Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer Jobs

Great Lakes Research Company was located originally in the Chicago area, but it moved to Elizabethton, TN, in 1962. I was offered a summer job there in 1963. It paid a very nice salary by local standards. Since I did not own a car, I paid another summer employee to pick me up every day. It was very convenient for me. The job was relatively easy, doing electrolytic regeneration of chromium salt. This research project was similar to projects in the academic setting. My boss was a Hungarian chemist, Louie Yoo (back left in the picture), who had escaped from the Russian invasion in 1956. Frank Snodgrass (back right in the picture), a Chemistry graduate from ETSU, was also in the group. We quickly became good friends. Since he already had a group of friends, including a local young man named Gary Spear and a Venezuelan student, Richard. I quickly joined the group. We spent most of our weekends together, playing cards or watching drive-in movies.


The Math Department had another opening for the summer. It involved teaching a course on Differential Equation in the evenings. Since I had done well on several courses I took there in the Department, Dr. Hartsell, the Department Head, offered me the job, which I happily accepted. So from a teaching assistant, I became an instructor! With two positions during those three months, I was feeling very rich!

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