Looking back
from today's science, I must have inherited a very good gene pool. Tracing
them back for several generations, all of my direct line ancestors (except my
father) lived well beyond the life expectancies of their era. I was also the
product of successful persons. My maternal grandfather was the Kentucky
version of an English country squire. His valley holdings supported several
sharecropping tenants. He owned the store, the grist mill, lived in the only
two-story house in the valley, was the local recorder of official
papers, and performed marriages and buried the dead when no minister was
available. He wrote flowery Elizabethan English and composed poetry. One of
his daughters (my mother) was the school teacher in the one-room valley
school. My paternal grandfather owned land and coal mines.
My father
went into the mines at an early age. At age 19 he was a mine foreman and a
local sports hero. He played semi-pro baseball and was a
middle-weight boxer. One night he stood up at a revival meeting
conducted by Billy Sunday, the bible-thumping evangelist, and dedicated
his life to the ministry. Realizing his eighth-grade education was a
limiting factor, he enrolled at a theological seminary and completed the
four-year program in 3 years. He was ordained as a Methodist
Episcopal minister and assigned as a circuit rider in the territory where my
mother lived and worked.
My parents
were married in 1909 and my father began a rapid climb in the church
hierarchy. By the time I was born, he was minister of a village church in
Auxier, Kentucky. He also began to amass a substantial library. In addition to
theology, he bought history, literature, oratory, science, and even
"Little Masterpieces of Wit and Humor." His career was cut short by the
infamous flu epidemic of 1918. He had volunteered to go overseas as a YMCA
Camp Director, to serve as spiritual and social director of wholesome rest
camps for soldiers when they were relieved from front line duty.
He was in training for this duty when he died.
My mother and
I returned to her father's home while she pondered what to do. The entire
library went with her. Those books were rather heavy reading but she managed
to teach me without destroying my interest. Finally, she decided to move to
Marion, Ohio where her older brother was a steel mill foreman. She got a job
in the mill office and I enrolled in the local public school, just shy of my
sixth birthday. She later recounted her problems with the teachers and the
principal. It seemed that I would not go out for recess, that I would stay
inside and read. Schoolwork was no problem, even though they quickly promoted
me from 1B to 1A to 2B to 2A and then paused because I was physically no match
for my classmates. The problem was temporarily solved by hard times in the
mill. My mother lost her job and my uncle's work was cut back. My mother tried
to alleviate her brother's financial situation by moving to the farm home of a
sister just outside West Jefferson, Ohio. Since it was now late spring they
did not bother to enroll me in a new school. During the summer my mother met
and later married a young farmer named Paul A. Gatton. Among other things that
began a lifelong confusion over what I would be called, Charles or Paul.
That fall I
was enrolled in a four-room rural school with two grades in each room.
My adjustment problems continued and a novel solution was suggested. I would
do the work of both the first and second grades and be given grade cards for
each. My extra year of age placed me more in line physically with my
classmates and I no longer spent my recess periods indoors. We lived with my
stepfather's parents who ignored me as much as they could. My mother was
suffering a difficult pregnancy and I would hide out with a book whenever
possible. At the end of the school year, I was promoted to the third grade.
The double class study continued and I was promoted to the fifth grade at the
end of the school year. Meanwhile, my half-sister was born, my mother's
health improved, and we moved into a tenant house. My stepfather began to know
me and to teach me the life of a farm boy. The next two school years were
spent doing the fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth grades. At 10 years of age I
received my diploma. The County Superintendent of Schools came out to make a
special presentation along with a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch. My
stepfather was a veritable jewel that summer, allowing me to join a 4H Club
and giving me a baby pig to raise for the livestock show at the County Fair.
Even my step-grandparents turned positive, giving me small amounts of money for
picking fruit and harvesting vegetables.
Graduates of
the township rural schools were bused into the town of West Jefferson to
attend a consolidated high school. The principal would not let me enroll
because I was "too young" and no arguments would change his mind.
Under state law I had to attend school and it was obvious that taking the
eighth grade over would be a farce. The final solution was a compromise. I
would return to the same school from
which I had
graduated the previous spring but I would be a special pupil of the same
County Superintendent of Schools who had awarded me my diploma. Each week he
would drive from the city of London to the school and bring me assignments.
They were usually high school texts in history and science but I became
particularly fascinated with algebra. This was a new world. I even invented
some rudimentary statistical formulas on my own, though I did not know that
was what they were until several years later.
That fall I
was allowed to enter high school. It was a very small school, approximately
100 pupils total. As I remember it, only about 20 credit hours could be earned
in major subjects plus fractional credits for activities. It did have a band,
a dramatic club, and the usual collection of interscholastic sports. The only
foreign language available was four years of Latin. My extra year of special
study only exacerbated the scholastic situation. Algebra was a breeze. History
was only a problem when I disputed the teacher's "facts." English
was entertainment except for grammar. The small lab for biology, chemistry,
and physics was something to explore. My mother bought me a clarinet with some
of her "butter and egg" money and I joined the band. I was in the
drama club but had little involvement except for one minstrel show. Though I
was early in my pubertal growth spurt I did not get into sports until my
senior year. I was third string end on the football team and scored one
touchdown on an "end around" play, courtesy of a burly 200-pound
center who practically led me over the goal line. In my first basketball game
I made a very neat basketfor the other team. I also learned to drive
a car, though we did not own one. But, my most effective learning was probably
my "office work." The school could not afford a secretary and the
teachers filled in to do the clerical work. Since I did not appear to need
study time, I was asked to take over as much of the clerical work as I could.
I learned to type, ditto, operate the mimeograph machine, keep books on the
receipts and disbursements of school functions, answer the telephone, even
talk to salespersons. At the same
time I had the opportunity to read novels, something that had been sadly
missing from almost all of my previous reading.
As might have been
expected, I was the valedictorian of our class of 21 boys and girls who
graduated in 1931. I wanted to go to college but the finances were not there.
I set out to earn my own tuition and meal money. My stepfather helped. He set
aside a quarter-acre plot where I could grow cucumbers for the local
packing plant. They wanted gherkins, about the size of your little finger. Try
to imagine crawling on your knees, pulling a basket, searching under each leaf
for the elusive green pickle, and feeling the horror of finding one that you
missed yesterday, one that no longer had any value except for the home cellar
or the pigs. I also worked part-time at a local service station, with a
bonus in that the owner allowed me to set up a car waxing service next to the
office and to keep whatever income I could generate. During harvest season I
was able to work behind the reaper, on the threshing crews, baling straw, and
cutting corn. The net result was enough money to finance two years at Ohio
State University by riding to and from with a neighboring boy who was a junior
in the College of Agriculture.
My career ambitions had jelled
and a plan for achieving them had been developed. I
wanted to become an M.D. To reach this goal I would enroll in the College of
Education, complete 2 years, get a teaching certificate, get a teaching job,
and save for the arduous next steps. The first step was taken without
difficulty. I registered for Latin, General Psychology, Botany, and English.
The next day I was called into the office of the Junior Dean of the College of
Education and asked if I would be interested in an experimental orientation
course for freshmen with
high scholastic promise. The course would be taught by a young man from
the Economics Department in the College of Business and would be an intensive
overview of history, political science, geography, sociology, and economics as
they impacted the cultures of western civilization. The course would be five
hours per week for a full quarter and would be limited to 20 students. Reading
assignments would range from 800 to 2000 pages per week. I accepted the
challenge and demurred when I was asked if I wanted to drop one of my other
courses. I still remember the course and particularly the final exam in
December of 1932. It was an "open-book" exam and consisted of
one simulated situation phrased as, "You have just been elected President
of the United States by a large majority. The country is faced with numerous
problems. Specify as many of these as you wish and indicate what approach you
would take to each." The professor then produced a large basket of red
apples, told us to leave the completed exams in his office, and left. At the
end of the two hours normally allotted all of us were still there. Some two
more hours later I gathered up my blue books and left. I have often wondered
what happened to those papers. There must have been a book there for the
professor. Anyhow, I got an "A" in the course.
With only a
"normal" schedule the second quarter should have been a snap except
for two things. I discovered that the library stocked periodicals. These newly
found riches took away time that I should have spent studying. I also
discovered a sport that didn't require great size or strengthfour
wall handball. Since I could get on a court with only my Student Activities
Card and could usually get into a game, this became my alternate time waster.
I recovered my senses in time to earn a respectable quarter GPA and moved on
to the third quarter. At the end of
the year I was elected to
the Freshman Honor Society and the Classical Languages Honor Society.
Meanwhile, a most peculiar event took place at my final exam in third quarter
Latin. The professor gave us a short paragraph to translate and followed this
with 24 items cited as, "Page ; line
;
Comment." My omnivorous reading had me well prepared for this kind of
exercise and I wrote down the answers almost as rapidly as he wrote the items
on the blackboard. As I finished and laid down my pencil he came by to see what
was wrong. When I convinced him that I was truly finished he picked up my exam
book, reviewed it, marked "98" on it, and asked me to see him in his
office the next day. When we met he told me that he had feared that I had
somehow cheated. He went on to
say that he had reviewed my academic record and was no longer concerned but he
was interested in my projected future. After I had reviewed my plans, he said
that they were a waste of time and talent, that he was a bachelor with no
immediate family and that he would like to advance me the money to complete
medical school with no security except an insurance policy on my life for
which he would pay the premiums. He went back to Boston for the summer, A few
weeks later I received notice that he had suddenly died of a heart attack.
Back to Plan
A except that it was becoming increasingly obvious that the kind of job that I
could get with a two-year teaching certificate would pay me very little
money. I shifted to a four-year plan and chose courses that would get me
the maximum number of accreditations. I opted for social science, biological
science, English, and Latin. I was still commuting and had
virtually no social or
recreational life. I spent the summer on the farm and waited eagerly for
school to resume. I was anxious to finish and I received permission to take 24
quarter hours of academic credit in the fall. I took up cross-country
running and got to know the track coach. The winter quarter was uneventful
except that on March 6, 1933 President Roosevelt ordered that all banks be
closed. I could not register for the spring quarter. I had sufficient money in
the bank but could not touch any of it. While I was pondering what to do an
unexpected visitor arrived. He was Dr. Leston L. Love, the same Junior Dean of
the College of Education who had invited me to take the experimental course
for freshmen with high scholastic promise. He had come to find out why I was
not registered since I was supposed to be given the First Annual Kappa Phi
Kappa Award to the "Outstanding Student in the Junior Division of the
College of Education." He sized up the situation immediately and said
that he would work something out so that I could return to school in the fall.
He kept his
promise. First, he got me admitted to the "Tower Club." The
University had developed several dormitory rooms in the South Tower of the
horseshoe shaped Ohio State Stadium. They were primarily for entering freshmen
with limited resources and high scholastic promise. However, a few upper
classmen were wanted for service as counselors and monitors. I was tapped as
one of those. I had a cot and a locker and shared a room with 23 freshmen who
had the same accommodations. Rent was one dollar per quarter. Meals were three
dollars per week. Hired cooks prepared the meals but the students did all of
the KP work. Having cut living expenses to the bone, he also provided a way
for me to earn those expenses and a bit more. The University actively
supported the National Youth Administration (NYA) program whereby students
could earn thirty cents or forty cents per hour assisting the faculty or
working in the libraries. Dr. Love did better than that.
He got me a job at fifty cents per hour, no maximum limit on hours, to
assist Dr. Sidney L. Pressey in the Psychology Department. Dr. Pressey put me
to work supervising his NYA workers of whom there were several. He also gave
me a special project.
Pressey was
already well known as an author, a test constructor, and an innovator in test
scoring machines. He had a real "Fibber McGee closet" of tests,
papers, reprints, etc. My special project was to catalog all of these
materials and assemble them in blue stationery boxes so that all of the items
on a given test would be together. At the end of the project he told me that I
had learned more from it than I would have learned from his course in Tests
and Measurements and that he would authorize the registrar to award me three
quarter hours of academic credit. From that point on I was shuffled around the
Department until I had been granted enough hours to have an undergraduate
major in psychology without ever taking any formal courses except General and
Educational. Meanwhile, the College of Education formulated plans for a
special "Degree with Distinction" to be awarded to graduates
possessing special ability to impact the educational process. Grades were to
be a factor but ability to influence was to be given higher priority. By that
time I was on the College of Education Council, the Student Senate, was
President of the Madison County Club, a Platoon Leader in ROTC, and an officer
in the Tower Club. I was chosen as one of the first candidates for the new
Degree with Distinction. The next year I became co-chairman of a
combined Faculty/Student Committee on Degrees with Distinction.
I mentioned
earlier that my cross-country running got me acquainted with the track
coach, Larry Snyder. That acquaintanceship led to a most fascinating project.
Jesse Owens, the fabulous track star, flunked his General
Psychology course in the fall quarter and was trying to make it up during
the winter quarter. Coach Snyder asked me if I would try to help Jesse. It
took only a few meetings to learn that Jesse was unable or unwilling to study
systematically but that he had an excellent memory. I developed 12 questions
that were very likely to be asked on the final exam and he learned the answers
to each. Eight of them actually appeared among the ten questions on the exam.
He answered each of them essentially as he had been taught. His instructor,
Dorothy Adkins, knew that I had been tutoring him and brought me his unmarked
exam book. I gave him a "76" and she gave him a "78." So
much for reflected glory.
My now legendary
tutoring skills introduced me to another world that had been mainly lacking in
my lifegirls. Some of the best looking girls in the school asked me
to bolster their knowledge when faced with making up for time lost to more
interesting pursuits. From the library it was only a short step to the campus
hangout where they taught me such diversions as contract bridge. I had already
learned poker at the Tower Club. All I needed now was a car and some money.
My string of
successes was rudely snapped by a young assistant professor who supervised my
required practice teaching course. I had been assigned to teach eighth grade
American History at a junior high located in a heavy industry sector in the
south end of Columbus. The pupils were primarily first or second generation
children of European immigrants and many of their parents spoke little
English. Complicating matters was the fact that they were "Z" group
students, the lowest of three academic performance levels used to group
students. They were typically overage for grade and also had poor attendance
records. The first few days were spent in trying to follow the course
syllabus. I got nowhere. In desperation I threw the syllabus out the window
and started to teach. I asked each child to go home and find out why his or
her parents or grandparents came to the United States, what thing or things of
value they brought with them, and what they liked about the United States. The
response was enthusiastic and we had a week of "show and tell." Each
youngster started a scrapbook and continued adding to it as additional
questions were introduced. Each new item was shown, demonstrated, or explained
to the entire class. We even had various ethnic foods brought to class for
sampling. Attendance reached almost one hundred per cent. My practice
teacher/observer simply shook his head at what he perceived as unorganized
bedlam. He gave me a B for the course and a lecture on how I had let
the class get away from me. The pupils gave me an assortment of simple
Christmas presents on my last day and something more valuable when they
outscored the "B" group on a school-wide final examination.
By the end of
my tenth quarter I had enough credits for the B.S. in Education degree. Both
Dr. Pressey and Dean Love wanted me to go on to graduate school and both
pointed out that no school jobs would be available until fall. I compromised,
stayed in school, and was given permission to take courses for graduate credit
in advance of the actual graduation. By June I had several job offers. The
highest paying was to handle remedial reading in the Crown Point, Indiana
public schools. A severe conflict arose when Dr. Ralph Tyler, head of the
Bureau of Educational Research at Ohio State, offered me a research project
aimed at evaluation of "traditional" versus "progressive"
high schools in the preparation of pupils for college. The project carried a
stipend that was about half of the Crown Point offer. However, it would allow
me to complete an M.A. in Psychology at virtually no cost. I was pressured by
Dean Arps, Dr. Arch 0. Heck, and other members of the Department of Education
who were convinced that "Progressive" would win out but who also
wanted concrete evidence. I finally agreed and set up a design that would
match each of the 35 progressive high school graduates who enrolled at Ohio
State with a "twin" who had graduated from a traditional high
school. In addition to formal campus records I collected information
throughout the year by questionnaire and interview. They all knew that they
were in some kind of study but did not know what it was.
Dr. Pressey
took me and several graduate students to the Midwestern Psychological
Association Annual Meeting at the University of Illinois. I do not recall much
about the program but I do remember meeting the vagaries of state liquor laws.
After the formal sessions a group of the conference participants convened at a
local bar. Each ordered a bottle of beer and the waitress asked for my ID. I
was refused service because I was not yet 21 years of age. I went across the
street, bought a bottle of sloe gin, returned to the same bar, purchased a
set-up and proceeded to share in the discussion.
By the end of
the school year I was fairly well committed to some kind of a career in
psychology but had not given up completely on my original plan. The final push
came when I was offered a job as school psychologist in the Mansfield, Ohio
public schools. The pay offered was above average for entry level and the job
outline was exciting. I accepted, was given some summer employment by Dr.
Tyler, and used part of that money to make the down payment on a used 1934
Ford automobile. By the time I got to Mansfield the job had been changed.
Financial problems resulted in cutting the School Psychologist's job to
half-time. The other half was to be spent teaching in junior high. At
some time over the next 3 years I taught Junior Business Training,
Language Skills, English Literature, and Girls Physical Education. The
caseload for individual assessments was light, primarily because I was
Mansfield's first School Psychologist and what I was supposed to do was
virtually unknown to the teachers and principals. I did studies. I introduced
a citywide ability and achievement testing program for sixth graders and
produced a report on non-achievers of low ability. I prevailed upon the
authorities to set up a vocational skills training program in what had been an
abandoned innercity school building. I got the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce
to support the project and to canvass the members for usable equipment and for
supplies. The school system had a required preschool medical exam that
was given each spring. I suggested a preschool psychological exam. A
simulated classroom with appropriately sized chairs and tables, a small play
area, and a piano was set up. Two of the primary grades substitute teachers
were assigned and given a plan of action. They had an "Observation
Sheet" to complete for each child, and were taught how to give the
Goodenough Draw-a-Man Test and the Lee Clark Reading
Readiness Test. The parent or surrogate who brought the child was asked to
complete a questionnaire that dealt with various facets of development and
maturity. During the summer I developed a write-up for each child and had it
in the hands of the teacher as school opened in September. I was able to
commit Mansfield's ninth grade to a national achievement test norming project
and received valuable information in return.
At the end of
the year I asked to be relieved of any teaching duties in order to serve as a
full-time school psychologist. The Board of Education turned me down,
citing continued financial straits. I argued but they did not accept what I
thought were facts. I may have alienated some of them a year earlier when I
pointed out that adding ten percent cut in pay that occurred earlier.
I finally tore my unsigned contract into sixteen pieces and left. I
immediately got a new job as a salesman trainee for Standard Oil Company
(Indiana) and was assigned to a Mansfield training station. This also had the
salutary effect of enrolling me in the Social Security System, a fact that I
appreciated much later when it also embraced the time that I spent in the
armed forces.
In midsummer
I received a communication from Dr. Heck, one of the Education Department
professors who had recommended me to Dr. Tyler. The Indianapolis, Indiana
Public School System was looking to replace their Director of Psychological
Service and he would be pleased to give me a recommendation if I were
interested. I thanked him and an interview was set up. I was offered and
accepted the job. As I reviewed the files of my predecessor I was struck by
their professional quality. The Board of Education secretary confided that
lack of production led to her termination. I figured that more than one could
play at that game. I developed an extensive case referral form to give me
insight on the true nature of the problem. I divided these roughly into
ability problems and behavioral problems. Each month I would pile up a
caseload number by giving the Stanford-Binet and/or other tests to those
where ability seemed to be the principal question. I would then devote
extensive time and effort to the behavioral problems where I thought I might
make a difference. I also developed close ties to the speech therapist, the
visiting nurse director, and the assistant superintendents. By previous
standards my caseload was barely short of phenomenal.
With a feel
for the need for psychological services, I approached Butler University with a
proposal that I teach a course in testing for the school principals of the
city of Indianapolis. I would then approve them for testing their own pupils
after I had reviewed the referral forms. The Butler administration agreed,
providing that I would also teach a course in Child Psychology and Educational
Psychology. I agreed to teach the three classes for the summer and the classes
were set for 8:00, 10:00, and 11:00. My boss was the Dean of the College of
Education and he had a class at 9:00. I was not an early riser and usually
came to work without breakfast. After my 8 o'clock I would go over to the
student center for breakfast. The Dean had a beautiful blonde secretary who
accepted my invitation to go have a "coke" while I was having my
breakfast. Dean Bail would not know because he was in class and another
secretary would cover for her. Before long I started picking her up after work
and by fall we were engaged. We were married Thanksgiving Eve of 1941 and she
is still my wife.
Though my
regular job was challenging and satisfying I was still very much interested in
research. I proposed that we survey the high school seniors for information on
their scholastic experiences, career aspirations, and general attitudes on
life and work. The proposal was accepted and a social studies representative
from each of the seven high schools was appointed to help provide content and
to be responsible for administration in their respective schools. Completed
questionnaires were received from 85 percent of the approximately 3,000
seniors. The final report was submitted one week before I entered the armed
forces.
My draft
classification was 1A but my order number was quite high. I felt reasonably
safe from an early call up and fully expected that my newly married status
would result in a reclassification to 3A. Pearl Harbor changed all that and I
was inducted into service on April Fool's Day, 1942. By the luck of the draw
and a good AGCT score I was assigned to the Air Force and remanded to
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri for basic training and school assignment. I was
tagged for Meteorological School at Chanute Field, Illinois and told that it
would probably be several months before I would be assigned to a class. I was
also told to apply for Officer Candidate School. Almost simultaneously I
received an application blank to complete if I wished a commission in the U.S.
Navy. Unfortunately, it contained a proviso that it should not be completed if
I was already in service. Meanwhile, my basic training was limited to only
eight days because of my ROTC training at Ohio State. I was then assigned to
the Company Commander's office as a general flunky and was warmly welcomed as
an extra pair of hands in a sparsely manned office. I was soon called to the
base Classification Office for an assignment based on my civilian experience.
Each evening I was to review the results of the day's processing, compare the
test results with the personnel record for each soldier, and spot suspected
anomalies, cases where the data appeared discrepant. These men were called in,
interviewed and usually retested with a nonverbal form. I was also given
access to a variety of data for any personnel research that I wished to
perform. Several of these little projects came to the attention of Dr. Kenneth
E. Clark, then a civilian Technical Advisor with the Air Force Training
Command. Arrangements were being made for my transfer to that facility when my
orders came through for appointment to the Adjutant General's Officer
Candidate School at Fort Washington, Maryland.
Just before
graduation, Major Roger M. Bellows came to the school to interview for the
Personnel Research Section of The Adjutant General's Office in Washington,
D.C. Lloyd Lofquist and I were chosen. In spite of this I received other
orders at the graduation ceremony. I was ordered to Joliet, Illinois with a
ten day delay enroute to visit my wife in Indianapolis. We drove together to
Joliet and stayed overnight in a local hotel. The next day I drove to the
Fort. I was met with an angry, "Where in the hell have you been?" I
produced my orders and showed that I was on time. The receiving officer then
produced a new set, a telegram that ordered me to report to the Pentagon. He
was in such a hurry that he produced a fistful of gasoline ration coupons
while I was signed in and out. Jean was pregnant at the time and we did not
hurry on our way to Washington. We checked into a hotel, had a good dinner,
and a good night's sleep. The next day I was finally checked into Personnel
Research. I was given a desk and introduced to the three civilians whom I
would "supervise"Dr. Edwin R. Henry, Dr. Albert K. Kurtz,
and Dr. Karl Dallenbach. We had barely become acquainted before lightning
struck again. The Army declared the Washington, D.C. area an unacceptable
assignment for officers less than 28 years of age. Jean and I were still
living in a hotel and she was now several months along in her pregnancy. A
tactical solution was developed. I would go to Keesler Field at Biloxi,
Mississippi to conduct on-site research into the selection of Air Force
Airplane Mechanics. Because of Jean, they would schedule stops at Air Force
bases along the way, each about 250 miles apart. I would visit the base and
observe what airplane mechanics actually did and what difficulties they
encountered. We finally made it to Biloxi and found an apartment in the
converted locker room of the Great Southern Golf Club.
The research
went well. Quality data were collected on several paper-and-pencil
and mechanical assembly tests. Criteria for measuring a
"success-in-training" criterion were developed and
living was easy. My son was born in the Keesler
Field Station Hospital, the first boy in a newly constructed maternity wing.
He was spoiled rotten before he left the hospital. Suddenly there was a new
challenge. The Army decided to eliminate the preferential status of the Air
Force with respect to draftees and enlistees. Now they would have to take
their fair share of the Category V soldiers, those who were 1.5 standard
deviations or lower on the Army General Classification Test. Keesler Field was
to be one of the major staging areas for the evaluation of these men in an
effort to determine if they could be trained for any Military Occupational
Specialty (MOS). Commandant Colonel Goolrick knew of my research and asked if
I could set up an evaluation scheme since none had been provided by either the
Army or the Air Force. He promised to assign me any men whom I might pick from
the processing line for Airplane Mechanics School. My first find was John R.
Barry, a washed‑out cadet flyer who had a Masters in psychology from
Syracuse University. With his help we found four others with professional
interviewing and/or testing experience. We essentially repeated what I had
done earlier at Jefferson Barracks. We found a surprising number of the men
had language problems, not ability problems. We even got involved in the
development of special training aids.
Meanwhile,
the bulk of the Personnel Research Section had moved to an office building in
New York City and I was free to join the parent group. Jean and my son (Paul
Edward) went home to Indianapolis and I went to New York. I found an apartment
to sublet and they soon joined me. Personnel Research had been reorganized and
I found myself to be Executive Officer of a special research unit headed by
Dr. E. R. Henry. This lasted only a few months and I was back on the road
again with a set of orders that I find unbelievable to this day. They assigned
me to temporary duty with the Army Air Forces Training Command in Fort Worth,
Texas and such additional places as necessary to complete the mission. The
mission was to find out why so many airplane mechanics were unqualified to
perform their duties. The orders were issued by The Adjutant General himself
in the name of General George C. Marshall. They were endorsed by General H. H.
Arnold, head of the Air Forces, and by Lieutenant General Yount, head of the
Air Forces Training Command at Fort Worth. The orders essentially gave me
permission to write my own ticket for whenever and wherever I pleased and to
draw funds as necessary to meet expenses. After a trip to Fort Worth to clear
protocol I visited all the basic training schools, the advanced training
schools for specialty aircraft, and even the factories. It became evident that
a large part of the problem was faulty or inappropriate criteria for
certification plus an enormous pressure for cutting corners on time. My final
report was to General Yount who accepted it with thanks and told me to write
myself a commendation. When I demurred he said that I was the only one who
knew what I did. I drafted one that reached me in Washington several months
later with enough endorsements to choke a calf. The trip had its odd moments
such as the time I was quartered in the beach home of Bebe Daniels and Ben
Lyons and the continual amazement of my sergeant drivers when a First
Lieutenant appeared. Perhaps the most unusual was the time I routed myself
from the Los Angeles area to the New York City area so that I could see my
wife and son and change from winter to summer uniforms. I returned to
Personnel Research in New York at the completion of the project but did not
stay there long.
The Army
embarked on a major research project to determine which officers would be
offered regular commissions at the end of hostilities. Personnel Research
would handle the project but a tremendous liaison effort would be needed to
gain cooperation of the various armed services. I was sent to Washington
with the fanciful title of Assistant Chief of Personnel Research to be the
principal liaison person. My principal contact was a brigadier general in the
Office of the Chief of Staff, G-1.
In Personnel Research it was Dr. Robert J. Wherry. A working paper
draft was agreed upon by the general and Dr. Wherry and all the armed services
were to be invited to a special presentation. I drafted a letter of
invitation, cleared it with the general, and set about finding someone to sign
it. Lieutenant Colonel Marion W. Richardson was the official head of Personnel
Research and he was unavailable. The Branch Chief was also unavailable. I
wound up in the office of the Division Chief, hearing that his favorite
expression was, "The answer is No! Now tell rile why I'm wrong." I
explained the situation and asked if he would sign the letter. He stared at me
and said, "You're an adjutant general. Sign it yourself." (For those
who are unfamiliar with Army practice, graduates of The Adjutant General's
School do not have to indicate their rank. Graduates of all other arms and
services schools must do so whenever they act as adjutant for a superior.)
Needless to say, some Army brass was quite upset when they found that the
meeting would be hosted by a First Lieutenant, even though the presentation
would be made by a distinguished civilian. Miraculously, my captain's bars
were awarded within a week of my signing the letter.
While the
research was underway, I inadvertently inherited some other responsibilities.
I mentioned that Lieutenant Colonel Richardson was head of Personnel Research.
In that position he was also a member of a
number of high level
inter-service and inter-agency groups such as the Office of
Scientific Research and Development, The Army-Navy-OSRD Night
Vision Research Committee, and various special project teams. Richardson's
contributions were greatly appreciated but he was frequently undependable,
particularly if he had lunch at a place that served stingers. I was designated
his alternate, to go to scheduled meetings and quietly excuse myself if he
showed up. He was quite aware of this and I think it gave him a new found
freedom. After only a few of these meetings I was asked to stay, regardless of
the appearance or nonappearance of the colonel. I met and became friends with
an entirely new group of scientists, exemplified by such names as John Darley
and Dael Wolfle. The latter even took me on a special trip to the submarine
base at New London, Connecticut.
The officer
retention project was finally completed and adopted after a presentation to
General Marshall and his aides by Bob Wherry. Among my jobs was to explain the
procedure to be followed by each of the arms and services. The next step was
to take the procedure overseas. Four central locations were establishedFrankfurt, Germany; Honolulu; Cairo, Egypt, and Tokyo, Japan with
intermediate stops at Manila and Okinawa. I was given my choice of the four
and chose the Far East. Dr. G. Hamilton Crook was assigned as my technical
partner and Brigadier General Christmas was assigned as the "front
man" for the team. The usual snafus occurred but General Christmas was
able to turn them into sightseeing occasions for Ham and me. I gave up my air
return priority and was rewarded with a week in Kyoto, the shrine city of
Japan. I returned by troop ship and managed to prove the superiority of mind
over matter. I was assigned to a cabin with 17 other captains. As we left
Yokohama the ship started listing heavily as we crossed the Japanese current.
Someone wondered how much the ship heeled. I took off my dog tags, hung them
over the light bulb above a mirror, and used a bar of soap to mark each
extreme roll. Someone suggested a small wager on when the extreme would be
attained. Markers were prepared, lots were drawn, quarters were placed, and I
marked each extreme roll. At chow time we were the only cabin to descend
enmasse on the mess hall.
I called
Indianapolis as soon as we docked in Seattle. Jean was in tears, wanting to
know why I had not written. I explained that I had sent some form of
communication each and every day. She obviously did not believe me. I was a
nervous wreck by the time the train reached Indianapolis. She met me with
smiles and hugs. I had been vindicated. The day before I arrived three months
of mail tied up with a red ribbon had been delivered.
I was finally
relieved from active duty in May of 1946. I merely changed from a uniform to
civilian clothes and became Unit Head of the Performance Evaluation and
Criterion Research Unit of the Personnel Research Section. I retrieved my
family from Indiana, including a second son, and moved to New Jersey.
Personnel Research was moved back to the Pentagon. Ed Henry, Don Baier, and I
all lived in Oradell, New Jersey with our families. We did not want to uproot
them and we commuted home on Friday evenings and back to Washington on Sunday
nights. The three of us shared an apartment with Bob Wherry whose family was
in North Carolina. In the summer of 1947 Secretary of War Kenneth Royal issued
an order that mandated severe cutbacks of civilian personnel in all Washington
offices. I resigned.
Meanwhile,
various persons associated with personnel research in all of the armed
services formed a corporation to offer similar services to business, industry,
and government. The firm was named Richardson, Bellows, Henry & Company.
The start up was small, Richardson and a secretary. I joined to work on a
project with Schaefer Brewing Company on selection of salesmen. Even before
this project was finished RBH landed a large contract with the U.S. Navy to
study preflight training operations at the Pensacola Naval Base. A team of
researchers was assembled for fulltime duty in Pensacola. Dr. E. E. Cureton
was the lead scientist. Roger Berkshire, Thornton Karlowski, and Leonard
Seeley were to be researchers. I was to be the project administrator. As
things turned out I also became an author. Research indicated a glaring
deficiency in the training skills of the aviators who were assigned to teach
both the subject matter and the performance skills. I practically lived with
some of the instructors for several weeks, gathering specific examples of good
and bad practice. I then wrote a treatise entitled Psychology and
Principles of Instruction for a course that would be required before an
aviator could be a trainer.
Ed Henry had
also left Personnel Research to work at RBH. One of his first projects was a
review of employee selection and evaluation practices of the worldwide
operations of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). At the conclusion of the
review he accepted an offer to join the company as head of a newly created
research group. One of his first accomplishments was to help Esso Standard
Oil's Baton Rouge Refinery set up a project to research the selection and
evaluation of supervisors. Esso let a contract to RBH and Marion Richardson
was named to direct the project. I was asked to provide technical assistance.
This was a golden opportunity for me as I had been wanting a situation where I
could work toward a PhD in psychology. Both Louisiana State and Tulane
Universities would provide that opportunity but Jean and I both felt that New
Orleans would be a better place to live than Baton Rouge. I was accepted at
Tulane and worked out a schedule that allowed me to go to school and also work
on the Refinery project. The school itself was an interesting personal
experience. For the first time in my life I was older than most of my fellow
students. The situation was even more exaggerated because I had already worked
with many of the persons whose articles were being studied. In two years I had
completed the academic requirements, passed my comprehensives, and the French
exam. I was studying German and developing a dissertation topic when the
fickle finger of fate moved again. My advisor, Dr. Harry Miles Johnson, died
after a short illness. He was the only truly applied psychologist in the
department and I was left without a sponsor. I was given the choice of running
rats with Dr. Irion or doing brass instrument research with Dr. Tsai. I
reluctantly put the doctoral degree on hold.
Meanwhile,
the research project at Esso had been quite successful. Numerous Army
techniques had been verified for civilian use. A biodata form had been
constructed and validated. A forced-choice performance appraisal form
had been validated against an alternation ranking criterion. The Refinery was
ready to move into new areas. Dr. Richardson had been slowly devoting his time
to other RBH projects and I had been assuming more and more of the project
responsibility at Baton Rouge. It was agreed that I would handle the new
projects and I was given permission to open a New Orleans Branch of RBH. Over
the next few years the clients of the new office spanned the Gulf Coast from
Pensacola, Florida to Houston, Texas, and as far north as St. Louis, Missouri.
I joined the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, the New Orleans
Personnel Association, the local chapter of the Society for Advancement of
Management, and helped found a New Orleans chapter of Junior Achievement. I
was a Lecturer in Psychology at Loyola University at New Orleans and a
frequent speaker at various kinds of conferences and conventions. I became a
member of the Southwestern Psychological Association and began somewhat
regular attendance at various psychological conventions, including APA. In
1958 1 was asked to submit a sample of technical reports to the Fellowship
Committee of Division 14. Somehow or other they managed to overlook the fact
that I had no publications in refereed journals and I was elected a Fellow of
Division 14 and APA.
The next year
I was invited into the home office in New York as the First Vice President and
a member of the Board of Directors. Jean did not have fond memories of our
previous stays in the New York City area and our sons were doing quite well in
New Orleans. Nevertheless, we finally concluded that we should make the move.
This time we went to Westport, Connecticut and I commuted to and from Grand
Central Station. It was a miserable existence in many ways. I did manage to
take enough time off to be an assistant coach in Westport's Police Athletic
League where our younger son was the MVP. We did enjoy bowling and the whole
family participated. We won trophies in almost every division. We knew that
the boys were getting an excellent education, particularly the elder who
enjoyed academic competition and finished Staples High School as the ranking
boy in his class. After graduation tie went to Lehigh and the younger son went
to Defiance (Ohio) College. We used to joke with Vance Packard that our old
car was not an example of planned obsolescence, that our new one was in some
college dorm room.
The new RBVI
job put me in contact with national management in such companies as IBM, GE,
AT&T, Archer-Daniels-Midland, St. Regis Paper but my personal
number one client was still Jersey Standard. With them I expanded my areas of
selection and evaluation research to include sales,
professional/technical personnel, and management. I had arrived as the
basic data collection had been completed for a mammoth research project on
Early Identification of Management. Dr. Harry Laurent of Jersey, Dr. MacEldin
Trawick of Esso Standard, and I shared the responsibility for data
interpretation, development of a battery of tests and questionnaires, and a
procedure for interpreting the results. The project attained national acclaim
in both professional psychology and management circles and I am proud to have
been a part of it. My outside activities increased. I was interviewed for
business magazines and books; I was asked to make more presentations than I
could conveniently handle. One of these was to the Sales Management Club of
New Orleans where I was proclaimed an Honorary Citizen and given the symbolic
Key to the City. I became active in the affairs of the Industrial Division of
the American Psychological Association (Division 14) and was appointed to the
Membership Committee in 1963. 1 became Chair of the Committee in 1965. In May
of 1963 1 was elected President of Richardson, Bellows, Henry & Co., Inc.
I began to dislike the job almost immediately. My days were filled with
financial, legal, and administrative minutiae. I couldn't even do sub rosa
research at night or on weekends.
Jersey
Standard went through a major reorganization. What had been several hundred
operating companies were consolidated into less than a dozen large regional or
functional organizations. All of the United States petroleum and chemical
operations were merged into a newly constituted Humble Oil & Refining
Company to be headquartered in Houston, Texas. Humble's management decided
that the expanded company should have its own staff capacity for personnel
research. RBH was contracted to find suitable candidates. Two excellent
prospects were found but no match was made. I interviewed both candidates and
Humble's management. I found that the two parties had been talking past each
other. Humble's management was trying to emphasize the creative freedom
offered by the job and listened for ideas from the candidates. The applicants
trotted out their skills and accomplishments but did not know enough about the
petroleum industry to make any meaningful suggestions for research. After
further discussions with Humble management it was agreed that a broad, but
specific, set of possible goals would be established without any restrictions
on how they might be accomplished. Five years was set as a possible time
table. The new job outline was brought to me in New York at the end of a very
frustrating administrative day. At dinner that evening I expressed approval of
the new outline and mused that I might even be interested in a job like that.
Later that evening I talked it over with Jean and we agreed that I would
accept the offer if it were made even though it would mean a small cut in pay.
Within 48 hours I was the new Personnel Research Coordinator of Humble Oil
& Refining.
I did not go
to Houston immediately. I was given a temporary office in the Esso Standard
headquarters and spent most of the first few months on the road administering
the EIMP management potential battery that had been renamed the Personnel
Development Series (PDS). Even after I had settled in Houston I was back on
the road again to administer the PDS until the entire country had been
covered. By the end of the year I could tell someone the best places to eat in
almost every major city in the United States and which airports were almost
unusable because they were "under construction." By the end of the
year several rather mundane projects were underway and I was looking for new
ideas. The issue of race discrimination in employment was a matter of high
media visibility and of some concern to Humble management. I felt that we
really didn't know much about inter‑racial variability.
I lacked personnel to mount exploratory studies so I set out to develop
extra minds and hands. The University of Houston had a small Industrial
Psychology unit with two able professors, Dr. John MacNaughton and Dr. Hobart
Osburn. I proposed that we set up an internship that would exist annually
until the company or the university decided that it was no longer
advantageous. We agreed on a series of principles in a contract that was
approved by the lawyers of both organizations. Clay Moore, a third
year graduate student became
the first Humble/University of Houston Traineeship. His 1968 PhD Dissertation
was entitled Ethnic Differences as Measured by a Biographical Inventory
Questionnaire. When I retired in 1982 Clay and seventeen successor
trainees presented me with an "In appreciation" plaque which read,
"This traineeship provided us with a unique opportunity to develop our
skills as Industrial Psychologists. Your guidance and encouragement provided
an invaluable assist to our careers."
As attention
to Equal Employment Opportunity matters increased, my involvement also
increased. Top management's position may be paraphrased as, "We will try
to do everything the law requires, and then some, but we will not be
bullied." I was given tremendous support for my efforts to persuade other
petroleum company managements and other psychologists to take the same
position. I joined the American Petroleum Institute, becoming Chair of its
Project Advisory Committee on Selection Techniques. Among the Committee's
accomplishments were: 1, a manual to interpret the various federal guidelines
and orders relating to equal employment opportunities; 2, a manual to describe
how to validate employee selection techniques, and , 3, a compilation of
validity study results relevant to the refining industry. I was given a
Resolution of Appreciation by the API for my part in this effort. I was also
invited to tell other industry associations how we accomplished the project. I
was appointed to a U.S. Department of Labor Advisory Committee on Selection
and Testing, a small group that was actively involved in the preparation and
content of several Federal regulations. I was on an APA Ad Hoc Committee on
Selection Guidelines and, later, on the APA Committee on Tests and
Assessments. I was on an Ad Hoc Industry Committee for Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection Procedures and Co-chair of its Technical
Subcommittee. This group produced A Professional and Legal Analysis of the
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, a volume that
integrated guidelines, research, and court decisions. I published in the Conference
Record, Personnel Administrator, Employee Relations Law Journal,
and EEO Today. I was a frequent visitor to the headquarters offices of
both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal
Contract Compliance Programs. Inside the company I was actively involved with
the Law Department in the preparation of defenses against charges of
discrimination and the occasional case that went to court. Manuals for
selection processing and records retention were written and rewritten. I
represented the company, API, APA, Division 14, and the Ad Hoc Industry Group
at various public hearings, sometimes wearing all five hats at once. Despite
our differences of opinion I was able to remain on speaking terms with almost
all of the leading spokespersons for greater affirmative action and
restrictions on the use of objective qualifications, including tests.
In 1970 the
University of Houston appointed me as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate
Studies Division. This was not a pro forma appointment. I had to submit a full
vita' and be approved by the authorities. Though I had served as an invited
member of several dissertation committees for our Humble interns, this new
status gave me the right to serve on such a committee and even be a
co-chair for any graduate student whose research
was in my area of competence. I also was asked to evaluate the qualifications
and probable contributions of applicants for faculty positions in applied
psychology. That same year I became a Certified Psychologist under a new Texas
Law. Some years later I became a Texas Licensed Psychologist after an
interpretation by the Texas Board that I could not legally supervise Licensed
Psychologists and could not escape licensing even though I had no dealings
with the public and did not use the word "psychologist" in my job
title of Personnel Research
Coordinator. The whole situation was somewhat amusing since I had participated
by invitation in writing multiple-choice items for the licensing exam.
One summer afternoon
I received a call that I am sure sent my blood pressure soaring. The voice on
the other end informed be that I had been been elected President of the
Division of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. It was a very emotional
moment and sent me back through so many choice points in my educational and
vocational career. It was certainly a far cry from being either a medical
doctor or a superintendent of schools. I knew that I had support of members of
the Executive Committee. After all, they had kept me on committees and in
chairman roles almost continually for fifteen years. But, I couldn't help but
wonder where the other votes had come from since my publication record was
sparse and many members of the Division had interests other than selection and
placement. Nevertheless, I assumed my duties for the next 3 years with
enthusiasm. I confess that I do not have a vivid memory of that period. I
would really need to go back to the minutes of the various meetings to give an
account of the problems that were uppermost. A few do stand out.
In 1974, the
Executive Committee of Division 14 asked Dr. Robert M. Guion and Dr. Mary
Tenopyr to co-chair the preparation of an official Division position on
the validation and use of personnel selection procedures. It was aimed at
modifying APA's Standards for Educational & Psychological Tests to
fit more closely the needs of industrial psychologists. By 1978 that
publication was in need of substantial revision. Guidelines and Orders of EEO
enforcement agencies, court decisions, and numerous new research findings
combined to suggest a revised document. As President I appointed Dr. William
A. Owens and Dr. Mary Tenopyr (President Elect) as Co‑Chairs and an
Advisory Panel to formulate a revision. I was very conscious of the fact that
there was criticism of the production of the previous document, despite the
fact that there had been open invitations to review drafts in process. Working
with Mary Tenopyr who succeeded me, a draft was mailed to every member of the
Division along with a questionnaire asking for a rating of each section for
clarity and agreement.
State
licensing procedures were becoming onerous for many industrial psychologists.
An Ad Hoc Committee on State Affairs had been established the year prior to my
term. It had accomplished little and its Chair was replaced with Dr. William
Howell who developed a nationwide network of Division members for
communication and monitoring. Another area of concern and controversy was the issue of specialty standards. APA had published a revised Standards
for Providers of Psychologists in 1977 but these were generic standards.
The APA Committee on Professional Standards was also charged with developing
standards for clinical, counseling, industrial/organizational, and school
psychologists. Frank Friedlander and Virginia Schein of Division 14 were on
that committee. Thomas Tice and C.J. Bartlett were liaison from the Division
Executive Committee. Drafts appeared continually throughout my term and into
the next. The "standards" were finally downgrade to
"guidelines" and published in 1981 as Specialty Guidelines for
the Delivery of Services.
I began my
term in a rather uncertain physical condition. I had recently had my
sympathetic nerves severed to minimize severe pains in the calves of both
legs. Meetings with committee chairs were held in a parlor adjacent to my
sleeping quarters. My sightseeing in Toronto was restricted to viewing the
plaza across the street from the hotel and to observations from the seat of a
tour bus. Jack Larsen carefully escorted me across the cobblestones to the
hotel next door so that I could chair the Incoming Executive Committee
Meeting. By the end of the year I was back in full swing. In Houston a few
senior psychologists were concerned that junior psychologists and graduate
students were being shortchanged. Neither the Southwestern Psychological
Association nor the Texas Psychological Association were offering programs
pertinent or interesting to I-O types. We proposed that a group be
formed to be known as the Houston Area Industrial-Organizational
Psychologists (HAIOP). The group was modeled after similar associations in New
York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, organizations that had elected me to
honorary membership. The group was formed after considerable debate on
membership
qualifications. It was finally agreed that membership would be open to anyone
whose activities or studies involved I-O psychology and would have no
formal credential requirements. In 1984 they elected me an Honorary Lifetime
Member, complete with the traditional roast.
After
completing my term as president I continued to serve on APA and Division 14
committees, to work with business and industry groups, and to make
presentations. At the APA conventions I was now more likely to chair a session
or to be a discussant than I was to present a topic. Though I was reaching
retirement age I had no thought of bowing out. Dr. R. Stephen Wunder had come
to work with me in 1978 and proved to be an exceptionally able researcher. The
Baton Rouge Refinery that had been in my early career continued to lead in the
support of research. This time they wanted to know how they could get more
women in the blue-collar operations, laboratory, and maintenance jobs.
A contract was worked up with Advance Research Resources Organization (ARRO)
and a major study was initiated to determine the actual physical
qualifications required for all these jobs and to measure the relative
abilities of male and female personnel to meet these qualifications. Steve
Wunder and Dr. Joyce Hogan of ARRO were the leaders of this research. On
another front was research into performance evaluation of management personnel
based on a content analysis of their jobs. Personnel Decisions Research Inc. (PDRI)
was hired as consultants for this project and I initiated the job analysis
phase covering every job level from initial professional/technical assignment
through the vice presidential level. Steve completed the project after I
retired October 1, 1982.
Even
though I had many things that I wished to do in retirement, I couldnt see
them as occupying all of my
time. I decided to set myselfup
as a consultant but I wanted to be very selective in my choice of activities.
I also needed a name for the proposed enterprise. I did not wish to use any of
the traditional "_____& Associates" because I did not want to
have any associates and felt that implying the existence of such did not fit
my personality. Shortly before retirement I received telephone calls from
three separate Exxon installations, each asking for information that I did not
have readily available. In each instance I was able to refer the caller to one
or two of the most highly respected psychologists in that field, secure in the
knowledge that the use of my
name
would almost ensure a favorable reception.
I summarized the three situations to Steve with the conclusion,
"Isn't that serendipitous?" He promptly named my new venture
"Serendipity" and after some fiddling with variations I became the
sole proprietor of Texas "Serendipity Unlimited." A wag later
remarked that I could open a London office and call it Serendipity Limited.
Business
began almost immediately. Jean and I went to Anchorage, Alaska where
Serendipity had been contracted to review the selection and testing procedures
of Alyeska Pipeline Company and to make recommendations. Soon after the
completion of that project I was asked to review a Houston Independent School
District project aimed at constructing and validating a minimum competency
testing program for incumbent teachers. HISD was particularly interested in
how an industrial firm would tackle such a project, particularly a firm that
had experience with discrimination charges. Other projects followed but the
ratio of acceptances to offers has slowly diminished until I currently have
only one project, the construction and validation of a biodata form for police
officers.
Almost
coincident with retirement I was invited to do chapters for several
professional books in personnel administration and psychology. Some of these
have now been published and one or two are "in press." I have been
asked to serve on the Advisory board of the Test Validity Yearbook, the
first volume of which is now being printed. I still get calls and letters from
graduate students throughout the United States and answer every one.
Overshadowing all of these was my being give the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Professional Practice Award for 1987. My 1988 acceptance
address was entitled "My Love Affair with Biodata" and included
pertinent parts of what you have read here.
I have been a
participating church member all my life, the past 25 years
spent with the same church. Until I retired I was not very active, largely
because of my travel schedule. Upon my retirement it appeared to the church
that I would have little to do and they would play their part in keeping me
busy. They elected me and Elder and gave me a department to chair. I have now
been rotated through several departments and given the title of Elder
Emeritus.
I learned to
play golf at Ohio State over 50 years ago but never challenged the likes of
Jack Nicklaus. I played very little from the 'Lime of my entry into service
until I went to Houston. Playing an average of about twice per week I got my
handicap down to twelve. It jumped after operation but I was still able to
play with the assistance of a riding golf cart. After retirement I was able to
play an average of about three times per week and actually began to improve my
game slightly. Four years ago I was set back when they removed about three
cancerous feet of my descending colon. I'm back on the links and holding my
own. My older son studied my statistics and projected that I should be able to
"shoot my age" by the time I am 115 unless my rate of decline
increases.
It has been
an interesting life with many more highs than lows. I look forward to what is
left of it.