I was offered another job!

In January 1971, Dr. D. G. Nicholson, Chairman of the Chemistry Department at East Tennessee State University, called me out of the blue and offered me a job to teach at ETSU. He said that the Department had lost a Physical Chemist, Dr. Ralston I believe, because of his illness. Dr. Nicholson wanted me to take that position (there was no affirmative action rule at that time). He also told me that the job was to be mine until May, 1971, as the Department had to make a decision then to make sure someone would be on board in the Fall of 1971. I told Janice about the offer. However, since I was not looking for a new job and I was happy with the present position, while I was honored to be remembered by the former Chairman of the Department, I soon forgot about the offer and continued my best working schedule. 

What I did not realize was that Janice was not all that happy with her situation. She was not part of the “faculty wives” because she was teaching part time and was not interested in serving “tea” with well polished silver utensils. There seemed to be some interest gaps between her and the other women. I was so busy that my involvement in our daily life as a family was diminishing more and more. She did not like the trend. So when I was called again by Nicholson around Pan-pans birthday time, she urged me to take the interview invitation and make a trip to a place south of Lexington, KY. Remember that she had told me earlier that Kentucky was as far south as she wanted to live!

April in East Tennessee is as beautiful as any where in the USA! There was just no more discussion necessary and we decided that we would accept the offer to come back to East Tennessee. It was a big surprise for the University, just as it was a big surprise for us. You thought that you were settled and you had bought a house which you had lived in for less than a year. You took in several graduate students. You had just accepted a grant to purchase your needed equipment and you had just built a vacuum line for your new projects. And now you are going to move - very soon, in fact that Fall!!! How quickly your situation could change!

The decision to accept the offer was a key factor in determining our family life, my career, and everything that happened in the future. It was at the time not a very difficult one - we let our gut feelings guide our decision. That turned out to be the primary way we made many major decisions in our lives, good or bad. It has worked just fine for us!