Iowa’s Governor — who once said he didn’t use e-mail — recently discovered an old flame and a science program for the state through an e-mail. Governor Tom Vilsack says it all started with an e-mail from a woman.He says the woman was watching the T-V and saw his name and went to the Internet and found out Vilsack was born in Pittsburgh in 1950. She ask if he was the same Tommy Vilsack she went to school with and got into trouble. Vilsack says she signed the e-mail, Sylvia Debarnardo Clark. Vilsack says the name is one that once held big meaning for him. He says Sylvia Debarnardo was, “My first love. She didn’t know it, but she was.” Vilsack says he was so in awe of her that he couldn’t speak when she was around. Vilsack says he asked her what she was now doing in New York. He says she e-mailed back that she now works for the N-E-C Computer company. He says they have a program where famous scientists come to classrooms to encourage girls to get into science, and Vilsack says N-E-C is bringing the program to Iowa. Vilsack says the company will bring scientists to schools at Southeast Polk, in Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. Reporters followed up on Vilsack’s fascination with the woman and the First Lady’s thoughts. He was asked if Christie Vilsack knows about her. Vilsack says his wife has know about the woman “forever” saying he’s always talked about the woman as if she was the “prototype.” Vilsack says the woman got in trouble for throwing his raincoat into the mud, but he says he doesn’t remember that, and says it’s surprising because he thought he’d remember everything about her. Vilsack says he doesn’t know if the woman will come to Iowa on the N-E-C trip that begin Thursday.
