I'm mary Logan, ralph child. I came to a S. U. In 1975 as an assistant
professor in the history department. I am now professor emeritus to, I've
been retired since 2007, my name is Herman are fraser and uh I was
actively involved and employed at Arizona State University from 1979 until
2000 when I departed to take a position at the University of Alabama
Birmingham. As the athletics director at that time. My name is martin Monk.
When I retired, I was a professor of chemistry uh in the, which is now
the school of Molecular sciences. It was then the department of chemistry
and biochemistry. My name is Winifred Walsh Doan. I was a professor of
zoology when I retired From ASU in 1998.
My name is Gary Klieman. I've had several positions. Um I was the director
of the learning, I was the director of faculty development, I was the
director of the portfolio initiatives and the director of lifelong
learning at the polytechnic campus. At the time I retired, I was also a
faculty member in the College of Engineering Technology and Innovation.
Hello, I was formerly the university librarian at A S. U. That was a
title change from Dean of the University Libraries
Herman when you stood on the olympic podium and you received your gold
medal for the four by four relay um four by 400. Um and then also your
bronze medal. What was it like to stand on that podium knowing that you
were the best at that sport that day in the world. Well a lot of people
tell me I was lucky um because as I stated earlier, I didn't start running
until I was a senior, I come to Arizona state in 1974 and then in 1976, 2
years later I'm getting a gold medal in the bronze medal in the Olympics.
So that really doesn't happen. Um you normally hear people say, well I
trained for 20 years, I trained for 10 years and I got this metal, well I
was fortunate to to be able to do that and also because I had transferred
um I was only a junior in college here in Arizona state and so I then had
an opportunity to come back for my senior year of college, so when I'm on
that podium and I was the only one in college who was on the relay that
got the gold medal and Then I received the bronze medal, which meant I was
ranked 3rd in the world. And one of the things I I used that terminology
was for when I came back to school and I would speak to people here in the
community and or students and high schools and things like that because at
that point the sons weren't any good, there were no cardinals, there were
no mercury, there was no, there was a whole lot of things, so a S. U.
Sports were it and um when I was in college, if I ran a real good race
over here at Joslyn track it would be on the front page of the sports um
in the Arizona republic or the phoenix gazette and I would always say
above the fold because when you open up the paper and it's above the fold
, that means just the top story. And so um we we had enough following then
that that we carried the newspaper. So a lot of people in this valley
supported us um and a lot of the things we did, but when I when I received
that medal um to be the third best in the world in something that was a
true measurement, I mean we could sit here and argue the third best person
in development or you're the third best person in Atlantis. But I mean at
that point I was by the world, the third best in the world and then when
you get the goal you're the best in the world. Um and so that was pretty
cool to be honest with you and I felt good uh for my mom and my dad and
everybody else who was um influence with my career. And so then as you
know, I came back here for my senior year of college and we were pretty
darn good my senior year because then we were able to recruit another guy
from pennsylvania Tony Darden to come in and run for Arizona state, which
then meant that I could Could change up and run the 100 m 200 m to 400 m
And Tony could run the two of the four. So my senior year, we were
national champions. I was national champion in the 400 and I, I still
think to this date we might be the only outdoor men's N. C. A. A champs
here. Um, and so that was, that was even better that year. We also broke
some world records for a college team. We broke the world record in the
four x 2 in um, texas relays and we came back and broke our own record in
the penn relays. We broke, or we set a collegiate record in the four x 4
in the Penn Relays and we, uh, we were national champions. So that was,
that was pretty darn good.
Okay, well, we were just talking about your transition to the polytechnic
campus and now when Exactly did you come and why I came in 1995, um, I was
looking for some new opportunities because as I said before, um, I enjoyed
doing the research, but I missed the people and it was an opportunity to
be involved in the startup of a new campus, which was, to me just was a
golden opportunity. It was a year before. We had students at the campus,
as I know, you will recall. I've never started up a new campus before.
I've never been involved with the, starting a new campus, How do we do
this, what do we do? And particularly once I got there discovering that
there we're no resources
to speak of. And so it was a matter of taking this old Air Force base and
reusing it, re converting it, figuring out how to make it work. I remember
walking through buildings with terry, pulling the spider webs out of the
way uh in seeing what was available um And how we might use those
facilities with students. And and of course at that point we had no
concept of how many students would show up um what the academic programs
which were you were working on, how all this was going to work. Uh So my
expectation was whoa! Um you know, buckle your seatbelt, it's gonna be a
bumpy ride but it's gonna be fun. So what I saw when I showed up out there
, well first of all um I could park right in front of my office which was
not the case at the Tempe campus. Um I was given an office in the old um
um Adjutant general of the courtroom for the and my office was the jury
room. I had this very long narrow office with my own private restroom
there and I'm going okay whatever works works. Uh And it was it was, it
was challenging. Um The the job description was at best ill defined, it
was, we need to do whatever we need to do uh to make things work, but it
was wonderful. What were your first responsibilities? It was working with
terry uh to try and develop um support programs for the campus, and so we
had um inherited um I can't remember 900 family homes, uh four dormitory
buildings, um um no food service, uh
no transportation system between the Tempe campus and the polytechnic
campus. Um
We had to develop all of these programs, we had to get the dormitories
ready to house students, um The houses we were trying to get those ready
uh to use, um and yet they had to go under under under environmental. Um
there was the best asbestos and lead in the dirt of some of the houses
were built over an old firing range, so there were lots of lead bullets in
in the ground and they couldn't be occupied until they got the lead out of
the dirt. And anyway, there's all kinds of challenges like that. Um the
residents halls were designed for officers, um and they had, they didn't
really have, they had sort of many kitchens, we had no food service, that
was one of the big challenges is how to get food service to service a very
limited population with no money. And so we had negotiations with the um
at that time was Sodexo Marriott um and we did get a food service out
there, One of the nice things about that time and about the poly campus
was the esprit de corps of the the folks that came out there as pioneers.
Um You know some of us have the scars on our backs to show that we were
pioneers but the fact that we worked well together I have to credit chuck
bacchus and yourself in terms of helping build and and provide that esprit
decor for the campus and for all of the staff that was working there
figuring out how we make things work. Um I mean you know one of the things
that we did um and chuck was was very helpful whole bunch of people is we
took the officer's club and made it into the student union. Um and you
know we had to figure out what to do with all the bar space because we
weren't serving drinks but uh it was it was a challenge to be able to do
that. Um And and so that would be the biggest surprise was the limited
resources and yet the the way we all pitched in and we made things happen
right from the very beginning literally my first week on campus, I was
involved in organizing the women's studies. What would become the women's
studies program. What is now women and gender studies at A. S. U. First
granddaughter was born on my own personal holiday, which is Susan B.
Anthony's birthday which is February the 15th and I will tell the story
about Susan B. Anthony's birthday because I told her to students every
year It was February 15 which is Susan B. Anthony's birthday. I was in
Seattle, I was the director of women's studies, I had a three year old, I
had a Volvo station wagon and it was a great car and I was driving back
and forth to Tacoma. It's a fabulous car. But every once in a while it
would inexplicably flood. And then you just had to sit there and wait
until the gas disappeared and you would start again driving two ups one
day and driving home and I always had this other student with me,
student's name was also mary. So one day we were bringing in another
student to the airport on our way home because Seattle Tacoma airport is
right between them, the two cities and we stopped at the garage to let her
off and I turned the car on and it flooded and I was so angry and mary
said oh they have rental cars here. I bet there's a mechanic, I'll run
down and find somebody. So she runs down and she gets a mechanic. He comes
up, he opens the hood of the car which I've never done before in my life
and he does these screw nut, butterfly nut things whatever above the
carburetor and takes the air filter off. I turn the key the car goes, he
puts it back together, he won't even take a tip and we go off and mary
says to me, this bright young student isn't that fantastic now, you know
how to fix it and I'm thinking yeah right honey, um this was at a time
when I'd never even put gas in a car that was in like october november.
Fast forward to february the 15th, I was buying the groceries, it's
raining because it's february the 15th in Seattle, I got the groceries in
the car, I turned the car on, it was flooded, I was so angry and then I
thought it's Susan b Anthony's birthday. If your students knew that you
were calling your husband to do something, he doesn't know how to do that
, you were going to have to tell him to do, they would be so disappointed
in you! Open up the back, found the tools which I thought actually was an
enormous step forward because I've never done that before. I opened the
hood the very first time I had opened the hood and I saw this thing that
with these four okay, I think they're called Wingnuts something. Anyway,
there like that and I took him off. Meanwhile a guy is coming from across
this big parking lot with a sack of heart from ernst hardware, local
hardware store with a big sack of hardware and he's looking at me and I
unscrew these four screw wing nut things and I take the and I get in the
car and I turn it on and the car runs and I'm like whoa I am so empowered.
But then I get back to put it back together and now things are moving and
put everything back the screws back on, we took the hood and put it down.
But this time the guy was right up to the car and he said well he said I
was gonna offer to come help but you really look like you know what you're
doing And I said yes, I think it's important for women to know how to fix
their cars.
The biggest show of chutzpah I've ever shown in my life and I got in the
car and I flew home and from that day on I've celebrated Susan B.
Anthony's birthday which is February the 15th, my own personal holiday. So
I would use that story every every year on Susan B Anthony's birthday I
would tell my women's history class, you try to do something you've never
done before because of gender roles. By the end of my career students
couldn't think of things and that is probably as good as summation of my
life's path as anything because that's how much change there was there are
still gender differences, but there are precious few now And most 18 to 20
year two year olds haven't experienced them. So that's um that's probably
a good place to end. Um Susan B. Anthony's birthday February 15.
The person that hired me was the I think he was called the director of the
Physical Physical Sciences, they had a director of Physical sciences and
Life Sciences. His name was George Bateman actually the building the
physical science complex is named after George Bateman. So when I came out
to interview, George was my host, I stated his home, he asked me to send
him my expenses, which I did and I'm still waiting for a check. We had a
series probably about five or 6 lectures each each year and one year as a
program chairman. And it turns out that we would get money from the
american Chemical Society as well as from dues uh that people paid. And at
the end of the year the tradition had been that any extra money went to
fund a dinner dance for members of the section. And it turns out I and
some other people like carl and more and some others felt that was
probably a better way to spend that money. And we suggested that instead
of having a dinner dance we would put the money toward a annual
lectureship and try to bring in a distinguished person.
And we approached the department of chemistry lever Iran at that time and
asked if they would co sponsor the series And they did and in 1960 for the
distinguished lecture series was inaugurated and we agreed the committee
agreed that our first speaker or normal speaker would be Linus Pauling,
Linus Pauling was a two time nobel laureate, both in chemistry and in
peace. Very distinguished fellow at caltech. And so we invited him, we
have a generous honorarium and he accepted and we told him that we would
like him to give two lectures. One a scientific lecture colloquium in the
department of Chemistry and one lecture uh which would be a general, a
general topic open to the public. It was our way of doing some outreach
into the community. So he accepted and we told him you could choose your
your topics. So for the scientific lecture, he wanted to talk about sickle
cell anemia and he had played an important role in uh working on that
disease. And he said for his general talk, he would like to talk, he gave
a different topic. But basically it was on nuclear disarmament. In fact it
was on unilateral nuclear disarmament. Well, I was I was pleased when
Linus Pauling accepted, I thought it was great. Well, I was wrong. It
wasn't so great because when the newspapers got wind of the lecture in the
topics
and some legislators found out about it. They were not very happy about
that. And
some of the people that work with me started to disassociate themselves a
little bit and ah President Durham who had agreed to interview to
introduce him, I found that he had a more pressing engagement. In fact no
official of the university would would introduce him. So we had to have
the chairman of the central Arizona section introduced
introduced him. I was really pretty anxious. I had just been there a
couple of years. I was an untenable assistant professor and I started to
get a little worried. But fortunately, fortunately Leroy hiring stepped in
and he contacted some people in the university that he knew people that
were sympathetic to this sort of thing to allowing people to come in speak.
And he actually found some people in the community that we're university
minded people. In fact, one was a, the state of Arizona Supreme Court
Justice. Uh Leroy said that we're going to have this lecture. If it can't
be on campus, we'll have it off campus. But actually we did have it on
campus and it was extremely well attended. In fact, we had a pipe, the,
the lecture into a second, into a second group. We use the largest lecture
room in the university. It was a very thought provoking, uh an inspiring
lecturer. I don't, I'm not sure he changed the minds of very many people,
if any, but uh and there's a lot of grist for the newspapers as well. But
I felt I felt very good about it, as many people on campus did. And I felt
the university grew a little bit that day. Maybe even the state of Arizona
grew a little bit thatday