My name is Richard Peck. I came here as provost in 1988. Accidentally
became interim president when Russ Nelson retired almost immediately after
I arrived, and, um, I spent 9 months in that job and during that time was
nominated for a presidency elsewhere, so I left here to go to the
University of New Mexico, where I retired after another 10 years.
I'm Charles B. Chuck Corbin. When I retired in 2005, I was a professor of
exercise and wellness at the ASU Polytechnic campus.
I'm Harold White. My friends call me Hal. I'm professor of, uh, management
in the College of Business, now the WP Carey School of Business. Uh, I
joined the faculty in 1966, retired in 1993.
Harry Lundgren, I was a member of the Faculty of Civil Engineering,
professor of Civil Engineering. I started here on campus actually in '59,
but a faculty position in '61, and I was here from 61 until 1989 when I
retired.
I'm Warren Frye. I worked at Arizona State University. 1st, 1st of all, I
was director of audiovisual services. And uh gee whiz, 1974.
I'm, I'm Susan Dalbert, and I had a number of positions at ASU. I started
actually working for, uh, Dean Shell when I first graduated and student
activities, and then I moved over to high school college relations,
eventually becoming the director of undergraduate admissions, and then I
was the executive director and president of the alumni association.
Mostly uniform, uh, come to the shirt. The jersey was all wool. You know,
and long sleeve. They're all short sleeve now. Because at the time they
were rolling it up and some of them were cutting them. They didn't want
them, then they would fall and get all skin. But anyway, They were all
wall at one time and uh they had numbers in the back, but it wasn't
required to have in the front.
So in the front they had kind of ribbing like thing. I don't know how to
explain it. It was sewn on there kind of V. And then they had some on the
arms right here. That was mostly for the boys that carried the ball, you
see, that would kind of hold the ball a little better, so they had it here
, here, and then here. We have a lot of padding like they do now? Well, I
don't think the equipment was as good like the shoulder pad. They were
just almost a couple of pieces of leather, and now they have a lot of uh
shock absorbent techniques in there and the helmets. The old helmets were
just leather, I think. It's almost like those flyers or just a piece of
leather with a little padding.
The shoes, shoes were high top, they didn't have the, the low top high top
, and they were uh leather cleats. They were kind of rectangle, and they
were large at top and then came down not to a point but came down, and
there were layers of leather like that. And they were just nailed on to
the soul. Tell me a little bit more about Dr. Gamaged. What was he like?
Well, the president was very good from this standpoint that He did 2
things. He looked after the students. And I would say almost every student
had some part of a job. And the school was run by students like janitor
and gardening and that sort of thing. I had, I was a gardener's helper and
I helped uh. Um, the plumbers had all kinds of jobs, and we all did this.
So you had part-time jobs and full-time jobs. Full-time were, were hard to
come by. Because the room and board, I think you saw there was 2150.
That's pretty good, is it, then, uh, the registration, uh, fees and all
that was very, very nominal, you see, and you could work that out. It was
2150 for how, how often do you pay that? That's every month,
but if you have a full-time job that would cover that.
One thing I haven't talked about that I. Always felt good about was, was
uh the notion of difference makers. I called John Silcox, who was the dean
at Cornell where Jim Mayer was. And I said, tell me about Jim, and he said
he's a um he's a catalyst for good. I thought that's an interesting way to
describe somebody, a catalyst for good. Well, I came to discover what that
meant because when this individual got to campus. He seemed to connect
with everybody.
In ways that caused a whole set of others to be more productive and so his
very presence here. Well, he seemed to be spending no time on his own work.
Caused people all over to connect to that never connected to, to cause
work to occur that never would have occurred, uh, to cause us to do good
things internally and externally that would have never happened if he
wasn't here and so. I could see he really was a catalyst for good. He was
amazing. He was over in art working with people in the art department to
to use his some kind of technology to see the picture that was under the
picture without destroying the picture that was on the front and oil
paintings where they painted one painting over an old one. He, uh, he was
over in engineering working with people he was in in chemistry and physics
and solid state science. He was just everywhere he in no time at all, he
had a, a van that some somebody donated and he had an electron microscope
that went all over the state to high school so kids could do stuff on the
electron microscope. He had high school kids in the summer. He was just
unbelievable and so I got to thinking out this guy really makes a
difference in the broader institution. I wonder I, I need to look around
and see who these other difference makers are and then we need to try to.
Recognize that and support them so that they'll stay here and continue to
do that. And so over the last few years that I was dean, we. Identified a
number of people that we thought were difference makers and with Milt
Glick's help and Laddie's help and with endowment money that was raised,
we ended up putting most of them on some sort of endowed appointment. And
not all of them, but most of them. And, and then we began as we started
looking further for other endowed appointments to try to find people that.
Would lift others that would be difference makers and so um I always felt
good about good about that and think it helped the institution. Jim must
be 80 years, 90 years. I don't know what he is now, but Jim's never
finished the sentence that he started, um, in all that time he would, he
would start a sentence and he'd interrupt himself and then he'd interrupt
that sentence, interrupt it was just a kick. In fact, he gave a talk up at
the Navajo Nation one time. And uh
He went on and on and on, and they took a break and at the break, he
walked over to one of the elders and he said, what do you think? And the
elder said. A little long on story.
I met my husband in a drugstore and uh. Um, I, I knew good and well that
he was not a teacher. He had told me that he was, it was that, uh, he had
just gotten out of teaching a class, and I did not believe him. I said, no
, you're here because you're visiting a Stevens girl. I know that's the
case. No, I am not. So anyway, he finally convinced me and asked me to
meet him the next morning at 7:30 at this particular drugstore and for a
cup of coffee, so I did. But the funny part is I went home that day and I
told my parents I'd met the man I was gonna marry and they thought this
kid is out of her gourd.
But it worked out that way. What is the perspective is your role as the
first lady of ASU and it's like the faculty, your relationship with the
faculty, students, staff, and the alumni. I think that we had, uh, I had a
lot of dealings with the faculty because faculty wives were very active at
that time and we were bringing in so many new faculty that it was really.
Nice we had such an active newcomers group and I can honestly say that to
this day many of the people that were in the newcomers group are the
people that I know the best because I never did know all the faculty that
had been here a long time because they had their own little groups and
they've been here a long time they knew each other quite well and these
newcomers that were coming in. Well, I was actually a newcomer too, so you
know, we got along fine. What, what, what do you think that your husband
would uh. Consider his greatest accomplishments or his greatest challenges
when he was here. Well, probably getting money from the legislators,
and I think that he really enjoyed that challenge. Uh, he, he enjoyed the
people there and uh it was something that at the end of the session he
knew whether he had done a good job or not, whereas a lot of things in the
field of education. It's so it's kind of a never never land you don't know
for years whether there's been any um anything happened that you would
have liked to have happened but um he he did well with the legislature for
that time and he always felt that it was a state university and the
legislature should fund it. Um, so I think that he put that right before
them all the time. Hey, this is your school you fund it. It isn't done
quite that way now, but they're very fortunate. They've had a lot of
outside help.
Uh, I suppose at one level.
Some of the most interesting memories have to do with uh. With
entertaining Through most of the years we probably entertained about 5000
people a year at the house. And some of the some of the groups that came
in were really fascinating.
Uh, Martha Graham, she and her troop had dinner at our house one night
about one o'clock in the morning.
They had, they had done their signature performance. In the course of a
residency that they did on campus for several weeks, I think they were
here 6 weeks.
And uh we invited the whole troop over and a multitude of others to meet
them. And
I have an indelible memory.
Of Martha Graham sitting. On the sofa in the living room holding court
with the people who came in to talk with her. And we had a little uh
Sheltie at the time who positioned himself right next to her and she was
sitting there petting him talking with these people as they came in. Uh,
another time we entertained Walter Cronkite many times when we were
courting Walter, the use of Walter's name on the school of. Of journalism
And uh
Our stepdaughter Donna came in from a dance one night. And sort of flipped
into the house and didn't realize that Cronkite was there and we
introduced them. And he asked her what she'd been doing and she said, Well
, she'd been to a dance, and he asked her if she knew how to waltz. And
she said, well, no, I've never done that.
So Walter and his wife and Donna moved into the entryway of the house and
he taught her a waltz well Mrs. Cronkite. Hum the Blue Danube.