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Page 18 text:
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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?
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Page 17 text:
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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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Page 19 text:
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A: That sometimes is a question in my own mind. I’m not sure: 1 was visited by a committee of regents looking lor a president this was over nine years ago I’m sure that they had some prerequisites in mind. They wanted some- body who understood the changes that were taking place at Augsburg in terms of its relationship to the church. They probably wanted somebody that had had some previous connection with the college. And I did at- tend here. I was conversant with the church and with the community and I had some exposure to academic problems, and so on. by virture of my associations in Moorhead. So I guess it was just a matter of the com- mittee deciding that I had had the sufficient experience and background and that my philosophy would fit the goals and objectives of the college and they asked me to come dow n. Q: Your academic background was St. Olaf. wasn’t it? A: I have a degree from St. Olaf. because I completed my college work down there, after two years here. My family came out of a Lutheran background that had St. Olaf as its college: one of its colleges. And my father had at- tended there and there was always kind of a desire to finish down there. It was partly because of depression circumstances that I wasn’t able to go away from home the first two years. I was very happy that I came here to Augsburg because I had some tremendous teachers and some fine contacts and a great experience here but I think when you go to two schools, you have that many more contacts. Q: Did you commute to Augsburg? A: Yes. I lived over in St. Anthony Park and took the long streetcar ride and transfer downtown, and sometimes transfer twice if you didn't catch the right car. then you always had to take another transfer. It was a long, la- borious ride. It took about an hour every day each way. You stayed here all the time and worked in the library and then did your college job. The job I had to help me through school had to be taken care of sometime during the school day, and so you had to go to school and do the job and go back to class. Q: What was your job at Augsburg? A: Well, I had two jobs. The first year I washed the walls in Old Main that was quite a job and this was under what was known as the National Youth Administration, which was he form of financial aid that was in effect during the depression. The government said the student can take a job on campus for 35 c an hour and then his time card can be turned into the federal agency and the agency will pay the college that amount of money. I never saw the money —it went directly to the treasurer’s office. That way we paid the tuition which was at that time 25 dollars a quarter. The other job I got the second year I was here was transcribing music for the choral director here. That was a very interesting job. lie had a lot of things he want- ed transcribed and that he wanted duplicated and so on. And I did a lot of work like that. It became a very in- teresting job. I wonder sometimes w here those things that I did are now filed, because the music director at that time was Henry Opscih. and I did a lot of work for him. and whenever I came back on campus years later, he’d always go to the file and pull those things out that I had done for him. And I often wonder w hat became of them. Q: Do you think maybe that they're still around? A: Could very very well be Sateren might know where they are. Q: Well. I think that does it. A: Do you think that does it? Q: I think that does it. A: Well. okay... 15
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