Bolger, Prof. Robert E. - Oral History (transcript)

              Fairfield University
Oral History Transcripts
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Professor Robert E. Bolger
Department of Mathematics
February 1993
Professor Robert E. Bolger
a brief biography
“My definition of a teacher is that a teacher is a perpetual student. Once you stop to
learn and study and try to keep up with the advances in your field, when you stop doing
that, I don't know when it is, I don't know how many years into teaching, then you should
put the chalk back in the ledge and it's all over then. You can't give up this constant quest
for expanding your own horizons.”
Professor Robert E. Bolger was truly a part of Fairfield University’s history from
the beginning. After receiving an honorable discharge from the United States
Coast Guard in 1947, he met Rev. Laurence Langguth, S.J., the Dean of
Freshman and Admissions, who was recruiting young men to the newly
established Jesuit school. Professor Bolger was one of the first to register for
classes. After graduating in Fairfield’s Pioneer Class of 1951, he taught
mathematics at Sacred Heart High School while simultaneously working towards
his master’s degree in mathematics from New York University. Returning to
Fairfield as a professor in 1954, he taught in the Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science until his retirement in 2005. Professor Bolger was the longest
serving member of the department, having taught more than 100 semesters.
With Dr. Ben Fine, he was instrumental in creating a highly successful master’s
degree program in mathematics. "He dedicated and devoted much of his life to
mathematics in general and to the Mathematics Department at Fairfield
University in particular," said Dr. Fine, who called Bolger's love and enthusiasm
for mathematics "contagious." In addition to his professional drive, Professor
Bolger was an avid runner and tennis player and recipient of the Connecticut
Governor's Fitness Award. He was a member of the American Mathematicians
Association, served as director of many National Science Foundation grants, and
ran an after-school chess program at Fairfield elementary schools. He passed
away on November 29, 2007.
Sources: Fairfield University website, Press Room – In Memoriam; Arnold, Carolyn, “Bob Bolger,
Books, and Bannow,” Campus Currents, March 9, 2011.
Photograph: Fairfield University Manor, 1958.
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ORAL HISTORY: ROBERT BOLGER, FEBRUARY 1993
WHAT KIND OF SEMINARS DO YOU ATTEND?
Well, I'm in Mathematics and we had three great centers of Mathematics in the world located
in New York City so there are different disciplines that I'm interested in and I go into New
York to participate in seminars.
THAT'S WONDERFUL.
It's very convenient.
- I'LL BET THAT IS.
Especially the one on 42nd Street.
THAT'S EASY TO HOP OFF THE TRAIN.
Yes. And if I get the 5:02 back, the first stop is South Norwalk and then Westport and
Fairfield.
IT'S BECOME VERY CONVENIENT IF YOU GET ONE OF THOSE TRAINS.
In the morning, you can get an express in, the first stop is Grand Central Station.
VERY NICE. WHAT IS IT - A 7 SOMETHING?
Oh, there's two or three of them: 7:35 or something.
I HAVE MY OFFICE AT HOME SO I DON'T GET INTO THE CITY AS MUCH AS I
USED TO IN THE PAST. IT'S VERY, VERY PLEASANT.
- Yes.
Oral History: Robert Bolger
YOU FIRST CAME HERE TO THE UNIVERSITY, I GUESS, AS A STUDENT, DIDN'T
YOU?
Yes.
WHEN WAS THAT?
That was the Fall of 1947. Then I was in the first Freshman Class, the first Sophomore Class,
the first Junior Class, the first Senior Class and the first Graduating Class.
HAD YOU BEEN A STUDENT AT THE PREP SCHOOL BEFORE?
No, no. Somewhat interesting story associated with that. I graduated from Admirable Military
- Academy in New London, Connecticut in 1945 and then I went into the United States Coast
Guard. I was in there for a year and quite by chance, it happened that my uncle was a radio
station manager in South Bend, Indiana, so I was not able to become accepted at Notre Dame
University as a full-time student, but they would accept me part-time and I could commute from
my uncle's house. That was the plan -- to go there in the Fall of '47, but in the meantime, my
uncle got transferred to a town in Massachusetts and I thought it would be difficult to commute
from there to Notre Dame. But, then, it was around I think February or March '47 and my
mother was reading the Catholic Transcript (that's the Diocesan newspaper) and she said 'Bob',
she said, 'the paper says here that the Jesuits are starting a new university in southern New
England in a place called Fairfield. Do you know where that is?' I said, 'No, Mom, I never
heard of it.' So she said, 'Perhaps, you should apply.' And I applied and was accepted. I can't
r imagine how many people applied. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first one to
Oral History: Robert Bolger 2
apply, nor was I the first one to be accepted, but I did arrive here as the first student
Registration Day and Father Langguth greeted me in his cassock and I introduced myself and
he said 'Well, there'll be a few minutes before everyone else starts arriving and perhaps you'd
like to hang up some signs for me up in McAuliffe Hall.' So, I said 'Sure'; so I went up there
and put up some signs about lunch and things like that. I came back and the students had begun
to start arriving and so, he said, 'Why don't you register? And then, you're free to go. So I
did and then made my way back home. But, the interesting thing was, from Waterbury which
is forty miles north of here and at that time, my family didn't have a car; I didn't know how to
drive. I just turned 20 years old, so I had to take a bus from my home in the East end of town
- down to the Center and then walk from there to the Railroad Station, take a train to Bridgeport,
get off, walk over to the center, take a bus to McKesson and Robbins on Kings Highway (that's
gone now but it's the home, Home Depot is there), then I'd walk from there to the University
and several times I wasn't quite sure where I was going. Obviously, it was almost like a dense
woods at that point, but several of the townspeople were of some help and others were of no
help at all. I asked one person, I said, 'Could you please tell me where Fairfield University is?'
'Where, Who, Fairfield University, No, I don't think so. You must have the wrong town;
there's a University in Yale, at Yale University in New Haven.' Another person said 'No, I
don't know of any university in here, in Fairfield.' So I arrived at the University and Father
Langguth met me and then I was able to meet other people from Waterbury and in fact, I met
Carmen Donnarumma and Chester Stuart; both Carmen and Chester lived in Waterbury at that
P time and we commuted with them for the first two years from Waterbury, down and back and
Oral History: Robert Bolger 3
then I decided to live down here and I was housed on Margemere Drive which is up off North
Benson and used to walk here to the University and down to the Center, had some nice
experiences there.
YOU MENTIONED FATHER LANGGUTH. I INTERVIEWED HIM LAST YEAR
WHEN HE CAME BACK. WHAT KIND OF PERSON WAS HE?
He was referred to as 'The Prussian.' He had very, obviously, deep Germanic characteristics,
but he was a very likable, personable man, very disciplined and very bright and quite cordial
and very kind and a perfect gentleman at all times, so he was a really great, great man. We
used to call him Father Langguth, obviously, but he was the Dean for the first, at least the first
two years, maybe three; I've forgotten now. When I left Fairfield upon graduation in '51, I was
lucky enough to get a position teaching high school in Waterbury, Connecticut at Sacred Heart
and I was going to New York Graduate School then, twice a week then from Waterbury and
then teaching at the High School, so it meant that I was able to come down here frequently
during the three years that I was teaching High School Mathematics there in Waterbury and I'd
stop off here and talk to the people and you know, meet new Jesuits and new faculty members.
Then, I think, I don't know how you'd describe it, but the first time I was on the campus I
realized that this is a golden opportunity, that if things were, you know, played properly by
myself, could be, I could spend the rest of my life here and, so that's what I had in mind.
When I left the University in Waterbury, I had made application to come back as a faculty
member. Then by the fortuitous circumstances I was able to get my degree in 1954, in the - Spring of 1954, and happened to be the first Alumni to get the degree and then the first graduate
Oral History: Robert Bolger 4
invited back on the faculty.
DID YOU TAKE ANY CLASSES WITH FATHER LANGGUTH AT ALL?
No, Father Langguth didn't teach any classes -- not the first year. He was not in the classroom,
but Father MacGillivray I had for English, he was from the Boston area and Father Harkins in
Theology and then I had Chester Stuart in German and Carmen Donnarumma in History.
AND WHAT WERE THEY LIKE TAKING CLASSES?
I thought they were great. Carmen Donnarumma was really a very, very good teacher and very
humorous and had a good sense of humor and he would pace up and down in front of a room
and ask us questions. It was a great experience for us to have Carmen. And Chester Stuart was
- very, very -- he was a scholar in German and he was very humorous also, so the classes were
very lively with these people and it was a pleasure to participate in their classes.
WHERE WERE THE CLASSES HELD IN THOSE DAYS?
Well, the fust building available for the University, for the University, I'm talking about is
Xavier Hall. That was under construction; when I came down in the Spring of '47 just to see
the place and so we were in Xavier Hall the first year and the second year we moved over to
Berchmans and I think it was -- no Berchmans was the first building available and so we began
the Fall Semester in '47 and the Spring Semester of '48 in Berchmans and the second year we
came over to Xavier Hall. The Prep School was up in McAuliffe, but the laboratories for
Chemistry were up in McAuliffe, too and as a freshman, I took Chemistry and on Fridays, we
went to McAuliffe for labs and then the Library was located on the top floor of Berchmans, so - the second year we went to Xavier Hall, then we used to have to go back to Berchmans up the
Oral History: Robert Bolger 5
top floor of the Library.
WHAT DID THE CAMPUS LOOK LIKE IN THOSE DAYS?
Well, the main house, the Lasher House, which is, of course, Bellarmine Hall, that was the
center of the campus, I would think, even almost the geographical center and that's located on
a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound. Some people say that the University was found on a
bluff and run on one, but I don't think so. And then, where the Maintenance is located now and
the Playhouse, the old Playhouse, those buildings housed the Maintenance Crew for the Lasher
Estate, the maids and the people who worked on the grounds. And there was McAuliffe Hall
-- it's rather hidden from the road; you don't really see McAuliffe Hall, especially in the Spring
- and the Summertime. They broke the ground, it must have been some time in late '46 or
whatever it was for Berchmans and that was the first building finished and while we were over
in Berchmans, they were finishing off Xavier Hall. When that was completed, there was no
more building taking place until the Summer of '54 when I came back on the faculty. That was
Loyola Hall, which was the first resident hall, it housed the, which was supposed to be an
in-house Chapel, but it turned out to be a Chapel until, just recently, when the Eagan Chapel
was dedicated and so on.
WHEN YOU MOVED DOWN HERE FROM WATERBURY, WHERE DID YOU LIVE?
As a student?
YES?
Up on Margemere Drive -- it's up off North Benson Road, maybe four-five lefts on the way up.
,- AT SOMEBODY'S HOUSE?
Oral History: Robert Bolger
Yes, he was a Colonel in the United States Air Force. His name was Rupert. He was married
and he had two small children and he worked in, I think it was Stamford, Connecticut, in the
Recruiting Office and that was very convenience for me. When I came back on the faculty, I
lived down on Round Hill Road, very near the railroad trestle. I say that way because, at that
time, there was no turnpike and that was very convenient because where I was living on Round
Hill Road was about half-way between the University and the Center of the Town, so I could
use the facilities at evening.
THE HOUSES IN WHICH THE STUDENTS LIVED, HOW WERE THEY SELECTED?
DO YOU KNOW?
,- Well, Father Langguth and his staff had compiled a list of residents who had rooms available
and Father Langguth knew that unless he had some resource like that, that the population, the
student population would strictly be commuters and he was trying to tap people from
Massachusetts and so on, Rhode Island and I think we had people from Massachusetts and
Rhode Island, some from Westchester County and, of course, Westchester County and lower
Fakfield County -- they were accessible by train and so on. But, at that point in time, they had
to walk up here to the University, so I got a hold of a couple of names of places where I could
live. I thought it would be great because I didn't like commuting. I once calculated for Carmen
how many miles he put on the car and I think he started in the Prep School, but I don't know,
was he two years in the Prep? I'm not sure. But, then he taught here from '47 'ti1 he retired
last year. And as far as I know, nearly every summer and one academic year, he was on leave
- when he ran for the Mayor of Waterbury. Otherwise, he would commute 80 miles per day over
Oral History: Robert Bolger 7
all of those academic years and over all of those summers, so it was an astronomical number
of miles he put on. I don't know how many cars it must have been.
HOW DID YOU FEEL, AS A STUDENT, BEING ABLE TO COMMUTE WITH TWO
OF THE PROFESSORS?
Well, it was interesting. At first, we felt a bit intimidated. You know, we sat in the back seat,
they sat in the front seat and a friend of mine from Waterbury accompanied me, his name was
Joseph Scorpion, so the four of us would commute down and back and at first it was, as I said
before, a little bit quiet, but then we began to know each other and we were just four commuters
after a while and the distinction between student and professor began to become a little blurred
r at that point. We didn't talk too much about academics, but other things. Chester Stuart was
married and had a young son and Carmen, he had a nice family up in Waterbury. His family
ran a, I think it was a fruit store, maybe it was a bigger market, but down in the South End of
Waterbury, so we had lots of things to talk about and Joe and I were from Waterbury so it was
a great opportunity.
DO YOU RECALL HOW LONG IT TOOK TO TAKE THE DRIVE BACK AND FORTH?
About an hour, an hour down and an hour back. Now, it's shorter. It's probably 50 minutes,
maybe even less than that now with the improvements on the roads. There was no Route 6, it
was all down through side roads and there's a place, I think it was in Ansonia, still, that's called
Betty's Inn and we used to go by that twice a day through the years. That's still there -- one
of the few landmarks that remain, you know. We'd go to Waterbury or Naugatuck or something
-- like that, you know, there's Betty's Inn.
Oral History: Robert Bolger
DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE STUDENTS, IN PARTICULAR, WHO WERE IN
SCHOOL WITH YOU?
Here. Oh yes, many. But this was just continued from Waterbury, too. In fact, there was a
period of time, I think it was the Junior year, part of the Junior year, that I commuted with
students, rather than Carmen and...sometimes our schedule would change in such a way that it
would be an inconvenience. There was a group from Waterbury, from the Class of '51 --
Robert Conlon and Robert Berg and Joseph Scarret and Eddie Riley and myself and a few others
and A1 Tolyus used to commute -- had a very nice time. We used to alternate the cars so that
one person wasn't driving all the time.
, WHAT WERE THE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES LIKE ON THE CAMPUS?
Social activities.. .
WERE THERE DANCES?
Oh yeah. On the weekends, there were, on occasion, dances, but that was pretty much the
extent of the social activities in that nearly everyone commuted at that point and of course, most
of us didn't live that far away, but there would be, on occasion, dances, and sometimes, there
would be plays performed and concerts. There was a small auditorium in the basement of
Berchmans Hall and I think the second year, maybe it was the first year, I'm not sure now, the
- Glee Club started up and that was under the direction of Simon Herrick. The Moderator was
Oral History: Robert Bolger 9
Father John Murray who was my Math Professor for three years here and ...
WHAT KIND OF A PERSON WAS HE?
Father Murray?
YES.
He was a slight man, physically, but very fastidious about his approach to teaching Mathematics.
Everything was very orderly and he encouraged questions and he gave us a lot of written papers
during the course of the semester that were used to evaluate our performance, so there was
plenty of time to study and you weren't, most of the time now, I'm saying we, the professors
would give three or four tests during the whole semester, but Father Murray made it a point to
give many, many papers. What we established here in 1947, as you probably know, is were the
pioneering class and I was twenty, but I was among the younger people in the class. I think the
class was around 300, something like that if I'm not mistaken. Most of them were Veterans and
mamed with families -- 26, 28, 32 years old, so they had gone through this experience with the
War, away from their families, away from their homes, so they came on the campus, they set
a pace that was very hard to keep up with and so it was quite a challenge to stay in the race with
those people and the faculty, they had what was called in German, a "Greef in Zimmer" which
was called a "Consultation Room" right here in Xavier Hall the second year and as you come
in the building from the North Benson Road parking Lot, it's the first room on the right hand
side. Oh, that maybe accommodated 10-12 desks and each desk was occupied by a Professor
and you could make an appointment to go in there and that became very famous with us because
I- we were always very welcome, especially my professors, Father Murray, and Carmen and
Oral History: Robert Bolger 10
Chester. They would welcome you and be very kind and help us out with any problems we
might have.
WERE THEY THERE FOR CERTAIN HOURS OF THE DAY?
Yes, that's right. They were even posted during their free periods and sometimes for a small
period after class, or something like that, at the end of the daytime.
NOW WHEN YOU SAY THAT THE VETERANS KEPT UP A PACE, WHAT DO YOU
MEAN BY THAT?
Academically. They were very good, very dedicated, very enthusiastic and they had a very
rapid maturation rate due to the experiences during the War. They were ready to settle down
now and do some studying, but probably weren't the best students when they were in high
school before they went to the War, but now, now, they were really quite serious and so they,
more or less, we went along on their coattails, so to speak. The amount of energy and time they
put into their work was very unifying.
WAS THERE ANY TENSION BETWEEN THE VETERANS AND THE YOUNGER
STUDENTS?
No, not at all. I never even thought about it in terms of that, in terms of that particular
possibility. They seemed to just accept us as students coming in from high school, although I
didn't come directly from high school. As I said before, I was one year in the Service, but there
was never any tension. It was always, we all got along very well. I think we realized that this
was history in the making. How many people can say that they attended a university the first
,- year it was founded? And.. .
Oral History: Robert Bolger
DID YOU FEEL THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL GOING ON HERE AT THE
TIME?
Oh yes. Yes, I did. That first day I had to make my way through the campus and I didn't
know where I was, I couldn't even see Bellarmine Hall and so I walked up the road -- this was
a day in August in the previous year and when I walked into Bellarmine Hall, the first thing I
saw upon going up the staircase into the foyer there and then what was then the living room of
the mansion, the relief that they had produced would give you the indication of what the
University would look like in say, 15 years or something; it was a magnificent display; the
buildings all over the place. And I said to myself 'This is what this place is going to become
r in a few years; it's remarkable that we can achieve that.' I would say that probably this
University is one of the success stories in twentieth century American education. We've come
a long way since 1947. I think we are the second youngest Jesuit university; there is one in
William, West Virginia I think that was started after '47, but we were, for a long time, the
youngest one, but we achieved national acclaim academically, so that's very nice.
AND YOU WERE HERE IN THE FIRST GRADUATING CLASS?
Yes.
DOYOURECALLTHATGRADUATIONDAY?
Oh, that graduation day. Yes, I do. That was, of course, the structure of the semester was
quite different back then and nationally, it was the situation. Only recently, say probably only
around 1970, maybe 1965 or so, most universities in the country went on the schedule we have
P now whereby the first semester would end just before Christmas; the semester would end and
Oral History: Robert Bolger 12
you'd take your examinations, go home for Christmas anywhere from two, three, four weeks
off, depending upon what was the academic calendar and then you come back and start the
second semester. That's what we do now. In the earlier days and up until about, I think, about
the mid to late sixties, the first semester didn't end until about the second or third week in
January, so you went home for Christmas, you'd have assignments and you'd be working,
probably a part-time job (I used to work in the Post Office and then doing the homework), you'd
wme back and then there would be, I think it was a week and a half, two weeks, at most, of
classes again and then, there'd be the final examinations, that would break and then you'd have
a week off. As a result, the graduations weren't until mid-June and this particular June in '47
r was very, very warm and the particular day we graduated was one of the warmest of those warm
days in June and we all assembled in the front of Xavier Hall and there was a Salvation Army
Band that was apparently hired for the occasion. They were to escort us over to the field. I
guess you'd call it Alumni Field, now, down the bottom of where the Prep School is and I think
it's football and track and so on and there was a shell there where they used to have
performances outdoors in the summertime. People would come up from New York, Symphony
orchestras or some type of modem music from Broadway, so this little shell, when we arrived
at the field where graduation was going to take place, the shell housed the dignitaries and the
faculty and so on. But, a few people dropped on the way over and while over there, several
people also fainted and other people had the presence to bring umbrellas and it was a very, very
hot day and, but it was the first Graduation Day. The Bishop was here from Hartford, we had - a guest speaker, he was I think, I forget his name, but he was associated with the government
Oral History: Robert Bolger 13
in Washington; he was the Attorney General and we had some nice speeches by Jesuits from all
over the country and then we got our degrees and that was the first.
THIS WAS 1951?
1947, 1957, Graduation.
AND YOU LEIT FOR THREE YEARS TO TEACH AND GET ANOTHER DEGREE?
Yes, yes.
AND CAME BACK?
In '54. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? DID YOU JUST APPLY FOR A POSITION HERE?
Yes, I did. At that time, Father Murray, who was my Math Professor and there was a
- Coordinator of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics -- his name was Father Bums and then
Father Murray, at that time, there weren't any, I don't think, formal Chairmen (that took place
a few years later). At any rate, they knew that I was very interested in Mathematics and
enamored with the University and expressed interest that would it be possible for me to come
back part-time on the faculty and then, of course, the administration changed hands over the few
years I was gone and the new Dean was Father William Healy and so, I had written to him and
he said 'Well, there will be an opening in the Fall of '54, if you have your degree by then, send
your application and you are well thought of here.' I think I worked very hard at Sacred Heart
High School as a teacher and I think I had some good results and when I came to Fairfield,
when I came back to Fairfield on the faculty, some of my students followed me down here and
they spent four years here and graduated, but apparently the impression was that I had done a
r good job up there and they felt as though I'd be good risk if they could afford me an
Oral History: Robert Bolger 14
opportunity, so I was very lucky that there was this opening, so that's how I got this. Also, as
I mentioned before, during those three years I was down here very often visiting and discussing
Mathematics with the people in the Math Department that might help me with my work in New
York.
NOW, WHAT WERE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES WHEN YOU CAME IN? WHAT
WERE YOU TEACHING?
i-
In '54, I started teaching. I had a course, at that time, the Mathematics structure, the course
of the program was quite different and you'd take, as a Freshman, in your first year, College
Algebra, and then the second year you'd take what was called Analytical Geometry. Most all
of that, now, of course, is done in the high school. In the second year, we took Calculus. In
the third year, we took Advanced Calculus and in the fourth year, we took more advanced
courses in Mathematics. So, I had to teach Statistics and Probability and I had a course in
College Algebra, Analytical Geometry, and a course in Calculus. Beyond that, I didn't have any
responsibilities, as such, except to make sure I was available for the students, of course, to
consult with them if they had any problems.
WERE YOU INVOLVED IN ANY CLUBS OR THINGS LIKE THAT WITH THE
STUDENTS?
/- In the beginning, no, because I was still going to New York and I was ... What I found out in
Oral History: Robert Bolger 15
New York was that was another situation I got involved in. I was very fortunate to be located
where I was in New York City. When I was here as a student, when I became a Junior, I had
a professor whose name was John Dillon and John Dillon lived down the road here, you know,
North Benson Road, near the railroad trestle and we found him to be a great teacher, a very
personable man, he seemed very knowledgeable, he just got us all excited about Mathematics.
So, I got to know John pretty well because I had him again the Senior year as a teacher and I
said to him, 'You know, Professor Dillon, I'd like to, perhaps, go on to do some graduate work
when I graduate which is just ...' And he said, 'Bob, you should apply to N.Y.U.' I said,
'N.Y.U.?' He said, 'Yes, the Graduate School now is down in Washington Square' and he said
- 'I go there' and he said 'They accept anybody.' I said, 'Well, thanks a lot, John. That's what
i
I really wanted to know. ' I said, 'What do you mean, they accept anyone?' He said, 'Well,
they have an open door policy, that they would accept anyone in the Mathematics Department
of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and so you apply and you should be accepted.' So
I thanked him very much and did apply and was accepted. Of course, at that time when I
graduated, I was teaching in Waterbury -- this was the Fall of '51 and I attended my first
graduate class down in Washington Square; I used to go there on Fridays, take the bus to New
Haven, the train to New York and the subway down to Fourteenth Street and then walk there
to the Village. When John Dillon told me what a very good graduate school this was and he
said 'It's a little bit strange, but most of the professors speak with, you know, halting English,
with heavy German accents, excellent.' So, as it turned out I found that I was in a very famous
F- Mathematics institute, that it was transplanted from a small town called Gurtingin in Germany.
Oral History: Robert Bolger 16
Hitler and all his buddies had driven out many of the great German scientists and at this
particular university, it was called the (German pronunciation), one of the famous universities
in Europe. I think it housed, it boasted of at least 40 Nobel laureates among them, being very
famous names and the Grimm Brothers went there. So, anyway, the head of that particular
Institute in Germany applied for asylum to New York, there and they told him he could come,
provided he'd established a great Mathematics Institute in New York that he had in Germany.
He did and I ended up at a very excellent school because of the recommendation of my
professor, John Dillon.
WERE THE STUDENTS ALREADY BEGINNING TO CHANGE A LITTLE BIT NOW
-. IN THE MID-FOTIES? WERE THERE FEWER VETERAh'S, I PRESUME?
Oh, yes, yes, much fewer Veterans. Of course, not quite the disappearance of the Veterans was
not sudden; it was over a long period of time. Of course, I'm talking about the Veterans from
World War II. Very shortly after World War II, the Korean War began and then, of course,
that cycle would produce people who were coming from the Korean War and then in the Sixties,
we had the debacle in South Viet Nam. I had a student, well I won't mention his name, but he
was a nightmare as a student when I first had him in class. I think he was from Southern
Connecticut, I think in Darien, someplace down there. He was a nightmare in the daytime,
academically, so finally he dropped out -- oh, he joined the Marines, that was it. So, he spent
two years, I think in the Saigon area and I think he rose to be maybe, he might have been a
Sergeant in the Marines so he came back and was reinstated as a student and again, I had him - in class. It was like having two different people, of course. He was really good then, you
Oral History: Robert Bolger 17
know, very mature and he appreciated the education he was getting. Then, we had the sixties
-- the riots and things and the students who, with the long hair and the sloppy clothes and so on
and rather ... they were revolutionaries and they were always trying to buck the system.
TO BRING YOU BACK JUST A MINUTE TO THE FlFlTES, AGAIN. THERE WAS
NOW GOING TO BE A FAIR AMOUNT OF BUILDING GOING ON DURING THE
LATE FIlTIES. GONZAGA GOES UP, CANISIUS WENT UP, LOYOLA WENT UP.
WERE YOU INVOLVED IN ANY OF THAT AT ALL? WERE YOU, AS A FACULTY
MEMBER, WERE YOU PRIVY TO ANY OF THE DISCUSSIONS THAT WENT ON?
No, not really. I think the Jesuits are very careful about planning things like this and they had,
- as I mentioned before when I first arrived here that day back in the Summer, -- Bellarmine Hall
had the relief of what the University would look like, so they knew exactly what they were
going to do. So, all this had taken place, but the planning had taken place much before I arrived
and they were simply putting the blocks in place, as they saw fit. The first one was Loyola Hall
in '54 and then, as you mentioned, the others would appear and then the Library after that. But,
I, of course, was at the dedication of all these buildings, but I had nothing to do with -- I was
not on any committee or anything like this.
I MEAN, WAS THERE A FEELING AMONGST ALL OF YOU AS YOU SAW THIS
BEGIN TO TAKE PLACE, THAT THE UNIVERSITY IS NOW CHANGING AND
GETTING LARGER?
Oh, yes, there was always a sense of great growth taking place here and again, to be a part of
/'- it was very special for me. Now, when people come back, even who have been away, say five
Oral History: Robert Bolger 18
years, they are amazed at what's happened in the last five years. Of course, we had leased the
property from the Nuns up there and now it's the Dolan Campus and so on and then there was
the Quick Center and then the beautiful chapel we had. Those three components in recent years
really, I think, was the most important thing that happened in many, many years.
HOW MANY OF YOU WERE TRERE NOW DURING THIS...WHEN YOU CAME
BACK IN '54, IN THE EARLY FIFIIES? HOW MANY OF YOU WERE THERE AS
LAY FACULTY MEMBERS, WOULD YOU SAY?
Oh, lay faculty numberwise, it must have been by that time -- the original lay faculty was quite
small, I'd say, maybe 10 or 12, but I think it must have been about 25 or 30. We did have a
e Lay Faculty Club and of course, I was a member of that.
WHAT DID YOU DO IN THIS CLUB? WHAT FUNCTION DID THAT SERVE?
Well, we used to get together. I think it was once a month at someone's house and then we
drew up a a little charter and by-laws and the idea was to have a really, basically a social outlet
for us, but we would discuss the problems that we saw, that perhaps might be within the
educational framework of the school or not so much the problems because at that point, things
were going along very well. We used to make suggestions to one another about how to improve
things and bring that up to the Administration and see what their reaction might be.
WHAT WAS THEIR REACTION?
Most of the time, it was very favorable. I, myself, because of my fortune of going to this very
famous Mathematics Institute, I was able to, well, let's see between 1954 and 1964, a period
I- of about 10 years, introduce five courses into the Mathematics Program that I thought should
Oral History: Robert Bolger 19
be there because of my experiences in New York and they, the Administration and Father
Murray who was the Chairman, accepted these ideas, so as a result, we had a very good
Mathematics Curriculum ... and it really wasn't, although it was because I made these
suggestions ... it wasn't really to do with me in a sense because I was lucky enough to be in the
right place at the right time. I talked to the professors, I told them where I was and what was
going on up there and they said 'Well, why don't you introduce this course in Abstract Algebra?
Why don't you introduce this course in Topology and this course in Complex Function Theory?'
Now these courses will part of the undergraduate program in this country very soon because it
was already a part of the undergraduate program in Germany, so I did and as a result, we had
a very fine department. And, other departments also grew that way because many of the
professors who were studying in New York -- English, History or whatever it was and they
would come back with the same type of ideas. It was a great period of growth for us in
academics and the Faculty Club had its role there.
NOW, I REMEMBER READING IN A DEDICATION OF THE YEARBOOK IN 1957
ONE OF THE GOALS OF THE UNIVERSITY WAS TO HELP STUDENTS ACHIEVE
THE UNION WITH GOD. WAS THERE A VERY STRONG RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK
HERE IN THOSE DAYS?
Yes, there was. There were many chapels, although none very large; there were many chapels.
There was a chapel in Berchmans Hall. I think if you walk in the main entrance of Berchmans
Hall, in fact, I visited Kevin Wolfthal up there yesterday -- we had some photographs out of a
I- program I'm involved with -- the National Science Foundation, so his office is straight ahead
Oral History: Robert Bolger 20
as you walk in. Right in that area was a very large chapel and that, of course, was originally
for the Prep School, but then we used that very often as students of the University here went
down the path, so to speak, in Xavier Hall. And there were many other religious opportunities
and there were retreats given by the Jesuits and the Holy Days being celebrated and special
speakers being brought in from around the country. Famous Jesuits would come in and talk on
aspects of Theology and Religion; there was a dimension of the Jesuit philosophy and religion
was there and it was very impressive. Everyone saw that and were anxious to participate and
I think we got a lot out of it.
WHAT KIND OF AN ENVIRONMENT DID THAT CREATE HERE, BECAUSE,
- CLEARLY THAT ENVIRONMENT ISN'T HERE ANY MORE? IT'S CHANGED, I
THINK, TODAY FROM WHAT IT WAS. HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE IT?
The environment then?
NO, NO THEN?
Then. It was a very, not that it's not friendly now, it's just that if I may talk about the President
a moment. The way the University is now, it's all relative. Obviously, it's much bigger than
it was in '47, but it's a tiny university compared to some of the universities in the United States
because of the State Schools. But now I'm in a very nice building, the Bannow Hall of Science
and I'm on the first floor and some of my colleagues are on the second and third floor and the
Biology Department, the Psychology Department and Chemistry Department. I could go
through an entire academic year, not seeing them, not to even mention the people who are in
,- other buildings across the campus, and so from that point of view, you lose contact with the
Oral History: Robert Bolger 21
other people, but in the early days, since it was obviously very small at that point to begin with
-- 300 students and the next year, maybe 600 and so on and so forth, we were in constant
contact with each other -- students and faculty. There was a great rapport, camaraderie, so to
speak, among the two groups, the three groups actually -- administration, the faculty and the
students. It was just a very warm, wholesome atmosphere that one had. I used to think what
a great opportunity this is to listen to these Jesuits and the other members of the faculty when
I was a student and get to know them so well, almost on a personal basis. Any problems you
might have, personally, they were right there. But, we all knew each other. We all respected
our professors and the Jesuits and now it's just so big, I'm very friendly with a few people, but
- I can't say that there are people on the faculty -- I don't even know who they are. I've never
met them. I might see them or meet them in a Faculty Meeting or something, but the
environment's changed from that point of view. It's much more global, in a sense, now, than
it was in those days.
YOU WERE INVOLVED AND WORKED MANY YEARS WITH JOHN BARONE.
Yes.
WHAT WAS THAT RELATIONSHTP LIKE?
Well, I think it was, let's see either the Fall of '60 or the Spring of '61. I got a call from John
Barone and he said, 'Bob, We're going to start up a National Science Foundation In-Service
Program for the Sciences' and he said 'I thought maybe you'd be interested in giving some
courses in Mathematics.' I said, 'Well, who is this for?' He said, 'Well, High School Math
T- teachers.' I said, 'Yes, I'm very much interested.' It was a multi-disciplinary institute that
Oml History: Robert Bolger 22
John began in 1961. It was Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics, so I handled the
Math part of it and we met on Saturday mornings and I found that ... because of the fact that I
loved Mathematics so much and loved teaching, but I had this opportunity teaching High School
Mathematics and I could see there that there should be some changes made and I had this
opportunity with John Barone's program, as a vehicle, to display what my ideas were on how
to teach Math and what Mathematics is important for teachers to know. I'm not so much
concerned with how to teach the teacher how to teach; that's a clinical institute where you
actually are going to teach the teachers what they teach. I'm more interested in going very
deeply into the Mathematics that would make them have a much broader background on which
to operate from and on which to be able to advise their students. There's nothing like having
the depth of command of a subject. The student asks a question, you can really elaborate on
it and say 'Well, here are the other ramifications because of this and that.' So, that was an
opportunity I had with John and that Institute. ..
Oral History: Robert Bolger
MISSING PAGE
Please note that Page 24 of this document
is missing from the original printed transcript.
(Side 2)late Provost in a Jesuit University in the United States so when he left, he told me he
was leaving, leaving the academic field as a Professor, but to stay on as an Administrator and
he wanted to know if I was going to continue. I said, 'Yes I will' and so therefore it became
unidisciplinarian in Mathematics and those institutes were funded from '68 to '75 and then they
terminated because at that time the government had withdrew in the early '70's. They withdrew
the funds for academic programs such as I was running but we had, we were funded for three
years so the last Institute was in '75.
HOW DID YOU RECRUIT PEOPLE FOR THAT INSTITUTE?
Well, we had a form that we would send out to the local high schools or we'd get lists from
Washington, the names of the teachers in Mathematics in the State of Connecticut on the
secondary level and we simply sent them the application and the brochure that described the
program and then they would apply and at that point, there was no committee - I was a
committee of one who would look at the applications and choose the ones that I thought should
be accepted and that's how it lasted over those years. I guess the total grant was a lot of money
in those days -- it was almost a quarter of a million dollars over these Institutes from '61 to '75.
Oral History: Robert Bolger
DID THIS GIVE THE UNIVERSITY A HIGHER PROFILE AMONG TEACHERS
TFIROUGHOUT THE STATE?
Oh I think it did. In fact, the Institutes were very successful. I've always loved high school
teachers because of the fact that's how I got my start and I'm always trying to help them
improve their lot, so to speak and I put a lot of time into that and am very, very devoted to
these people. I want them to have the exhilaration and the sense of accomplishment that I had
and therefore, present them with real hard wre Mathematics so that they can see the beauty of
it and love it almost as much as I do. So, apparently, these institutes were very successful and
as a by-product or residue, so to speak, then the students that would apply to the University's,
undergraduates, who would come from high schools in the State that would house participants
in my program -- we found that those students were better prepared than they were before
because the teachers were better prepared. We reaped the benefit of that also.
YOU WERE HERE AT THE TIME TEIE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN
THE G.E. COLLEGE BOWL, I GUESS, WEREN'T YOU? DO YOU RECALL THAT
IN THE EARLY '60'S, I THJNK IT WAS '63?
Yes, that was held in the Campus Center, the Oak Room.
DID THAT HAVE AN IMPACT HERE ON THE UNIVERSITY AS FAR AS THE SELF
IMAGE OF THE UNIVERSITY?
I don't really know. I think there was obviously some time of reaction to it, but it was ... I
{-
Oral History: Robert Bolger
26
went to a few, I remember and it was a big activity for the students, obviously and that point
the girls hadn't arrived, but we had some pretty good teams. I didn't work on .. . I know there
was a section on Mathematics, probably, but I wasn't involved to draw up any of those
questions, so that was ... I think that didn't stay too long, I think maybe four years or so.
WAS THE RELATIONSHIP, THE BALANCE, SO TO SPEAK, BETWEEN THE
JESUITS AND THE LAY FACULTY NOW BEGINNING TO SHIET DURING THE
EARLY SIXTIES, THE LATE FIFTIES, EARLY SIXTIES AS MORE LAY FACULTY
CAME IN?
Oh yes, sure, sure. As time went on, I guess the problem was, in general, there was across the
country, if not the world, I don't know about that, but certainly in the United States there was
,
a decline in vocations or at least, a decline in men going into the Seminaries to become priests.
What are they Diocesan priests or Franciscans or Jesuits? And that increased as time went on
and as a result, because of the ... also the big revolution that took place in the sixties, some of
the Jesuits left the Order and left the University and so the Jesuit numbers were declining in the
late '60's and early '70's and it continued that way for a while. Now, of course, they have a
different structure. I think originally my experience since I was here and back on the faculty
in '51, a man wouldn't be ordained a Jesuit until he was probably around 37 or 38 years old.
Now, it's much more condensed and wmpactified. There are younger people going into the
Order and we have some excellent young Jesuits now on the Campus, but obviously, the lay
people now dominate and quantitatively, at least the Jesuits, and unfortunately, recently we've
lost some Jesuits, some who died prematurely and that didn't help that in-balance that's taking
,--
Oral History: Robert Bolger
27
place. I think it probably was inevitable the larger the University got, the more faculty we'd
need and would be unlikely we could arrange it so that the Jesuits would dominate the lay
faculty.
HAD THE CHAIRMAN OF YOUR DEPARTMENT NOW CHANGED? I FORGET
FATHER...
Father Murray.
YOU MENTIONED HIS NAME. WAS HE STILL CHAIRMAN?
Was he chairman?
WAS HE CHAIRMAN?
He was Chairman in the . .. he was this Coordinator, I mentioned, Father Bums, he coordinated
the Physics, Chemistry and Math and as the University grew and then as the University grew,
it was realized that each department would need its own Chairman so the first Chairman of the
Math Department was Father Murray and that would be in the . . . that took place, I think, in the
early sixties and he was Chairman for some years. Then, he suggested that I might be interested
in being Chairman so I was and I was Chairman in 1970 for three years, was re-elected and so
on, so I was the first Lay Chairman of the Math Department. Then, we've had many Chairmen
since then and usually it's a three-year tenure and then you may run for re-election or not.
IN THE EARLY SMTIFS AS A RESULT OF VATICAN n, WAS THERE A CHANGE
IN THE CURRICULUM HERE, IN THE ATMOSPHERE HERE AT THE UNIVERSITY?
I don't think there was that much of a change really. It more or less affected the churches in
the sense of the parishes and the dioceses more than it affected the academic life. You know,
r
Oral History: Robert Bolger
28
changes like Latin to English and the Priests facing the Congregation instead of the Congregation
looking at the Priest's back and things like this. It seemed that the biggest impact was on the
different parishes and the different dioceses in the country. I wasn't aware of any big impact
on the University.
WAS THE ROLE OF THE FACULTY, AS MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY HERE,
WERE YOU IN THE EARLY '60'S, LET'S SAY AS FATHER MCINNES CAME IN,
WERE YOU NOW HAVING A LARGER ROLE IN THE UNIVERSITY? WAS THE
ADMINISTRATION PAYING MORE ATTENTION TO WHAT THE FACULTY
WANTED TO DO?
Well, yes, it started just prior to Father McInnes' arrival as President, but many more, let's see,
how would you describe it, many more, what's the word when you belong to a group?
MEETINGS.
Meetings, but they're called committees, many more committees were here and as time went on,
the number of committees increased and there was no Rank and Tenure Committee and then
there became a Rank and Tenure Committee was born, so to speak and there was no
Undergraduate Cumculum Committee, then there was an Undergraduate Cumculum Committee
so as University grew, more committees were formed. In the '603, I served on the Rank and
Tenure Committee twice and the Undergraduate Cumculum Committee twice and now, of
course, they're well established committees and they'll be with us for the duration of the
University.
DO YOU RECALL ANY ISSUES THAT CAME UP IN FRONT OF YOUR
~-
Oral History: Robert Bolger
29
COMMITTEES? Well, we, in the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, one of the main
projects there, of course, and it always is, I suppose, is to re-evaluate the Core Curriculum and
re-evaluate the Jesuit commitment and re-evaluate this and that and as a result, and to
accommodate, not necessarily.. .you have to endorse these changes, but it was for sure, the case
that the Social Scientists weren't very well represented on the undergraduate scene, academically
and so there were no majors in Sociology and no majors in Economic and things like that, so,
to accommodate this type of very important academic discipline, the Rank and Tenure
Committee would recommend whiie we have to curtail the amount of credits devoted to one
particular discipline to accommodate an in-coming discipline and make a major in that area, so
it took quite a while, but that was a very traumatic experience for us to see the cumculum
change and we knew that it was inevitable. It was inevitable given the structure that the
American universities have, but I don't particularly agree with that structure. It's true that, in
education as the Jesuits would say and I learned this that you want to educate the whole person
and therefore, there are disciplines that were not present in the programs that we had and we
needed those disciplines. I think the mistake we're making is to think that we can, in the span
of four years, accommodate all these disciplines and to do this, you have to cut out credits in
other disciplines. I was personally dismayed at the cut that took place in Philosophy. I
estimated one time how many credits we took in Philosophy was compared to what we do now
is an astronomical number, although some of the courses, I suppose, wouldn't strictly be
speaking called Philosophy. We took Logic and Rhetoric and then we took Epistemology,
Ontology, Ethics, all during the four years. Ethics was a full academic year, Natural Theology
Oral History: Robert Bolger
30
and I found these courses very, very interesting and we took four years of Religion, too. So that
particular aspect of the Jesuit tradition, so to speak, had to be altered to accommodate these
other disciplines and I often thought that well, it could be that one could curtail or compact some
of the disciplines, some of the credits in Philosophy, but I think Philosophy is the fountainhead
that we all should be drinking at and I think people don't like to hear these things, but why
would it be that in 1887 when you construct a particular program for a university and in 1993,
you're working in the same time frame, you have four years, I think this is what's wrong. It
should not be four years. We had with us in the University, I don't know how long this goes
back, I'd forgotten, but there is -- you can go here four years, then you can go to UCONN for
a year. Nobody seems to think that's strange. I never heard anybody say 'Gee, how come
that's. ..Students majored in Engineering and go up to UCONN to get their degree.' That's five
years. I think that it's simply absurd to think that in four years you can accomplish today what
you could accomplish in four years previously because there's more knowledge, there's more
development, there's more ideas and different disciplines. Perhaps we should start thinking of
a different timeframe. It's no longer possible to do it in four years.
WERE THERE A LOT OF DEBATES ON THIS ISSUE, ESPECIALLY DURING THE
'609S?
Oh, yes, yes. That was a very, very traumatic period in the University's growth when the
number of Philosophy credits had to be cut, the number of credits in Theology had to be cut and
so on. It was called Theology -- to accommodate the other disciplines and naturally, there was
a certain amount of animosity existing between the people who were anxious to keep the core
Oral History: Robert Bolger
31
as it was and the people who wanted to change the core to accommodate these other disciplines,
so it was a delicate period, to say the least.
WHERE DID YOU COME DOWN?
I.. .my position was that I was really tom because I knew that certainly there should be.. .for
instance, the Department of Economics and the Major in Economics and therefore, there has to
be so many credits in Economics to get a major and that should then be elective for the students
who are minoring in Economics or want to take some of the free electives in Economics and so
on. So that ... to accommodate that, the number of credits in had to be decreased, but what I
was always talking about was that doesn't necessarily have to be the case, you have to expand
the number of years you spend here and not keep the same number of years and try to pump in
more courses by filtering out others, other large amounts of credits in other disciplines, but that
idea didn't go too well. But, I think we have to come to grips with it.
Oral History: Robert Bolger
DO YOU RECALL ANY OF THE OTHER PROFESSORS HERE AT THAT TIME AS
TO WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY ON THESE ISSUES? I'M THINKING OF CARMEN,
FOR EXAMPLE AND ART REEL WHO, I GUESS, WAS HERE AT THAT TIME?
Well, Carmen and Art would be traditionalists. I hope I'm recalling their position. They can't
appear here and defend themselves, but my recollection would be that both Carmen and Art and
Chester would be Traditionalists in the sense that they were a bit concerned about the fact that
the number of credits in Philosophy was disappearing, so to speak. I think now, it changed a
little bit, but now I think a student must take six credits in Philosophy and then they elect to take
9 or something like this. I'm talking about it had to be at least 24 credits and we came here ...
that may be the other extreme, but I think there was possibly a middle of the road there we
,--
never did achieve. I think Carmen and Arthur would be Traditionalists, especially those two
because they were, I think, trained in Jesuit Universities themselves.
DID YOU KNOW FATHER MCINNES AT ALL?
Oh, sure, sure. Father McInnes -- he was at our house, I think, shortly after he arrived. We
had a little celebration for him and I used to meet him; oh, yes he had the ... I think it's gone,
but some may remember that on the grounds surrounding Bellarmine Hall, there was a tennis
court, a fenced-in tennis court that Lasher used to use (apparently he was an avid tennis player)
and it was kept perfectly manicured and so on and Bill McInnes was a tennis player, so he used
to go up there and play and I played with him and then we got to the point where we'd be
conflicting with the times he wanted to play. He wanted to play (laughter). But, anyway, he
was quite a tennis player and he used to play a lot. He was very concerned with how the
/-
Oral History: Robert Bolger
33
University was looked at from the Bridgeport point of view, so he was trying to work with the
people from Bridgeport to project the image of the University down there, to attract more
students and so on, maybe perhaps to attract people who would support the place financially,
looking to the future for endowments and you know, scholarships for students and so on.
HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE, ON A WHOLE, WHAT HE TRIED TO DO HERE,
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE YEARS HE WAS HERE?
I think he succeeded, certainly, in some ways of projecting the University in the local areas so
that's to his credit and I think we had a difficult time financially during those particular periods.
I'm not sure how to account for that. I think there was a year or two, maybe, at least that we
were operating in the red and the only time that it ever happened, so why did it happen and what
f the policies were at that particular point, I'm not sure, but we were struggling there in perhaps
the late '60's or something like that, financially.
DO YOU RECALL THE UNREST, THE PERIOD OF UNREST HERE? DID IT AFFECT
YOU AS BEING KEPT OUT OF YOUR CLASSROOM?
Oh, it sure did, yeah, yeah. That was the strike that took place here on the campus. It was a
very scary scene; I was barred from my office, which at that time was in Canisius Hall and one
of a student of mine who was also very active in the Computer Center, Joe DeAngelo, he was
among those students who was in the forefront who wanted to make certain demands of the
University and they shut us down, so it was very, very disconcerting to me to be barred from
my office. I was, a couple of times, I went in there anyway, but I think it was probably, you
know part of the growth was necessary that the University experienced -- the maturation factor,
Oral History: Robert Bolger
34
so to speak, and we learned a lot from it, certainly. The students did have some good points,
but they were pretty demanding and unreasonable sometimes, but fortunately, no one ever got
hurt, there was never any riots or anything like that.
DID YOU EVER HAVE THE FEELING THAT THINGS WERE BORDERING ON
GOING OUT OF CONTROL AT ANY TIME?
No, no I didn't. I knew that the strike had taken place and then we had adjustments to be made
and I remember, although you couldn't ... there was a group that was formed and I think
Vincent Rosabach had something to do with this, if my mind serves me correctly, my memory.
I taught over in Campion and Loyola in the ground floor room. I was able to hold my classes
in there for the students who wanted to come and certain students objected to this procedure.
,
I know one of the great athletes, Frank Mangaletta. He was a Math Major and he was a very,
very excellent basketball player; he was a scholar and whenever Frank had to make a trip, (and
in those days they had quite a basketball team here and they traveled, of course, as the present
team does) but Frank's homework would always be under the door before he left because that
was the kind of guy he was, a disciplinarian and I think for some time, he was the school's
leading scorer. There's plaques to the affect over in the Alumni Hall now. But Frank, and a
few of his classmates -- they wanted me to continue teaching, so I did, and this was against and
above and objected to by that contingent of students who formed and ran the strike and so that
was . . . we had a meeting in the Oak Room. All the faculty gathered very shortly after the strike
and at time, Father Jim Coughlin was the Dean and he presented over the meeting and there was
a lot of flare-ups, a lot of people very agitated and very excited and one person stood up and
,
Oral History: Robert Bolger
35
said 'The first thing we should do is have the National Guard come down here' and I think
Father Coughlin made the right decision. He said, 'No, no, we can't do that; we cannot have
the National Guard come in here, we have to sit down with the students and reason with them
and see what happens then.' So, we did; there were groups formed that the faculty and
administration would meet with the students and we discussed what their problems were.
Another person who did a lot of work along those lines was Harvey Fishman who died a few
years ago, but he was very active, making contributions towards this dialogue that existed
between the faculty and the students and among the faculty, students and the administration and
Father McInnes was right there, too, sometimes. He was the President and Jim Coughlin was
the Dean, but at that meeting, Jim Coughlin presided over it and he was in complete command
of it and we really needed somebody like that, at that point. It could have gotten out of hand,
yeah. In fact, I think that's what probably happens other places where you don't have the right
person there to run the meeting, even and then you have that terrible tragedy that took place out
there at Kent State.
NOW THERE WAS ALSO A REACTION TO THAT HERE, I GUESS. STUDENTS SAT
IN AT ONE OF THE BUILDINGS, I GUESS. WERE YOU HERE WHEN THAT
HAPPENED?
Oh sure, sure. Yes. We had to suffer through that. But, as I mentioned before, we were very
fortunate that there weren't any ugly scenes. It was ugly to a certain point, but it didn't really
get out of hand.
WERE YOU INVOLVED, AT ALL, IN ANY OF THE DECISIONS INVOLVING THE
fl
Oral History: Robert Bolger
TRI-PARTITE MODE OF OPERATION? I GUESS THAT NEVER REALLY DID GET
FULLY IMPLEMENTED, BUT THERE WAS A LOT OF DISCUSSION ABOUT IT FOR
LONG PERIODS.
No, no, at that point, I didn't get involved with it. So, I have no comment about that.
WHAT ABOUT THE DECISION TO GO CO-ED IN 1970? WAS THE FACULTY
INVOLVED IN THAT?
Oh, yes, the faculty was involved in that and I think, with hindsight or whatever it was I was
all for it all along. Of course, my education was with, through grammar school and high
school, except for my year at the Military Academy, it was always with girls. I came down and
went through four years without the girls, so it was fine, but when I came back on the faculty
.-
and it began to be discussed that should the girl ... I was always all for it. I thought that would
be an excellent way of, not just making sure we have a sufficient number of applicants to make
the correct decisions on enrollment, but also to ... I thought they would be very good students
and they would complement the male faction very nicely. So, the Science Building opened up
that same year too and that was the first year the girls came and since then, I think that was a
giant step forward and I think academically, we went up many levels, automatically, almost.
It's very strange how that took place. Nobody can really explain it and the department that's
mostly affected by this is the Mathematics Department because now we're the Mathematics
Department and Computer Science Department (that didn't take place until the eighties), but all
of a sudden, the girls were here and all of a sudden, we had unbelievable women Math Majors
and I think during the eighties, if my memory serves me correctly, and now we have perhaps
Oral History: Robert Bolger
37
one in the nineties, three of the Valedictorians were Math Majors. Well, maybe only one or two
were Valedictorians, but I'm not certain, but I know that three of those Math Majors, those
women Math Majors, two of them had 4.0's and that's not just in Mathematics, that's for four
years, in the whole curriculum and then we have a young lady graduating in May of '93 whose
coupier is very close to 4, again a Math major, but we have excellent Mathematics Majors in
our Department who are women and they have since 1970, more or less, nominated the males
in the Department, as far as academics are concerned in Mathematics and we don't understand
why this is the case, why in the sense, do we get all these good women Math Majors and we
have excellent Math Majors who are men, too, but quantitatively and qualitatively, but it seems
to be now switching a bit the last couple of years, but there was a period of time when it was
.~-
very, very clear that both quantitatively, that is the number of Math Majors and qualitatively,
the performance, the definitely was in the favor of the women and of course, that would not
have taken place if we didn't accept the women. The Insurance Capital of the World, I think
it used to be in Hartford, I guess it's still up there, but they're very interested in Fairfield
students who graduate and wish to do some underwriting or start in the bottom rungs of the
Actuarial Profession and, again, many of the women are interested in that and they have, not
quite carte blanche, but they usually get positions up in Hartford.
DID YOU GET INVOLVED AT ALL HELPING SOME OF YOUR MAJORS GO ONTO
GRADUATE SCHOOL?
Oh, yes, yes, yes. I do and there was a time, however, it was like a peak, when I started here
as an undergraduate in '47 and it was '51, I, myself became a Graduate Student, but when I
Oral History: Robert Bolger
38
came back in '54, there were the number of students applying to Graduate School was
increasing, but then we peaked somewhere in the sixties and then it went down, it bottomed out,
so you have this type of wave affect and now it's starting to go back up again, more slowly.
I think what happened was the change in the Economics of the country. Well, again, I think the
computer, the impact of the computer, of course, has been inestimable and you know the great
role it plays in our society and the wonderful things that you can do with it, but you have to be
careful there, too. It's not sometimes the use of the computer that I object to, but the abuse of
it, but in this case, the use of the computer meant that the computer industry then expanded,
almost exploded, in fact, IBM and Xerox -- places like this and they were looking for very
talented, bright undergraduates who did well, especially in Mathematics and so they would wave
i' the checkbook at these students and it's very difficult after some of them would struggle here
for four years financially and then, upon graduation, you're going to go to Graduate School
now, 'Well, I don't know, I was offered this contract or this position or this opportunity to go
with IBM or some place like this.' It's recently that they could start at $28,000 or $30,000 a
year and they would send you to school if you wanted to get a Master's Degree. Of course,
there were strings attached. You had to take certain courses, but nevertheless, it was obviously
difficult for a student to turn this down. Of course, some were very glad they made that
decision. Others, after a few years, saw that this was not for them and they would have
preferred to go on to Graduate School, but psychologically when you're out for a few years, you
think that it would not be reasonable or possible or attainable to go back to Graduate School,
although some do. But, now, more students are interested in the Graduate Schools and we have
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Oral History: Robert Bolger
39
some of my students who I became friendly with and some who became my colleagues, in fact;
one of my students came back, was a student of mine for three years, went on to get a degree
at Fordham and came back on the faculty. Another student, who graduated in '79, I met in the
summer of '77 and he was interested in becoming a double Major in Mathematics and Physics
and he did and he graduated with Honors here and went on to get his Ph.D. in Physics at
Stonybrook and then ended up at the Nation Degree of Standards at Denver, Colorado and he
and I have become very friendly. He saw that the faculty here was, you know, so, such a good
faculty that we have, the preparation and their interest in the students the performance in the
classroom that he wanted to be a double major and so we have now more students interested in
going to Graduate School. It was very discouraging to have students go through four years here
and then not be interested in Graduate School at all. I, we'd say, I've always thought that I was
doing something wrong. Why aren't they interested like I was in going onto Graduate School
and pursuing this unbelievable discipline that we were involved with, but there is the economic
problem.
ARE THERE PARTICULAR FACULTY DURING THIS LATE '60 - '70's PERIOD THAT
STAND OUT FOR YOU, WHO WERE LEADERS HERE ON THE CAMPUS?
Oh yes, I met the divisional President of the University, of course, and knew all the Presidents,
but I think among the leaders in the beginning had to be the first President and that first group
of Jesuits who amved here, Father Murray and Father Leeber was not here as a Jesuit, but he
was here as a Scholastic and he later became a Jesuit and Father Duffy who recently died was
here. Father Murphy was among the original faculty members; he was at the Prep School, of
Oral History: Robert Bolger
40
course, but he's retired, but he's still here. These people had great leadership qualities and they
set the tone here of high standards; certainly, almost any original faculty member among the
Jesuits or the lay faculty were, in their own rights, certainly outstanding and as time went on,
Father Langguth left as Dean and then Father Healy came in and then the Presidents changed.
At one point, the main qualification for being President of the University, you know what it is,
don't you?
THE NAME FITZGERALD, RIGHT?
Last name be Fitzgerald, right, because the Fitzgerald Brothers were here -- one was Dean and
one was President and the other was ... the Dean became President (laughter), but they were
great men, too. They had their vision of how the University was developing and so many
,'-
i people in the faculty from the early days, Carmen and Chester and Mario Guarchelo and
Matthew McCarthy and Steve O'Brien, all these people -- they made definite contributions
because their standards were very high and they were very dedicated to teaching. Then we had
John Barone who did so much as a member of the Chemistry Department and he started this
program with the NSF, the in-service Institutes and then when he became Provost, he was
involved so much with the building program here. He's certainly one of the great leaders. I
think all of the ... Father McInnes had a definite contribution to make in regards to his own
philosophy of how the place should be run and then the last Father Fitzgerald who came in, and
now the present President has done an outstanding job with public relations and establishing a
good financial base in terms of scholarships and clubs and endowments and surrounded himself
with people in the business and public arena that were willing to make contributions to the
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Oral History: Robert Bolger
4 1
University here, so from that point of view, given that structure in which these people operated,
I think we had many, many great outstanding leaders. I'm not particularly, I don't think we
have the right structure, but given the structure as it is, these people did a great . . . most of them
did a great job and all of them did good work, I think.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE STRUCTURE SHOULD BE?
Well, can we have a little break?
I JUST WANTED TO GET BACK IN AGAIN TO WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO
DESCRIBE IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY.
This is not ... I'm not talking about just Fairfield University, nor the other Jesuit Universities
in the country; I'm talking about the educational system, in general. To me, a University is,
basically speaking, involves two people. The first one is the scholar and the second one is the
student who is aspiring to be a scholar. It's really in three phases: it's a monologue, a dialogue
and a monologue and when that takes place, the student leaves and hopefully the student will
then go on within his or her particular discipline and pursue the particular field in greater depth.
The monologue means that in the first part of the process, the professor is speaking to the
student. Then there's a dialogue taking place where the student acquires certain degree of
material that he feels comfortable with. Then, there's a dialogue that takes place between the
professor and the student and then hopefully, the third phase is when the student gives the
monologue to the professor on some particular aspect of some topic that he or she has presented.
And then, naturally, the more students come, you need help and these people are quote
"administrators", they come in to administer to the faculty and the student. The most important
Oral History: Robert Bolger
42
person on the campus is the student and then the next most important person is the faculty
member and then the third most important person is the administration, the administrator. I
think that's what my philosophy is and I thiik the way it's structured now, and again, it's across
the country, it's universal, there was a Chairman, there's a Board of Trustees, there's a
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, there's a President, Academic Vice Presidents. If I were
to go downtown some place in Bridgeport or New York or something and say . .. I'm talking
about a particular structure that has a Board of Trustees, a Chairman, a President, and Vice
Presidents. What am I talking about? I'm sure they'd say IBM or Xerox or something -- it's
a company, it's a business. We all know that we're not here to make money. This is a
non-profit organization. That's true and also, the students, they don't believe this and some of,
I think, probably don't believe it either, hut I believe it very, very fervently that the purpose of
the four years is not to get a job when you graduate. That's secondary. The most important
thing in the four years is to be exposed to the great ideas that developed since the times of the
Babylonians, the Egyptians, especially the Greeks, the Arabians, the Italians and so on, up
through the Twentieth Century, that because of the fact that we have this structure that's so like
businesses and industries, people think and I'm sure.. .I know that I have very good friends on
the- faculty, in the administration. I'm sure that they think that the administration is above the
faculty because they have the certain degree of power and they have the titles and so on and I
just don't think that it's to he like that. I think the administrators are doing a great job here and
I think that they should be here and it's a big operation now. We need all the help we can get,
but they are supposed to be helping us. They are hired to do for us what we could not do for
f
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43
ourselves with the obligation, responsibility, the awesome obligation, the awesome responsibility
of our dealings with the students -- that's the big thing, that's the essential thing here and I
would just like somehow things to change and signs to be taken down, another signs being put
up -- there's the Head Administrator, the Assistant Head Administrator and so on and so forth,
but to put the faculty back in its place as people perceive us across the country. I couldn't
believe when I arrived in Germany. I went to Germany a long time ago and we were talking
about why I was so lucky when I went to Graduate School I ended up with these professors who
had fled Germany because of Hitler and I knew as I became more aware of where I was in New
York and how much those people influenced my career that I was going there someday and I
ended up there in 1985 and they ... I went from Frankfurt and took a train from the Airport in
Frankfurt and took a train down to Gurdengan and then they met me at the Institute and by they,
I mean, they knew I was arriving at a certain day and I arrived more or less within the time
frame that I was supposed to be there, but the greeting I got, I couldn't believe. I couldn't
believe the greeting from the staff, from the administrators. I was saying my German wasn't
that great and some of them did speak English but then they were speaking in German when they
weren't talking to me. I wasn't sure what ... I was saying to myself 'They got the wrong
person, there's some kind of mistake being made here. They housed me in this ....' (change
tape)
with a huge kitchen, well, not a huge kitchen, but a large kitchen with a dining area and 1, 2,
3 bedrooms; this is our idea of a 3-room apartment that they housed the visiting faculty in and
they were asking me and waiting on me and oh the Professor from the United States so finally
Oral History: Robert Bolger
44
when they used the Professor I knew that I was at least in the right place. They may have the
wrong Professor. I thought they had me confused with the Senator from the United States, some
high-ranking official from the business world, but they take a different view of the faculty in
Germany.
HAS THE POSITION OF THE FACULTY HERE AT FAIRFIELD EVER BEEN ANY
DIFFERENT IN YOUR EXPERIENCE HERE?
No, I don't think so. I think, though, in the earlier days, because of the intercommunication
among all the facets of the University ... well, we knew there was an Administration and of
course, at that point, it was different and I was just ... having the opportunity to come down
here, I was so happy and I knew that ... my superiors at this time were the President and he was
r
a Jesuit and the Deans and all these people were Administrators, they were all Jesuits, so for
a long time we knew this was a Jesuit University which still is and we knew the Jesuits far
out-numbered the lay faculty, but that's quite different now. I think that ... but even in those
days, I didn't, at that point, I wasn't quite that I suppose, mature, in a sense of understanding
the University and how it worked and even then, the faculty seems to be a second-class citizen
in the United States, the faculty member. It's not money, obviously, I think the faculty should
be paid more than the Administrator but that's not the only ... the problem is how the faculty
in this country is considered a second-class citizen. Yet, the teacher in our society is the most
important person, I think. I think that's clear. Everyone in our society has to avail themselves
of doctors, dentists, have to have legal advice from time to time and so on and who trains these
people, who produces these doctors and lawyers are the people who teach from kindergarten
/-'
Oral History: Robert Bolger
45
right through to the Graduate School, so I think in Europe they recognize that and somehow,
we don't and I think it's because ... this is one of the youngest countries, certainly, in the world.
It was founded, so to speak, on one coast and I don't know. Maybe, the fact that so many
different cultures arrived here in the United States at different times and then a great move
westward, Westward Ho, and out to the great expanse of the Midwest and the Far West and the
wagon trains and that little traveling society across the country. When they finally settled down
and built a small town or something, the men had to work very hard in the fields or in the stores
or with the cattle; the mothers, they had their work to do with raising the family and helping
with the farming and so on and the young ladies -- their job was to teach the kids. I think that's
how education became to be recognized out in the Midwest and the Far West. That was the
young maiden who was the teacher; they did a very good job. I'm not criticizing that particular
point of view, but I think that somehow that may be one reason why the teacher is not ... it was
important, the men felt, that their sons and daughters got an education, but that really wasn't
the important thing; they had much more, at that point, much more serious problems they had
to address, namely, their existence and how to survive, you know. I may be that somehow, that
became skewed or warped and while, O.K., the teacher is important, but the teacher is not
recognized in this country as such.
WHEN YOU WERE HERE IN THE SEVENTIES, AS YOU REMEMBER, FATEiER
FITZGERALD WAS PRESIDENT AT THAT POINT -- THERE WAS A BUSINESS
SCHOOL THAT CAME IN AND TFERE WAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET THE LAW
SCHOOL OR THE LAW SCHOOL WAS IN HARTFORD, I THINK AT THAT POINT.
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Oral History: Robert Bolger
46
APPARENTLY, THERE WAS A FAIR AMOUNT OF FACULTY OPPOSITION TO THE
BUSINESS SCHOOL. WERE YOU AWARE OF THAT AT THE TIME?
Oh, yes, yes, sure. There was opposition, the reason being because it's like, I suppose, at one
time, there was people in academics who would not be too anxious to talk about M.I.T. or
California Tech, the technology aspect of the two institutions, very, very advanced academically.
They're among the tops in the country, but there was a time when that's all they did was the
technology and the people felt that this is not what a University should be, that you go out there
and you want to be a Chemist, you take Chemistry for two or three or four years ... hardly
anything else and this is not what an educated person is supposed to be. So, I think that the
spin-off for us was that we felt that this was a Liberal Arts Institution and it was steeped in the
Jesuit philosophy and we had a certain remnant of our Philosophy core and to have a Business
Core come in would be contrary to the Jesuit vision of what an education is and I think people
had that point of view -- it didn't belong here, so to speak. There was a lot of objection against
it, from that point of view.
NOW, WITH A BUSINESS SCHOOL HERE, THERE'S A NURSING SCHOOL HERE,
WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT IT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO THAT THE
GENERAL PURPOSE OF AN EDUCATION HERE IS NOT TO PREPARE SOMEONE
FOR A JOB, YET, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE UNIVERSITY DOES, IN SOME
RESPECTS, AT LEAST SEEM TO MOVE A LITTLE BIT IN THAT DIRECTION.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
Well, I think that ... I have mixed emotions, really. I know our two biggest draws, as far as
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Oral History: Robert Bolger
47
applicants are concerned are the Business School and the College of Arts and Sciences -- the
Biology Program. So, therefore, we financially were very well off as far as the number of
applications was concerned. I think there was a projection made a couple of years ago that
we're going to be in trouble now because the number of applications is going to decrease and
we had to prepare the way for that in the nineties. This was taking place back in the late
eighties; we're in the nineties now and the number of applications is going to go down and we're
going to have to face that and we must be prepared to, you know, condense and cut back and
sure our budgets in various aspects. They were material; that never materialized. We still have
a large number of applicants so I think what some people, as well as Business School with its
big draw, the number of applicants over there, that's rather a nice thing to have around because
i that's going to help make the University solvent, but talking to people on the Business faculty,
I didn't know how to react with them at first. I wasn't sure who I would be talking to, you
know. The Business faculty arrived and, but, it turns out that we had these meetings that used
to take place and still do, down at the what used to be called the 'Swamp House', where the
Jesuits moved when they left Bellarmine Hall. So, in fact, one of my colleagues, Father Joe
McDonald was involved with having these, they called them 'Evenings', when different
segments of the Administration, the Faculty, would gather and you'd know who they would be
in advance and then we'd have a discussion about things. One of the things I've been very
interested in, in my career, is we have Liberal Arts Majors. Now, that means students who
don't major in the Life Sciences, they don't major in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics or
Engineering, they're majoring in Philosophy, Religious Studies, Economics, whatever. What
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Oral History: Robert Bolger
48
Mathematics should they have and I have very definite commitments to, and ideas about that and
I still do and I taught Liberal Arts Math now many times over the decades. Again, this one of
the courses I was not solely responsible for introducing this course, but I was among a group
of people in our Department who did. Now, Mathematics for the Liberal Arts Majors and they
were thinking of bringing to the students the essential component of Mathematics which is ideas
and intuition and then, perhaps, later on, it would be convenient and economical to make
calculations and computations, but the essence of Mathematics are in the ideas that had
revolutionized the history of thought in this world we live in and I tried to present these ideas
on how that could be done, to show them the power and beauty of Mathematics and how it
affects and how it is with us in our everyday lives ... most of the times, it's behind the scenes.
You don't see it's there, but it is there and I tried to present that to them so I think that's an
important aspect of what the Department offers. We service, the Math Department services all
departments in the University because to graduate, you must have six credits in Math; that's a
Core requirement, so we had many, many service courses. I enjoyed teaching service courses
to Biology Majors and service courses to Liberal Arts Majors. But anyway, coming back to
these meetings we used to have down at the so-called 'Swamp House'. There was the first time
I got to meet some people in Business Math and that particular time, I don't know how the
discussion about Liberal Arts Mathematics or that particular aspect of our cumculum came up,
but that discussion took place. So, finally, somebody said to him, a person in the Business
Department, I can't remember the name of the guy now, 'Well, what do you think, if your
student in the Business School, I'm not talking about Liberal Arts Mathematics, you know, the
-
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49
Business Department recommended that their students take either Finite Math or a semester of
Calculus, Intro to Calculus'. So, I think that the Dean, himself was there and he made certain
responses and certain members of the Business Department also responded to what would they
really like to have the Business Majors take and I couldn't believe what they said. They said
that they should have the exact type of course that these people in the Math Department were
talking about -- the wurse where the essence of Mathematics and the ideas and how important
these ideas are and how they affect our culture, our society, and our science. I was really very
surprised. I thought they were going to say 'Well, take more Accounting or more Bookkeeping,
but it was the opposite, so these people are a very educated personnel we have here and they see
the value of Liberal Arts Education and so, from that point of view, and most of us see now that
that's the case.
IF YOU HAD TO CHARACTERIZE SOME OF THE ISSUES THAT YOU, AS
FACULTY, ARE DEALING WITH AT FACULTY MEETINGS AND SO FORTH, WHAT
ARE SOME OF THE MAIN ISSUES THAT ARE COMING BEFORE YOU?
You know, years ago, no not years ago, but a few years back, but a few years back, we must
make sure we have re-commitment to the goals of the Jesuit education, a Statement of Policy,
what the Jesuits have in mind and how we are going to implement this and again, always one
big thing is the Core Cumculum -- to evaluate the Core and to have a program for what we can
expect and what we'd like to expect and what we'd like to see in future years here at the
University. This is always an on-going discussion at any faculty meeting. We've gone a long
way in constructing a very thorough Faculty Handbook and that took many, many decades,
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50
actually, but that was always a part of the main Faculty Meeting for the general faculty, not just
the individual College's meeting and the Business School had their own meetings and so on, so
these topics that, these ideas, these subjects that come up now at the Faculty Meetings reflect
this constant concern as to what, how to maintain our status and how to protect ourselves into
the future. We have to always work on this. We can never relax and say 'We're fine now and
so on and so forth.' We have to always be careful how the society in which we're living in is
changing and the cultures are being affected, the amalgamation of different cultures and these
things are always of primary interest to us as faculty members.
CAN YOU RECALL, AND I'M GOING TO TRY TO TEST YOUR MEMORY A BIT,
HAVING BEEN HERE AS YOU WERE DURING THE FIFITEX AND SIXTIES AND
SEVENTIES, HAVE THE ISSUES BEEN PRETTY MUCH THE SAME ALL THOSE
DECADES OR HAVE THEIR CHANGED MEASURABLY?
Well, aside from one major issue, I think, yes, the issues are really the same and the same
issues, but different philosophies on how to handle the issue. The one thing that was a bit
removed from that was the status that the faculty has been able to achieve here at the University
through the work of many, many dedicated people on the faculty, so we have now a certain
stature within the complex of the University as such and that is respected by the Administration
and it's recognized to exist in surrounding institutions in this area and so we're very happy and
proud of the fact that we've made such strides in our stature here at the University, how the
University has, in many regards, supported us and realized we should be treated on a certain
level and on the other hand, they have their problems with us, too, like the two factions are
Oral History: Robert Bolger
5 1
always concerned about salaries and stuff like this.
WERE THERE PARTICULAR MILESTONES THAT YOU CAN RECALL, THAT
MARK THAT ASCENDANCY OF THE FACULTY HERE TO A POSITION THAT YOU
HAVE TODAY?
Why, I think probably the catalystic agent was the turmoil of the sixties and also another very
strong factor, I think, that contributed to the present situation is when it was realized that given
the framework of the four-year college and the framework of the structure that we had, within
that particular context, we need to have different disciplines represented now, more qualitatively
and quantitatively in the curriculum and so we have things like majors in Economics and majors
in Sociology and Psychology -- didn't exist before. And the people who came here were very
well chosen and they became leaders and I think they made great contributions in increasing the
faculty here at this University, so they deserve a lot of credit for being partially responsible for
the progress that we made. But, the faculty here is a very unified group of people and very
dedicated to the classroom. These people who've come in, in the sixties and seventies, they've
just done a remarkable job and they're recognized as very, very strong teachers and that's what
it's all about. My definition of a teacher is that a teacher is a perpetual student. Once you stop
to learn and study and try to keep up with the advances in your field, when you stop doing that,
I don't know when it is, I don't know how many years into teaching, then you should put the
chalk back in the ledge and it's all over then. You can't give up this constant quest for
expanding your own horizons and I think our faculty is like that. They're dedicated to the
Oral History: Robert Bolger
52
students and they're interested in their own research and they do very well in both regards and
I'm very happy to be a member of this organization, from that point of view, and very fortunate
to see how that developed from one visible building to the present plant we have now.
I THINK TEIAT'S ALL THE QUESTIONS I HAVE UNLESS...
I never thought you'd have so many questions.
IT WAS A FASCINATING DISCUSSION. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT AS MUCH AS
I DID.
Oh, I did, I did.
Oral History: Robert Bolger