Augsburg College - Augsburgian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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and so I don't recall too much stringency at that time. tory, and that became my major in college. I've had a number of rather able and interesting and provocative history teachers and this even began in high school. Q: You don’t really need curfews then. A: Well. I don't think under those circumstances. I guess 1 didn't go out that much at night so maybe I didn't need any fence like that. Q: What do you remember about your first date? A: My first date? Q: Yes. A: I'm afraid I can’t remember anything about it. I guess I told you last time one of the outstanding dates that I re- member in high school was the fact that I took my first airplane ride with a girl and another couple in a Ford Tri- motor over Minneapolis and St. Paul. It was the first time I'd ever been up in an airplane, l ive bucks apiece. The other fella paid the way 1 couldn't afford it. Q: Were you involved in any sports in high school? A: I only went out for one interscholastic sport and that was tennis and I wasn’t very successful at that. The extra- curricular work I was engaged in most of the time had to do with forensics, oratory and debate. Q: Were you pretty involved in that then? A: Yes. Q: Did that take quite a bit of your time? A: Yes it did. We put a lot into it in oratorical contests and also quite a bit of debate work. We couldn't travel very much in those days but we did manage to take on some other schools. Q: What did you do in your lime outside of high school and outside of debate t hen? A: Well. I don’t know just how to put that. I remember hav- ing to do a great deal with respect to my family. My fa- there was ill during the time I was in high school. All the time I was a senior he was a patient at Fairview Hospital and I always left school when my day was over and when my other activities were completed and look a streetcar to Fairview Hospital and spent hours with him and then took the streetcar ride, with two transfers, home to St. Paul. Q: Did you work at all during high school? A: Here and there, spasmodically. It wasn't as easy for youngsters that age to find jobs during the depression, but here and there a job now and then. Q: How big was your graduating class from high school? A: I don’t really recall. I think we must have numbered around 40. 45. something like that. I graduated from Min- nehaha Academy, so it was a smaller, private school. Q: Did you have a curfew in high school? A: I can't recall that I did. I guess it was an understanding that 1 should be in at a decent hour, but there were some times when it wasn’t quite that: but I had a pretty good relationship with my parents at that point. They kinda knew what I was doing, and I was willing to tell them. Q: That was about the best date. A: That's right. That's one I can remember. Q: What was your favorite story? A: Do you mean humorous story, or story out of a book or what? Q: Story out of a book or radio. A: Well, my father had a couple of books by a humorist named Strickland Gilleland and I used to love to hear him read stories out of those books, particularly one story that had to do with a fella's experience waiting for a train that was late and his experience in trying to get into a sleeping berth in this particular train it was a very humorous thing. It didn't have any particular point it was a series of absurd situations described in a very com- ical manner and we just used to love to listen to this in fact I memorized it once and used it as a exercise in elocu- tion. It was about 8 or 10 pages long. Q: Did you listen to the radio a lot ? A: We did listen to the radio a lot that was the chief past- time in those days. It started out in the early 20’s by try- ing to see how far away you could tunc in. It was called DX'ing and later on you had your favorite heroes, .lack Armstrong and all the rest, but during the 20’s and 30’s that was a tremendous way to get at the outside world and 13

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Oscar Tells All.. . Rapping With the President EDITORS NOTE: ihe AUGSBURG I AN owes a vote of thanks to President Anderson for helping make this article possible. Thanks. Also, an “A” for effort is given to a staff member, wish- ing to remain anonymous, who, fighting a battle with a faulty tape recorder, made two trips to in- terview Anderson and complete this story, which is an unedited, word-for-word conversation. Questions by the AUGSBURG IAN staff Answers by Pres. Oscar Anderson Q: I hate to go through it all again. A: So do I. Q: What is the earliest thing that you remember in your life? A: Well. I don't know what I told you last time, but I guess it was vacationing with my family on a little island out on Puget Sound. All I can remember is that we had a dog. and it was the only dog we ever had. and the dog's name was Pogie. That's about the earliest recollection I think I have. Q: When did the words Augsburg College first become a part of your vocabulary? A: Well. I lived in the cities here, so 1 knew about Augsburg College, which at that time had both a high school and a seminary connected with it. and when I was in high school I remember debating against a debate team from Augs- burg prep school or the Academy as it was called, so I would imagine that one could say back in high school days. Q: What similarities do you see between yourself as a college student when you were and students at Augsburg? A: You mean my own experience as a college student and the students today? Q: Yes. A: Well I suppose that one of the things that was of tremen- dous concern to us back in the depression when I went to college was the problem of money. How to finance your education is a common denominator between the students of my day and the students today. I think there was a sense also at that time of a world-wide depression and there's no doubt that had a great deal to say to our own outlook on things, while the problems of that time were very simple compared to those today: nevertheless, there was a pervasiveness about that particular economic crisis that had a marked effect on the way in which we looked at things. Q: Do you think students are more optimistic today? A: I think they're less optimistic today. I think they tend to be more discouraged, somewhat dispairing because of the complexity and massiveness of the problems and be- cause of certain disillusionmcnts. In the depression we were still sure that if we really tightened our belts and went to work somehow or other we'd survive and we'd make it. We still carried what some people call the old American Dream and I guess somehow or other we managed. I think this comes out very definitely in a book that I’ve been reading entitled HARD TIMES by Eric Turkle. in which he interviews people who lived through the de- pression. In the depression there was no attempt to blame anybody else. Everybody kind of took the blame for him- self and figured he was gonna have to find his own way out of the hole into which we had fallen. Q: What kind of a school did you go to when you were in the elementary grades? A: I started school at a grade school in St. Paul, in what is known as St. Anthony Park. It was a very old building—I understand it was condemned at the time and it stood for another 25 years after that but it was a school that served the community that surrounds the University-St. Paul campus and the Luther Seminary campus, and it was a very interesting community and a very interesting school. I remember my first grade teacher very well because there were a lot of people that had her over her 40 or 50 year tenure as a first grade teacher in St. Anthony Park School. It started out as Murray School, was changed to Gun- nerson School, and its subsequent school, a new one. now is the St. Anthony Park Elementary School. Q: Did you ever play hooky? A: 1 don't recall that I ever did. I am sure that I was tempted to. Q: I think everybody is. What was your favorite subject in high school? A: In high school I think I developed my real interest in his-

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to be entertained. Q: What was your favorite radio program? A: Well, there was a fellow by the name of Henry Berbig on the Sec-0 Program that had a whole series of dialect readings that I always thought were great - I remember sending in for them and getting them. They were take- offs on fables and stories. That was one program. Another program that I remember very well was the “Eddie Can- tor Program.” But I suppose the one that everybody listened to was “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” Couldn't go to bed with- out listening to “Amos V Andy. Q: Do you think there are different kinds of college presi- dents? And what kind would you say you arc? A: Well. I guess there are. Are you saying different kinds of of college presidents then and now or now? Q: Now. A: Well, I guess there are. as there are different individuals and different styles of operating. My background is not in the academic world and therefore 1 may tend to operate differently than somebody who comes out of that back- ground. That may be bad, may be good, but I’ve always tried to operate with the principle that it's people that you serve, and people must be listened to and involved, and a part of the whole thing. 1 know that I have a tendency to sound authoritarian but 1 try not to be: I just think there's a tremendous job to be done and I guess I’m a little im- patient sometimes to get it done, but you can’t do this at the expense of other people, so I’ve always tried to take a team approach to things and not to simply operate from an autocratic stance. Q: What do you think of more student participation in plan- ning? A: Well. I always think this is important because the greatest unused resource around the college, of course, are the stu- dents and you can get a tremendous amount of informa- tion. valuable input, and imagination from students. I think that their input has to be at the level of their ex- perience and maturity, but it’s nonetheless just as valu- able as other people’s and I think that there arc numbers of examples of this. I think of the tremendous student input that went into the building of the Tower and the Center. I think of the student input that has gone into the planning of our apartment tower and I think the student input in the Strap Council this year has been very, very important. I think we’ve got to try and meld the various segments of the community and operate as colleagues and not in any kind of conflict. Q: Do you think there’s effective lines of communications between students and you? A: Communications is never as effective as it ought to be. Most of your problems arise out of lack of communica- tion. An I don’t think that there’s a lack of desire to com- municate. I think sometimes there’s a breakdown in the awareness of the importance of communication. Com- munication takes time, and when you don’t have a lot of time you tend to make the decisions and move on to some- thing else, forgetting somebody ought to know about this, and when you think about that, there’s always somebody you miss and the one that you miss usually creates the problem because he didn’t know about it. So I think it all goes back to developing a kind of mind set where you constantly say to yourself ‘who’s affected by this.’ and (who ought to know about this,’ ’who cares to know about this,’ and in that way get understanding. I feel that every time I have really honestly tried to communi rate a situation, a problem or a decision to a group of stu Jems, their level of maturity and understanding always astounds me. They understand a lot better than the people my own age. Q: I think that college students sometimes can have a pretty open mind but then again other times... A: Well. I guess in that way they’re no different than any- body else. But I suppose we would be failing miserably in our efforts here if we didn’t try to or didn’t succeed in getting people to open their minds. In other words, if we’re dealing with closedminded people then we’re in the wrong place or not getting the job done. U Q: How did you get to become President of Augsburg?