art” poster. The poster showed a back view of a bare-legged Clark standing with his overcoat open before a nude statue in downtown Portland. Clark found out that people still remember the poster when he attended the National League of Cities meeting in Washington last week.