in Newport, New Hampshire for eight large bars of "the best cake of soap in the world." (source: Pine Tree soap bar in its wrapper from the Hotel Fontenelle.) Pine Tree products seems not to have succeeded, and Van is said to have been out of that company in the early 1940s. Then in 1949, the last year of his life, he started a new soap company, Vanpine. Speaking career and later life Van may have retired from an active stage in the career in 1927, but he took on another phase of his life as frenetic as his earlier life. Undoubtedly this aspect of his life began earlier but it became a full-time occupation after 1927, in part one guesses fueled by ego and in part by earning a living. And when the great depression started, he adapted to its problems and solutions. The first focus of his talks would be described in today's terms as a motivational speaker. He is reported to be in demand as a speaker all over the country. He spoke at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to the Sales Executive Club. According to a newspaper writeup, he proposed to set up a Yankee Union. In another talk to the club, in 1937, he is described as a member of the New England Council. He gave examples of companies which had adapted to the times; one had gone from making bobbins to lollipop sticks. The New York Times reported that in 1931 he spoke in Washington to the Association of National Advertisers. He recommended that his audience read Robinson Crusoe to learn how to adapt to the bad times, and be on the lookout for a "Friday" to help out. Other clips show Van speaking at the Hotel DeSoto in St. Louis at a meeting of the Direct Mail Advertising Association, and in Houston. The second focus of his talks was self-styled as "Yankee Goodwill Ambassador". Van is said to have been friends with Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson. And in 1937 he was described as engaged as a "sales educationalist". Van perhaps obtained some insights for his motivational talks by a job he had for a period of time during World War II, at the Fellows Gear Shaper company in Springfield, Vermont. He was director of Human Relations (a title in advance of its time). He supervised the broadcasting of uplifting programs to