901 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/85c9081f7cc94e8b09341481acc69003.jpg 95597e3a2b31feab61bb7ec86ac88e99 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SteinmanAlan_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Steinman, Alan Description An account of the resource Alan Steinman, President of Annis Water Resources Institute Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College administrators Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/169562f4503dc00cb7690629427a06d0.pdf b3324b6cbbeacccb1cfa404c6c0077a1 PDF Text Text ������������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Stella clericorum Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_A061Stella1494 Description An account of the resource Stella clericorum, printed in Deventer by Richardus Pafraet on November 27, 1494. Quarto. [ISTC is00778000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Deventer: Richardus Pafraet Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Catholic Church--Clergy Clergy--Office--Early works to 1800 Language A language of the resource la Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1494 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection: BV659.S65 1494, A061 Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3cebada9049ed0b1cbcf50af3158f256.mp4 2cdf3e7a994d05ee081265ffb4fb640e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ff415ce19c7b91f96a75fde73b02402d.pdf 1b50a7e5e47d02ce760ac207f873a156 PDF Text Text Stelter, LeeRoy Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Interviewee’s Name: LeeRoy Stelter Length of Interview: 1:23:49 Interviewed by: James Smither Transcribed by: Hokulani Buhlman Interviewer: We’re talking today with LeeRoy Stelter of St. Joseph, Michigan and the interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. Okay, start us off with some background on yourself and to begin with where and when were you born? I was born in April 7th, 1948 in Coloma, Michigan. Interviewer: Alright and did you grow up there? (00:21) Pretty much, graduated– Actually transferred my senior year from Coloma to St. Joe and graduated high school in St. Joe, Michigan. Interviewer: Okay, and what was your family doing for a living when you were a kid? Basically my father was pretty much a mechanic, a maintenance man, and he was steadily employed at a couple of different places so. Interviewer: Okay, alright and so then what year did you finish high school? 1966. Interviewer: Okay, and what did you do after you graduated? Went to work in a factory making– A factory that made record players. Interviewer: Okay back when we still did that, I guess they still make them. Alright and now at this time how aware were you of the Vietnam war? �Stelter, LeeRoy When I graduated from high school it was a topic we about amongst ourselves because of the draft. It started and everybody had to register and it was on the news at night, that was pretty much the extent of the awareness. Interviewer: Okay, and then how did you wind up in the military? I had a cousin ask me what I was gonna do for a career, at that point in time I had no idea, I felt that I would continue to work in a factory and he suggested that I might consider joining the Army as an opportunity to help my career enlist– Get into a program that might be beneficial to me after I left. So I went down and talked to the recruiter and he showed me this opportunity to become a microwave radio repairman. Which is basically AT&T military version, we would send basically battalion level communications back and forth between battalions just as their means of communicating with one another. So I figured that would give me a background in electronics, that’s late 60s electronics were coming of age and I thought that would be an excellent opportunity for me, besides it took seven months of training to become a microwave radio repairman and I had no idea, you know what the likelihood was of me ending up in Vietnam until I completed my training. Interviewer: Yeah, so maybe if you trained long enough the war will be done and I’ll go home. That was a thought. Interviewer: Oh well, okay so when did you start basic training? (3:00) In August of 1967. Interviewer: Okay, alright and where did you go for basic training? Fort Knox, Kentucky. Interviewer: Okay, I guess back up a little before that, you had a physical, a draft physical or did you get it initially? When I– Because I had enlisted there was a delay because I actually had to synchronize my time in basic training with when the microwave radio school started. So they started me out a little bit after I was initially enlisted so I had already accumulated some reserve time, then I went in, like I say, at the end of August and that timed by basic training so that when I got out I was in sync with the microwave radio school. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Okay, I was asking in part about did you have initially a draft– A physical when you first signed up for the draft or was your first physical after you enlisted? My first physical was after I enlisted. Interviewer: Okay, alright and then where do you go for basic training? Basic training again was Fort Knox, Kentucky. Interviewer: Fort Knox, right. So we’re at Fort Knox and then what did they do when you get there? Basically issued us our attire, gave us haircuts, assigned us to a company area, and we kind of got introduced to basic military practices. Interviewer: Okay, and you know often showing up for basic training it gets depicted as a bunch of guys with smokey bear hats yelling at you and things, some of that’s from the Marine Corps but did you get that kind of treatment when you showed up? (4:57) Absolutely, my drill sergeant looked like Smokey the bear, he happened to be a black gentleman, very highly decorated staff sergeant– Or actually sergeant 1st class, I’m sorry. He was a member of the Green Berets, supposedly had a field commission as a major when he was in the field, had been– And he stated this to us, when he put his dress uniform on he had been awarded every medal or citation he could have gotten at the time, he was an extremely well qualified individual. Interviewer: Alright, and how easy or hard was it for you to adjust to life in the Army? Fairly simple, my parents raised me to follow, you know do what you’re told and keep your mouth shut and I really didn’t find it with much difficulty at all. Although there was an issue and I don’t completely understand exactly what happened but my training company ended up being very special. There were a lot of different exercises that other people went through that we did not go through and I didn’t completely understand that until we got towards the end of the cycle, but at the time that I went in in ‘67 they were pretty much trained to, if you will, clean out the inner cities. So there were a lot of very rough individuals, if you will, in my company, there were a couple that went AWOL they served on a detail out picking up trash, a couple of them made a run for it. The guard of course yelled “Halt!” They didn’t halt, he fired a warning shot, they continued, he leveled on them and I don’t remember whether one or two was killed. So that brought our training company under scrutiny by the Army so we didn’t– Most other training companies marched or ran to their– From training activity to training activity, we took buses. There was very few times we wrote, bivouac, some people spent two or three nights out in the �Stelter, LeeRoy bushes, we were out for one night and then I guess we were under tight surveillance. I didn’t realize it, they were very concerned there might be some, I guess some further AWOLs or what but so it was a different experience. Interviewer: Okay, now were there tensions or conflicts among the recruits themselves? Not really, you know there were just normal things we had in my platoon. For instance there was a couple guys that started mouthing off to each other and they ended up settling it by– Like a dance off, “I can dance better than you can.” You know we do it better in Philly than you do in New Jersey. It was interesting but even though it was quite a diverse group from a large part of the country they got along pretty well. Interviewer: Alright, and then I guess the other thing would be the physical training side of things, I mean was that easy enough for you or did you have to get in better shape? Well like I said we were not required to run and march as much as the other groups so we may have been a little deficient as far as physical training went but I think we participated in most normal physical training activities. Interviewer: Okay, and then how long did basic last? How long– (9:00) Two months. Interviewer: Okay and then what did you do next? I was– When I left Fort Knox I was put on a, and I remember this very well, it was a constellation the plane with three tail fins up and we flew that from St.-- Louisville, Kentucky to Newark Airport and I distinctly remember the plane circling over the New York metropolitan area. I saw the Empire State Building for the first time in my life, it was an experience. I had flown before so it wasn’t my first flight but it was memorable because we flew over the New York skyline and landed in Newark. Interviewer: And where were they taking you? To Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Interviewer: Alright, and then what did you do there? There I received my training as a microwave radio repairman, basically they start you out teaching you basic electronics and that goes on for several weeks, once you get the basic �Stelter, LeeRoy electronics then they teach you how to operate the microwave radio gear. It was interesting at that time the equipment that we trained on was left over from the Korean War so it was tube type equipment, although the military did have solid state equipment. At the last week or two of training they introduced us to solid state electronics so in case we might serve somewhere where that was the equipment that they were using but in it’s– That’s interesting as well because the solid state stuff was in other parts of the country, it was also microwave radio was also used as missile guidance radio equipment. So some of the guys left Monmouth and went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to join up with the, I guess they call them artillery but they were– Artillery was missiles. So they received the same training that we did for that but the tube type equipment that we worked on in school was primarily used in Vietnam. So if you were being trained on the Amtrak 29 you were going to Vietnam. Interviewer: Okay, so they were at least teaching you on the equipment you were going to use as opposed to switching you at the last minute. Correct. Interviewer: Okay, so it sort of makes sense and for the Army I guess that’s good. Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah, alright now what was daily life like there? (11:45) At Fort Monmouth it was pretty plain and simple, very much a lot closer to civilian life, very laid back, it wasn’t as military as you might expect although there was a period of time where the individuals that were training to learn about the microwave equipment came from other areas of the military where career soldiers were changing their MOS, their– Interviewer: “Specialty.” Specialty to another field and so there were some career soldiers that were blended in with us. At a point in time there were a couple of gentlemen from Airborne, they had a whole different idea about how we should do things and we actually had a little difference of opinion at a point in time. I was one of the three guys that dissented, we went through the military chain of command, went and saw the 1st sergeant, the XO, finally ended up in front of the old man, the Airborne fellas felt that our barracks wasn’t strack enough so they wanted a little more spit and polish. We obliged them, they came back they didn’t find our barracks spit and polished enough they found a few grains of dust here and there and they pulled our passes for the weekend and at that point we dissented and when we got to the old man, the captain that was over our company, he kind of like “What the heck are these guys doing? This is a microwave school, this isn’t Airborne.” So �Stelter, LeeRoy he reinstated our passes and we didn’t see those guys for a couple of weeks and that was towards the end of our training so we left. Interviewer: So the Airborne guys, they were just other people who were going through the school right? Correct. Interviewer: They were not there as instructors, they didn’t have authority over you. That’s correct, they were basically peers even though they were higher rank, they were buck sergeant and I think an E6 hard stripe sergeant that were basically put in charge of our platoon and then you know as platoon leaders they wanted to set the standard and didn’t fit. Interviewer: Lovely, okay now did you get to go off base much? Yeah every weekend and evenings, we were quite free. We could wander about I went– I was there at a bad time of year through the winter, New Jersey is relatively mild winter climate, so we could get out and about pretty easily. There was times when that winter of ‘67, ‘68 it was kind of snowy so it was interesting because the military issues everyone a snow shovel and you went out and cleared the walks and driveways, just manpower but it worked rather well, had a nice clean area when it did snow but– (15:05) Interviewer: And would you go to New York or Philadelphia? I was in an odd situation, I had broken my car that I had before I went in the military and that car had to be paid for, I was making payments on it, besides the fact that I broke it which cost a whole lot more to restore it and then they ended up selling it and it didn’t quite cover what I owed on it. So I spent probably two thirds of my military career sending most of the money that I made home so I couldn’t venture out too far but I did go to New York City once and that was an experience in itself. Interviewer: Okay, now you’re also there, you’re getting into 1968 a lot of kind of interesting things are happening politically at that point. You’ve had the Tet Offensive had happened, Johnson decides not to run, King gets assassinated, now were you at Fort Monmouth when those things happened? Yes, and to that point the activity that I saw on base there was a group, because we were there for training it didn’t involve us but it involved the people that were permanently assigned to Fort Monmouth, they had a drill one weekend and loaded the troops onto the helicopter and evacuated �Stelter, LeeRoy them or relocated them. So they were basically drilling and preparing for riots, so we had the experience. Interviewer: Alright, but on the base itself there wasn’t a whole lot of trouble or regulation. No trouble, no demonstrations, I think at one point in time there might have been like five or six people outside the base with signs and you know people just said “There’s demonstrators out there.” And it’s like, really, so but nothing notable. Interviewer: Alright, so when do you finish up at Fort Monmouth? In May of ‘68. Interviewer: Okay, and what happens to you next? I went home for a 30 day leave and then made my trip over across the pond. At one point at the end of training we sat down with an individual that talked to us about where we were going to be assigned. I was asked at the time if there was anybody else in my family that was in the military and at the time my brother was and indeed he was serving off the coast of Vietnam on a destroyer with the– He was naval reserve, spending his time in active duty with the Navy off the coast of Vietnam. (18:05) So at that point I really didn’t have to go to Vietnam, I was told that but then I asked when my brother left the coast of Vietnam how long would it take for me to be assigned to Vietnam, they said “For your MOS which is very critical in Vietnam, you would go immediately.” So I said “Well let’s just go and get it over with.” So that’s what got me to Vietnam. Interviewer: Alright now what’s the process of shipping somebody to Vietnam? Basically they make sure you have all the necessary immunizations and shots that you need, there was a very brief period of training like a day. That was done at Fort Dix just prior to me shipping out, I think– I don’t really remember exactly how that happened but basically they took you into a room, sat you down, explained a few things like there were some things in basic training that were pointed towards the Vietnam war, the night fighting and different things but we really didn’t do any specific training in basic, that was all to come in your AIT but like I say for us being radio men they put us on the back of a deuce and half, we drove down a road on Fort Dix Army Base there, they simulated an assault, an ambush if you will. We were told at the beginning that should you run into an ambush you jump off the other side of the truck and hide in the bushes, you know. So we’re to work our way back to a certain point and we just walked through the woods and got back to where we were supposed to be and that was our training. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Okay, alright and then do they fly you out of Fort Dix or do you fly civilian aircraft? When I went over for the first tour I flew out on civilian aircraft, stopped over in– I believe the first time I went stopped over in Hawaii and then I think it was either Wake Island or Guam to refuel and then we landed directly into Bien Hoa Air Base. Interviewer: Okay, alright and what’s your first impression of Vietnam when you get there? When– On the plane, you know we’re talking to each other and we’re wondering you know are we gonna jump off the plane and run to a fox hole or what’s gonna happen and it was very uneventful. The plane landed, we got out, the Vietnamese civilians were all over outside the airport, once we landed at the airport we were transported by bus to the 90th replacement. The bus had wire screening on the windows so it’s like “Okay what’s this all about?” Well it’s to keep them from throwing hand grenades in the bus, you know it’s like “Oh, okay.” But we just, you know drove down the road and Vietnamese civilians were all over the place so it was a little strange, I mean we always– Growing up you always heard the World War II stories, the front and stuff and that didn’t exist in Vietnam, that was a different kind of thing but we went to 90th replacement, it’s funny in a way that I was there for a couple of days they knew where I was gonna be assigned to 327th Signal Company was at Long Binh and Long Binh’s only like five miles away from Bien Hoa Air Base which is where the 98th replacement was. (22:05) Took them a couple days to come over there and pick us up and take us to the 327th Signal Company and get us acclimated so. Interviewer: Alright so you start out then based in Long Binh? Right. Interviewer: Okay, and what were you doing there? Basically most of the people that I went over there with, the microwave technicians, were brought to the headquarters company there in Long Binh and then immediately shipped out to a detachment. Personally I was left there for like three months and basically we pulled– I pulled details, we went out and got a truckload of dirt to fill sandbags with, there was some sandbag filling, there was some painting, sprucing thing up around the company area. I spent one day in a commo bunker, basically every hour on the hour you’d make communication contact, somebody would call you, you would respond, they would affirm that you were where you were supposed to be and nothing was happening on the base. The idea being if something did happen people would come to the bunker, it was like a command bunker, and at that point in time they would’ve �Stelter, LeeRoy set up a command center and stuff but basically all we were doing was keeping a communications web functional. Interviewer: Okay so you’re really not doing very much of what you were trained for at that point. Not at all, not at all. So that was another thing I thought “Gee, what am I doing here?” So it took like I say about three months and then every morning you’d fall out into formation, you’d be assigned to do something and then you might go out with a couple other guys or a dozen guys depending on what the detail was going to do and it was kind of odd in a way, I never served KP, you know I could’ve just as well as anybody else but the things that they had me do were pretty common simple stuff. So and then one day I fell out in formation, 1st sergeant said “Stelter I wanna see you in the headquarters office after the formation and need to talk to you a little bit.” So when the formation was dismissed I went to the 1st sergeant’s office and he told me that I had been reassigned and I would be transported down to a base called Vinh Long to replace a soldier that we had lost during a mortar attack. Interviewer: Okay, now during those three months when you’re at Long Binh did you spend that whole time on the base or did you ever go off it? Always on the base. Interviewer: Alright, okay so where is Vinh Long? (25:10) Vinh Long was— It’s the Mekong River came into Vietnam, it split into three prongs, basically Vinh Long was on the middle prong and it was on the south bank of the river and it was part of a radio relay set up for my signal company between Dong Tam, Vinh Long was the relay and the eventual site that the signal went to was Can Tho. In Can Tho they did have solid state equipment, they had a piece of equipment they called track 90 which was tropospheric scatter, it had a huge dish and they bounced the radio signal off the troposphere and then down to Saigon. So that was the delta’s communication link to Saigon, the Dong Tam, My Tho was the closest Vietnamese village, was the base for the 25th Infantry Division. That base was the fellows from our outfit that were stationed there were pretty much under very regular mortar attacks, the Vietnamese really didn’t like the 25th Infantry Division and as a result that base was attacked regularly. Interviewer: Okay, now what was– Okay how did they get you down to Vinh Long? That was another experience, the first day I grabbed my duffle bag and jumped in a jeep and was taken to a heliport, I went to get on the helicopter and as we were arriving the helicopter took off, �Stelter, LeeRoy I got left behind. Went back to the 1st sergeant said “Hey you know you told me I was supposed to catch this helicopter and it left.” And he said “Yeah I know, I got a phone call the helicopter was full and we’ll get you down there.” And I thought “Okay, fine.” So the next day they took me to a nearby base, I left Long Binh and went to place called Bearcat and there I got on what they called an otter which is a fixed wing aircraft, extremely slow flying, it was an interesting experience just taking off in it because it just didn’t seem like it got up enough speed and it took forever, must of ran the full length of the runway before it got off the ground and another thing because it flew so slowly it didn’t have a lot of power, they circled Bearcat a couple times to gain altitude before they flew out over the jungle where they may have been shot at and rode that down to Vinh Long and found myself reunited with a buddy from radio school and then also met a gentleman from up north here in Michigan, Grand Haven. He was very excited to see me so I thought that was pretty good but the change from Long Binh to Vinh Long it was like I was kind of in a somewhat more civilized, clean, organized area. There were actually like three bedroom ranch homes that were built in a little development in an area, I’m sure they were occupied by field officers or whatever but then Vinh Long was kind of a ratty little nasty base and at that point in time– And I never really had it explained to me or what but Vinh Long was under attack every night. The first night that I got there, it was like the 4th of July, the whole place was incoming rounds, outgoing mortar fire, we didn’t– There weren’t any rockets it was mainly mortars, Huey, Cobra gunships were flying around the perimeter spraying minigun fire into the perimeter. (29:23) We sat and listened to the radio, there were people crawling into the wires and stuff around the place, it was like they were, you know trying to over run the base and that went on probably for the first couple of weeks and I tell people I just really don’t have a good recollection, I don’t recall what went on during that period of time because just all hell broke loose every night. Interviewer: So what’s the basic time frame for that, when do you get out to Vinh Long? I’m guessing, and I don’t really have a record of it, but I– Like I say I think I spent three months in Long Binh so that would’ve been, got out of school in May, June I was home for a 30 day leave prior to going so it must’ve been July, August, September. So late September, early October I was first arrived there. Interviewer: Alright, now so how long did it stay that intense? Probably for at least three or four months but it was gradually deescalating, like I say the first two weeks it was all hell broke loose every night, then it got to be where it was like every other night, then it got to a couple times a week, then it got to a couple times a month, and by the time I left, which was another decision point in my career with the military, I thought “You know it’s getting pretty quiet around here, why don’t I just go home and come back? I’ll spend eight months and I’ll get my five month early out and I’ll be out of the military and you know this isn’t �Stelter, LeeRoy so bad it’s getting quiet here.” So that was the thing, during Tet I guess the fighting around Vinh Long was quite intense, as a matter of fact the fellows that were there with the 327 Signal Company carried their weapons, served on the guard post, they were an active part of the fight. By the time I got there it had settled “Oh this is quiet.” It had settled down we were no longer, you know, pulling those kinds of details. So got away from the but the fighting was still, to me, fairly intense. Interviewer: Sure, and you were replacing somebody who had gotten killed so–” Yes. Interviewer: Okay, now what else was on the base, you had the signal detachment and then what else? Well we were there as a relay site okay but we were also supporting a– I’m thinking a battalion, maybe infantrymen, there was an airstrip there, that was of interest to the enemy because that was their primary target when they hit us with mortars was to tear up the airstrip but that was about it, you know a small group of military folks. Interviewer: And then do you have a sense of what size unit you had for perimeter guard, did you have a rifle company or a platoon? (32:35) Probably something like a company, the area was expanded by the airstrip we did protect the airstrip, at some bases they just protected the living quarters and mess hall and stuff like that, at our base we were protecting the airstrip as well so it was a little bigger. Interviewer: Alright, now what kind of physical quarters did you have there? Actually what we called the Hooch was a wood frame building with a corrugated metal roof and we were told that that roof was stout enough to protect us from a direct hit by a mortar. The idea was the mortar would hit the metal roof and it was stiff enough where it would set the mortar off and the shrapnel would go up and out as mortars were designed to do. So after the fella that I replaced that had been killed left we– Actually he was killed leaving the Hooch to go to a bunker, had he stayed in the Hooch he would’ve been fine. So they told us you stay in the Hooch and crawl under your bunker and cover yourself with your flak jacket. So we always had our flak jackets hanging on our bunks and we just the top guy would roll out first, get under the bunk, the bottom bunk would roll in and pull the flak jackets in. The perimeter of the Hooch was filled with 55 gallon drums filled with sand so that and they were stacked one on top of the other so we really didn’t have visible– You know you couldn’t look out a window, you saw a steel drum so we were kind of living in a bunker, if you will. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Okay, now were they right about the roofs being mortar proof? We didn’t– We never had the opportunity to find out for sure. Interviewer: Well good, okay so now were you still taking casualties? You know in those first weeks when you were there were people still getting hit? Yes, and I can’t– I don’t know how many were killed or injured or what but there were people that were being medevaced. Interviewer: Now do you know if any of the enemy actually managed to get into the perimeter? One evening I recall listening to a PRC-25 basically a field radio, we got one from somewhere and so we were on the same frequency as the perimeter security group was and they were communicating back and forth with the command bunker and they talked about sappers in the wire and he’s in the first wire, he’s in the second wire, whatever. So they kept calling back and forth asking to shoot the guy and they kept saying “No, observe, observe.” Like they wanted to see how far this guy was going to penetrate the compound before they did anything about it and I don’t remember the outcome but he didn’t penetrate the perimeter so at that point in time we were okay. (36:10) Although south of us the Vietnamese– The southern end of the relay was Can Tho which was a larger base, better protected, the Vietnamese pulled a shenanigan down there where they somehow got a hold of one of our ambulances, loaded it with guerilla fighters, fired up the sirens, came to the base after an attack had started like “We’re here to pick up wounded.” Or whatever, they threw open the gates, these guys drove into the flight line, they got out of the ambulance, they ran down the flight line, they were throwing satchel charges into the revetments where the helicopters and aircraft were parked blowing up aircraft and stuff, jumped back in the ambulance, turned around, fired up the sirens, and drove out the main gate. So it was a suicide mission, they didn’t expect to get away but you know under normal circumstances I mean here comes and ambulance what do you do? Wow, open the gate, let them out, take the guys who are wounded to the hospital, they didn’t realize it was the same ambulance that brought the bad guys in. So there were those types of attacks that took place but thankfully not at the base I was at at the time. Interviewer: Right, now the enemy that was around you, do you know if they were Viet Cong or North Vietnamese? From what we were told basically it was Viet Cong, they were local people, at that point in time– Now this is after Tet of ‘68, Tet kind of extended itself at Vinh Long. The other compounds like �Stelter, LeeRoy I say, Dong Tam they were under constant attack all the time, whatever the Viet Cong or N.V.A had they were throwing it at the 25th Infantry Division. We weren’t quite that much of a target although it took them quite a while to wipe out or cut back the troops that were coming to try and overthrow us but we didn’t have that sophisticated of a group and they really didn’t have the fire power either because our normal attacks were like 60 and 80 millimeter mortars. There was one event, one time where they got a hold of some 120 millimeter mortars, they dropped three of them and they fell within, I would say, 100 meters of our Hooch. It was very loud and shrapnel– With the other attacks we never had shrapnel land on the roof or anything, it came down like shovelfuls and so we knew it was very close and it was a scary situation. Interviewer: Does that just happen once? Does that just happen once? That happened once, yeah. Interviewer: Okay, alright so does as time sort of goes on do things kind of settle into a routine for you there? Pretty much, yeah you know we’d do our social things, we’d get together, sit around, play cards, drink beer. It kind of varied whether– Because we’re a detachment we’re so small we were under an NCO, the officer that was in charge, the next person up in our chain of command was actually stationed in Dong Tam, which is another story. (40:00) So we had an NCO in charge of us so we were laid back, one sergeant was a little more adept than another and he made a deal with the mess hall people and got us some steaks and we made some potato salad and drank some beer and, you know we’d have a little party maybe once a month or something but that gentleman was only with us for a short period of time. So he made us work hard, we resandbagged bunkers and refortified our facility and stuff, it was a lot of work to do that but it kept us busy and gave us something to do and then we were rewarded with a party. The following sergeant that we had wasn’t quite as resourceful and matter of fact he was pretty reluctant to even fulfill his military obligation, he was incapacitated a good part of the time, so another experience. Interviewer: But you guys basically knew what you were doing and just went about and did your jobs anyway– Absolutely. Interviewer: Regardless of that, okay now did you have any Vietnamese who would come into the compound? Absolutely, every day. There was a civilian group that came in every morning, most of the other– Your Hooch would have basically a person I guess assigned to it, we paid them out of our �Stelter, LeeRoy pockets to do our military things, shine our boots, clean our clothes, press them, so that stuff, clean the Hooch out, sweep it out, make our beds, you know just a housekeeper basically. We were a little exceptional, all the other ones had mamasans, we had a papasan, so we had a guy that took care of us and he was– He was able to help us out pretty well, he had some good contacts, he was an older fella so he knew where to go to get things and get things done and stuff, so it was kind of interesting. Interviewer: So by getting things, getting things that are on the base or from off the base? On or off, he knew where to get certain supplies and stuff so that our uniforms were maybe better cared for than others and just he made– You know you forgot to throw something in to be washed and he could get it taken care of in a matter of a couple hours, little amenities. Interviewer: Did you have concerns that any of these people were Viet Cong? We did not at the time but over time we began to learn that, you know– And we weren’t the ones to watch, I mean that wasn’t part of our deal, we just heard things after the fact but there were a couple of things that were significant. One our radio site had a tower, like a scaffold 147 feet in the air, and that’s where our radio dishes were mounted, that tower was the aiming point for the mortar attacks, so there was no way they were going to destroy our radio site, we had no idea. (43:35) The other thing was that from time to time you might see somebody, and they were very discreet about it but they walked by the radio site, well while they were walking by it they were counting their steps to measure the distance from the radio tower to targets around the base and we were oblivious to that I mean, but you know that’s something we learned after the fact so. Interviewer: Okay, now was there any kind of village nearby or was it just– We were on the, basically on the south edge of town and the town was right against the shore of the middle branch of the Mekong River, as I stated earlier, and then we were just south of that with our airbase or air strip. So you could basically walk out the gate, although we didn’t walk we’d hitch a ride and go into the village and I did that on several occasions it wasn’t something that we did on a daily routine but from time to time and that was and oddity, I mean here we are in a war zone, you walk off the base, you go into the village and mingle with the natives and then there was a curfew. You had to be gone and back, I can remember on one occasion that I did get into a little trouble for it, for some reason there was a MACV, the command group in Vietnam, had a little compound between the base and the village proper. It was a– I don’t know, a villa if you will, on the river so it was kind of a nice setting and they had a bar there so we went down to the bar to have a few drinks and spend the evening. Well in the course of the evening I had wandered away from the bar and I mean it wasn’t– There were no fences, there were no restrictions, just walked out of the bar and walked down the street into the village and not– You �Stelter, LeeRoy know I was oblivious, I didn’t realize that there was a problem or anything and ran into some of the villagers and they confronted me and you know “What you do?” “I’m out for a walk.” “Oh okay.” You know and a few people gathered around me, you know just asking you know “What’s going on?” And “I’m just out for a walk.” And stuff and then I thought “Well I’ve been here long enough I guess I better go back to the guys.” Well by the time I turned around and went back the guys had already left and they didn’t know where the heck I was. So I stayed there for a little bit and pretty quick here the guys came back and “Where the heck were you?” I said “I just went into the village for a little bit.” “Oh you’re not supposed to do that.” So I got in the jeep, we went back the base, we were confronted by the military police at that point in time because the– My sergeant and another fellow were confronted and they said well we had a troop and you know they’re past curfew and I didn’t even think about a curfew. It’s just the way it was there and it ended up they wanted to arrest me and everything and the sergeant was able to talk them out ofit and they took me back to the compound and you know “Don’t do that again.” Interviewer: Alright, now in some cases villages near bases provided a variety of resources for soldiers, including potentially women, or bars, or other things. Was that the case there? That was in town, you’d leave the base, go into town, and there was a little bar district. Interviewer: Was that considered to be dangerous or you had to be careful what you were doing there? (47:31) Never any concern. There was one occasion a guy from the 1st Signal Brigade, a photographer, came down to photograph Signal Corps personnel and what they encountered during the monsoons. So he was taking pictures of us while it was raining and it stopped raining and he stopped taking pictures, I said “Well let’s go to town and get a beer.” You know, so okay so we hitched a ride, got into town, we were sitting in a bar having a beer and commotion erupted outside and the people that owned the bar went over and closed the doors and stuff and we’re sitting there drinking beer and we didn’t think anything of it. Some guy banged on the door, the guy opened the door, and he’s yelling “VC in the village!” And it’s “Yeah right.” You know and he had somebody hit him in the head, he had blood on his face and stuff and I thought “I’m not getting into that.” The guy, the owner, pushed him out, rebarred the door and I thought “I’m safe in here, I’m just gonna stay. If there’s some fighting that breaks out I’m gonna be in here not out in the middle of the street.” The commotion escalated, it got noisier and stuff and the owner of the bar came to us and said “You go now.” You know it’s time for you to get out of here. So alright fine so me and the guy got up and went out in the street and hitched a ride on a truck and instead of going to the base we went further into town and we found another bar and sat down and had another beer and we kind of left the street stuff and went to the other bar and then it’s like the commotion followed us. So we thought “Well we better get out of here.” So we came out of the bar and saw an MP in the streets, so we went over to the MP said “Hey look we gotta get �Stelter, LeeRoy out here.” And he said “We’ll get you a ride.” You know cause there were military vehicles passing once, you know every so often. So we stood by him, well while we were standing beside him Vietnamese, what they call, QC came up beside him and he’s yelling and pointing at us and speaking in, you know Vietnamese we had no idea what he was doing but in the meantime he’s trying to get ahold of the MP’s sidearm. And he’s (Stetler makes a gesture like someone pushing a hand away) gotta be a little more than that, he’s like “get out of here!”. Interviewer: QC is a Vietnamese policeman basically. Yes, yes. And they’re pointing at us and saying things, and we never really did find out what happened, you know? They did, I think, you know some GI offended some barkeeper or something and then some ruckus broke out or whatever but we got out a deuce and a half and went back to the base and that was the end of that. So there were—there were incidents. (50:40) Interviewer: Alright. But uh a lot your exposure really to the war parts was simply the bombardments of the base, especially early on. Yup. Interviewer: Okay, so now how long did you stay then at Vinh Long until you went out? I was at Vinh Long until June of ‘68 Interviewer: Or ‘69? Or I’m sorry ‘69 it would be, yeah. Interviewer: Alright now then you basically extended— I had extended because it was quiet and I felt that I could come back, so I went home for a 30 day leave in July of ‘69 and in August returned and served out. Interviewer: Okay. So what was it like to leave Vietnam for a month? Actually that 30 days you know, as I think back, is just pretty much a blur. I came back home, met with some of my buddies and friends but a lot of them you know they had gone off to start careers and jobs and certain things, and here I am home when they’re working, so we didn’t have that much time to get together. Of course I’d meet some friends at bars and party and carry on a little bit, and I did the 4th of July, I went up to Saugatuck at that point in time Saugatuck was like a big party on the 4th of July and there were a lot of… hippie types, if you will, and there was �Stelter, LeeRoy some kind of a festival up there then. I went up there just to see what was goin’ on and just— bikers and different group of people, it was kinda different. (52:31) Interviewer: Okay. Now the people, people could look at you and know you were in the military or? Nope. My hair was shorter than most people but I just put on a tshirt and some levis and went on. You know, nobody really singled me out or anything. Interviewer: And when you were going, like flying in the US, were you going in uniform? Civilian attire. Interviewer: Okay. And was that recommended to you when you were coming over? No. It’s a personal choice from based on things that I was hearing and seeing at the time, I guess there were—there was a little—some comments made, you know, when I left that hey some things aren’t completely normal over there and of course the only information we got was the one television we had presented by the military and the stars and stripes newspaper that we got. I think it was a weekly publication and, you know, they didn’t put all the pictures of the demonstrations and stuff that were going on. A little bit but they didn’t play it up so I never really thought too much about it and actually coming home, going through the major airports and stuff, ya saw some people. Hippie types if you will. Running around and it’s like, eh, I just didn’t think too much of it at that point and time. Interviewer: Yeah, they weren’t bothering you any. No. Interviewer: Alright, so now you go back again, back to Vietnam, now where do you get assigned? Okay. When I went back to Vietnam I had some problems at Vinh Long with the Sergeant, as I was saying he wasn’t doing his job and that kind of upset me and him both so we were both reassigned. When I got back at that point because I was returning the First Sergeant said “Where do you wanna go?” you know, I could go to any one of the bases that we were at and I found out a friend was at Can Tho, I was familiar with their set up because it was in our relay, so I thought “Well, I’ll just go down there.” It was a bigger base it was nicer, although I found out that it wasn’t—I guess that was something that I didn’t really understand but in Vinh Long, as primitive as it was, we had running water, we could take hot showers daily, you know the mess hall the �Stelter, LeeRoy food was halfway decent we only got food poisoned a couple times there. When I went to Can Tho it was a bigger facility, a better laid out buildings were in better shape and stuff, it did not have hot and cold running water. There was a water heater there but nobody knew how to operate it so we just took cold water and dumped it on ourselves out of a slop-sink, so it was kinda primitive. The mess halls, the food was honestly so bad that you couldn’t eat it a lot of the time. It was poorly prepared, the utensils and stuff, the Vietnamese ran our kitchens and stuff so they didn’t wash well or whatever so you, I was in dysentery most of the 8 months I was there. We tried to find, there were nearby bases where we were allowed to go to eat. One base we could go to it’d cost us a dime to have a meal but there you could get something good that would stay in ya, so we kind of did that. Plus on base their was a Vietnamese concession that made their egg Mcmuffin, bacon egg and cheese ya know? Little sandwiches they’d make for breakfast or you know, they’d make you a hamburger kind of thing, you know. But again I was short on funds while I was there so I didn’t have the money to buy meals, so I just kinda supplemented my eating with that. It’s another thing too that’s kinda odd if you didn’t think about it, but I told you in Vinh Long we had parties and we had steak. We didn’t have steak at the mess hall, we had steak if the Sergeant went and negotiated with the cook, then we could have steak. I didn’t understand, the army didn’t run that right. On my second tour I had to take some radio parts down to a radio site on Phu Quoc island which was 80 miles off the coast of Vietnam. We had a radio site there supporting a CB detachment, they were building an airstrip and securing it. There was also a very large NVA prison camp on that island so they would, there was always concern somebody would break loose there so the CBs were, as well as construction providing security, we provided the communications for them. I went down there and spent a couple of days and it would just shock me, I went into the mess hall and they were having steak. So I did have steak in one mess hall, but like I said I probably weighed 150-160 lbs most of my time over there on my second tour. By the time I rotated out I weighed 125 lbs, I was skin and bones I just—because of the food and stuff. Interviewer: Did they treat you medically for the dysentery or give you anything? Didn’t bother to ask. You know as a 20 year old kid, a 21 year old kid, you know you just don’t think about it. And everybody was doing the same thing you know, and it’s like “This is life, this is the way it is.” ya know. Interviewer: So it didn’t get to the point it was debilitating. No, no. But it, you know, I just like to say if I was hungry and felt, you know, they would go off base and find a meal someplace else so. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Alright. Now did you have—I mean before you left in the first part of Vietnam where you had kind of observed and things seemed to be getting quieter over time, did that continue where you were at Can Tho? Yes. Interviewer: Was it relatively quiet? It was all, in my whole 8 months, never a mortar attack, never any incoming rounds in Can Tho it was—it could’ve been state-side and you know and 2, we were free to come and go to the village. There we had more vehicles that we had access to, we had a Jeep, a Deuce and a Half, and a ¾ ton truck. You could jump on any one of them, run into the village, get something to eat. drink, carry on with the natives, come back. It was pretty open, pretty simple. Interviewer: Okay. Now were you aware at this point of Nixon’s plans of Vietnamization and all that sort of thing? Good point. Yes, very much so and actually the war in the Delta region had started to escalate because we were starting to hear of different outposts where our radio sites were that were starting come under attack again because the whole Delta region had well kind of calmed down there toward the end of my first tour, right? And it was pretty quiet when I returned, and only— I’m gonna say maybe the last couple months there was talk. Now my base didn’t get hit but some of the other bases were starting to get hit as the Vietnamization was taking place. So it was noticeable. (1:00:38) Interviewer: So essentially as the Americans were turning things over to the Vietnamese the Vietcong come back? Was that the impression or assumption, or is that something you don’t really know? Well they—my understanding of this is that apparently there was more of an effort to bring things down the old Ho Chi Minh Trail and resupply the Vietcong and kind of get ‘em going again from the North Vietnamese. There was one incident that I heard of and we were never really sure, we had a civilian contractor from Collins Radio that oversaw our radio equipment and any major maintenance he was there to perform, we weren’t able to do it. Interviewer: Okay, I’m gonna pause you right here because this tape is about up. (The screen fades to black as the tape is replaced.) Alright you were talking about a fellow from Collins Electric? Collins Radio. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Radio, yeah. Basically there was an incident: he was at one of our radio sites servicing the radio gear, so he spent a couple days there. It was what place we called Rock Jaw which was down in the southern end of Vietnam. He was socializing with other civilians one evening so curfews and things didn’t really pertain to him. He carried a sidearm for his personal protection, he was out like I said socializing, on his way back he wandered the streets of Rock Jaw and for some reason—maybe he had a little too much to drink or what—he decided to take a break and he took a seat in front of a building and rested for a moment and a gentleman came by in black pajamas with a straw hat carrying an AK-47. And the gentleman confronted him and pointed to his sidearm which was like a, I think it was a Browning 9mm that he’d had in a shoulder holster, and he threw sign language basically telling this gentleman he wanted to make a trade: his AK-47 for his sidearm. And he wasn’t quite sure, I mean the Vietcong didn’t really have uniforms, of course we always talk about black pajamas and stuff but that was clothing that the people wore, were black pajamas. So he denied the guy the swap and the guy just turned around and walked away. Well after he left the civilian gentleman from Collins Radio sat there and just all of a sudden you could feel the blood draining from his body like he was ready to pass out, he thought “Oh my god that guy could have been a Vietcong or what and shot me and taken my sidearm!” But of course he probably didn’t want to start a fracas in the area and draw attention to the fact that he was there so he just left him be, but he may have dodged a bullet, if you will. So. (1:04:10) Interviewer: In the time that you were there, were there any problems with drug use on the bases? I don’t know that you’d call it a problem. It was prevalent, the plate—the hooch if you will—that I was billeted in Can Tho there was a bunker right outside the room that I slept in and that seemed to be a favorite spot for the people that smoked marijuana every evening. And there were, it’s not like there were one or two, there must have been fifteen, twenty guys up there smoking dope and you know the cloud just rolled right through the hooch. There were—-a couple doors down there a couple guys with my outfit had a room, and our officers in charge of our detachment there every night went there and sat and played pinochle and drank scotch while the guys sat out the bunker and smoked, so. You know, if it was a problem nobody knew about it I mean. Interviewer: So you had what could get labeled as recreational use of things. Basically, yes. �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: But not things that really interfered with people doing their jobs as far as you could tell. That, you know, not noticeable. There were rumors and stories that different things said; there were, in that group of people, of course a couple of guys from our outfit were involved with that and they had told about one individual and 15-20 guys did get into harder drugs. And when it came time for him to rotate out he didn’t go straight home. I was told they sidetracked him and kind of detoxed him before he went back to civilian life, so. But yeah just, you know, some guys drank, some guys smoked. Interviewer: Right. Okay. Now did you notice any kind of racial tensions in that time out there? The black guys in the bases that I was stationed at—there weren’t that many—there were… in one group of guys that I was friendly with and we hung out, there was a black guy that was part of our group. And I can remember in one instance where, you know, we’re sitting outside on the sandbags talking, listening to music or something, and a couple other black guys walked by and they said something to him. And it was their slang or what. And you know “What’s the matter?” “Basically they’re calling me Uncle Tom.” but so there was racial tension but where I was at, what I was involved with, we really didn’t see that much of it. (1:07:07) Interviewer: Okay. Alright now I think you had mentioned you wanted to tell a story of somebody you knew out there? Well, yeah there was an incident when I was in Vinh Long towards the end of my first tour. I was the maintenance man at the radio site, I had kind of taken things over, if anything went wrong go get Stelter, he’ll fix it. And so I basically kept the gear operating. I had trouble with a piece of equipment—there was a guy in our Northern site Dong Tam that I knew was very well qualified, he was educated at a higher level, he was a microwave radio repairman technician or something. There was an additional description at the end of his title because he actually did detailed maintenance work on equipment. I knew he was there, I knew he had the knowledge. I asked him to come to our site because I was having trouble with this piece of equipment. He agreed to do that, he was supposed to be there the morning of the next day and he didn’t come, didn’t show up and eventually we got a call from the site that they didn’t make it, there had been an incident on the road between sites. There were the maintenance man, a driver, and then our officer in charge—like I said he was stationed at Dong Tam. He decided to accompany them to come down to visit us, I mean it was nothing going on but he thought he ought to see the base he’s in charge of so he joined the group, they left the base, they were headed down the road if you will to Vinh Long. They were detained by the MPs, they were told that the road ahead hadn’t been cleared, he would not advice going; there was some discussion, the officer basically told the �Stelter, LeeRoy MP “Look, we’re not a target we’re just a Jeep, so we’ll just go on our way” and it’s like (Stelter shrugs.) your call. So they took off. Well, on the way they, as I understand the story there was a 2 ½ ton truck. They came and were overtaking the 2 ½ ton truck, they were beside it, and apparently a command-detonated mine was set off. It blew up the deuce and a half and took the back corner out of the Jeep, it wounded the driver’s right arm, there was the maintenance guy sitting in the back seat he was basically blown in two, and the officer was sitting in the passenger's seat of the Jeep he was decapitated. So the next day, or later that day, the engineers brought the Jeep and the remains: rifles, helmets, flak jackets, personal possessions of the people involved in the incident back to our base and left that there. And I guess that’s the one thing that, if you will, still bugs me about the war: that I had asked them to come, they wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t asked, of course they put themselves in the situation by going down the road that wasn’t cleared and they knew it. Lost their lives, so. That was a little tough. Interviewer: Alright. And now, are there other incidents or particular memories or impressions you have from your time in Vietnam before we bring you back home? There was another incident: fella was about to leave country because there had been incidents with other people in the signal corps. We were told that 10 days before you rotate out of country you will be at headquarters in Long Binh, cause that was considered a pretty safe place to be. This guy that was from the (sounds like “Rock Jaw”) site decided that, you know, he knew what the routine was so he purposefully left his rifle in Rock Jaw. Left Rock Jaw to be in Long Binh 10 days before he was to leave, started the clearing process to clear post as they put it, when he got to supply he didn’t have his rifle and he was “Gee, I forgot my rifle.” They said “Well, that’s not something we can just have somebody hand to somebody, that’s a very personal possession. You need to get it.” so he agreed to go back to Rock Jaw. Well what we did then is you could get a helicopter ride, a fixed-wing aircraft, something and just fly from base to base and hop around. Well he decided he was—he had this in mind that he would drop off at the various 327 Signal Company detachments and visit. He stopped by our detachment in Can Tho, which we were like the last leg of his trip on let’s say for instance on Wednesday. Spent the night with us, Thursday he left for Rock Jaw, Friday I left for Rock Jaw to take some supplies down there it was, I don’t know 40 or 50 mile ride, so on the way down we pass by the air field and lookin’ out in the field and there’s people standing the rice paddies out there, and the tail of a C1-23 cargo plane sticking up out of the rice paddy. I’ve got a picture of it. And I went on to the base and I said “Well, where’s this gentleman?” and they said “You see the plane?” and I said “Yeah I did.” They said, “Well he was on that plane.” So he was like, you know, 2-3 days from leaving country and the plane just crashed. I mean it wasn’t like it was shot out of the air there was something mechanical that went wrong. It went into a steep climb, one of the engines crapped out, it rotated nose down into the ground, accordioned into the rice patty and he lost his life just days before he was supposed to go home, so that was kind of a tough incident, but. (1:14:10) �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Alright. Now, so did you go to the base then with ten days then you go back to Long Bonh? Yes I did. Interviewer: Okay. And so how did you spend those last 10 days? Sittin’ around twiddling your thumbs. They really don’t—there’s no need to pull any details or anything, the other guys are pulling the details and stuff. You have to go to finance and go to supply and various other places and clear your records, make sure you’ve turned in everything you’re supposed to turn in. Weapons, what have you, your great and make sure you don’t owe anybody anything. Clear personnel and that your records are straight, so I find out what medals you’re due and stuff, campaign ribbons or whatever til all that gets worked out and you just basically sit around. Visit with the other troops that are there and make plans for home. (1:15:11) Interviewer: Okay. And then where did you fly out of? Flew out of Benwire base as I came in. That was the thing, I flew in a commercial air flight back to the world if you will. That’s interesting too—we didn’t mention this but when I returned to Vietnam for my second tour I left initially from Oakland the first time, and then the second time because I was East of the Mississippi I left out of Fort Dix. When I went to Fort Dix they didn’t have a commercial flight available, I ended up on a air force super-strato C1-41 I think it was. Cargo plane with jump seats and here I am going on my return trip to Vietnam in a cargo plane. It was an adventurous trip: you sat with your knees interlocked, you had to crawl over each other, they put a big container on the plane one side of the container was the restroom the other side was your meals. So it was an adventure. Interviewer: Alright. And then once you take off on the way home is there any kind of celebration as you get out of Vietnamese airspace? Oh, everybody on the plane yells hooray and stuff, there’s a lot of excitement and feel-good kind of atmosphere and too at the same time most of the people on the flight are also gonna be discharged from the service when they arrive in Oakland, so there was some excitement about that. Happened to be April 1st and then part of the discharge process we were in a large room, a person came to the podium explaining the procedures that we were gonna follow and said “Oh by the way, we’re not gonna discharge anymore people today this is it, we’re done.” and he starts to turn and walks away from the podium. And then he does an about-face and come back “All right, April Fools.” It’s like yeah, that’s not a good joke, you know? (Stelter laughs.) �Stelter, LeeRoy Interviewer: Yeah. But then we continued with the discharge process and got out of there. Interviewer: Okay. So you’re out of the army now at this point? Did they discharge you? Right. You’re in dress when we left, I was in jungle fatigues, and then when you arrive Oakland then they issue you a Class A uniform so you’re discharged in a dress uniform. Got that uniform when I left the base, got a cab, went to a hotel and the first thing I did was put civilian attire on. There were plenty of stories floating around about the possibility of being confronted by protestors, what have you, people being spit upon, stuff like that. I didn’t wanna have anything to do with any of that, I just get the military stuff hopefully. It's kinda let my hair grow out a little bit and… something like that and just put civilian attire on and went to the airport Oakland. Actually I was flew home with a friend to his home in Washington and then made it back to Michigan from there. Interviewer: Alright. But that was the idea, get rid of the military stuff immediately. I don’t have anything to do with this. Interviewer: Okay. Now, you get back home in April, 1970. Now what do you do? Basically went back to work. Went back to the same company I worked at, I mean I had been short on money all this time. You know, wanted to get a car, or course lived at home initially. It was just to try and work my way back into the civilian life. I ended up going to college which was kind of an extension of my being a microwave radio repairmen. The people that were involved in that training—a lot of those guys were drafted initially and then decided to enlist because they could go to radio school. Lotta ‘em had some college level education so that was the talk of the day, you know. “What are you gonna do when you get back?” “Well, go to college.” There was a delay, I got a job in a factory making record players again and went to school and basically that was another thing that kind of helped me get back into things. There were a lot of other Vietnam vets that were going to Lake Michigan Community College here. We formed a little social group and we kinda had each other to lean on if you will, and we better understood each other than some little high school kid. There was a difference—just a total different experience. (1:20:35) Interviewer: Yeah. And did you have any kinda trouble transitioning back into being a civilian? �Stelter, LeeRoy I didn’t think so. But talk to my wife, there was problems. Interviewer: Now were you married when you were in Vietnam? Or did you get married afterward? I married when I got home. I got home in ‘70 and married in ‘72. I met my wife in ‘70 so her and I were dating within I’m gonna say a few months of my arrival back here so… she kinda helped me get back to some degree of normalcy, so. Interviewer: And then what kind of career did you go into? Actually went to LMC and transferred to Western Michigan University and ended up with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Worked in manufacturing for probably 30-35 years, so. Interviewer: Alright. Now if you look back on the time that you spent in the service, how do you think that affected you or what did you take out of it? I… you know it’s interesting I’m finding out now, 50 years later, that it affected me more than I thought. But it was kind of a struggle, the whole thing. Getting back and in how I lived my life and how I behaved was kind of set up by some of my—pretty much my military experiences. It kinda turned me into a certain type of person or what and I kinda worked through it. I thought I did a pretty good job. Interviewer: Okay. Were there positives that you took out of it? Well… The reason I went in was to get the training to get into electronics, my initial attempt in college my thought was that I was gonna be an electrical engineer, I ran into an electrical engineer at LMC and after discussing with him what an electrical engineer’s career was like I decided to become an industrial engineer. It probably—like I said the people that were in microwave radio training there were high level people than the other folks in the army. We had some folks that tried to become microwave radio repairmen but they just didn’t have the necessary skills and abilities to carry through the training. And so they kinda washed out. So it was a different group of people who were microwave radio repairmen, I’ll say that. Interviewer: Alright well the whole thing makes for pretty good story, so thank you for taking the time to share it today. Certainly. (1:23:45) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context StelterL2166V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stelter, LeeRoy Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10 Title A name given to the resource Stelter, LeeRoy (Interview transcript and video), 2017 Description An account of the resource LeeRoy Stelter was born April 7th, 1948 in Coloma, Michigan where he grew up and stayed until transferring his senior year from Coloma High School to St. Joseph High School. He graduated in 1966 and immediately went to work in a factory making record players. Stelter enlisted in the military after his cousin suggested it might help his career, taking an interest in the potential for a background in electronics as a microwave radio repairman. He started basic training in 1967 in Fort Knox, Kentucky and says he had no trouble adjusting to the army because his parents raised him to do as he was told. Two months later Stelter was flown to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey to begin his training as a microwave radio repairman learning basic electronics, how to operate gear, and solid state equipment. In 1968, Stelter recalled watching other groups perform drills preparing them for evacuations and riots in the wake of several political events. Stelter finished training at Fort Monmouth in May. He was deployed to Vietnam after a 30 day leave, assigned to the 327th Signal Company in Long Binh. After several months he was then reassigned to Vinh Long to replace a soldier who was lost in a mortar attack. Vinh Long was part of a radio relay set up by the signal company between Dong Tam and Can Tho, and Stelter recalled that it “was under attack every night…it was like the 4th of July, the whole place was incoming rounds, outgoing mortar fire” for three or four months, gradually deescalating. Stelter stayed at Vinh Long until June 1969 after which he took a 30 day leave before returning to Vietnam for a second time and being assigned to Can Tho. In all 8 months of his second term, he never heard any mortars or incoming rounds and was free to come and go from the village. In April 1970, Stelter returned home from Vietnam on a commercial flight and went back to work at the same factory he had as a teenager, making record players. In 1972, he married his wife who he said helped him return to some degree of normalcy. He attended Lake Michigan College before transferring to Western Michigan University and obtaining a degree in Industrial Engineering, after which he worked in manufacturing for the next 35 years. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Lest We Forget Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945—Personal narratives, American Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1f2b7fa2e494de4717b1b45cbf96c890.jpg 02fe6b046c6e9ef81c5ecf6467479d73 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Theatre Photos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Description An account of the resource Photographs of Grand Valley theater productions from the 1980s to the 2010s. Photos include shots of performances, backstage, casts and crewmembers. Included in the collection are Shakespeare Festival productions and small acts such as Bard to Go and the Greenshow. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Grand Valley State University Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-2017 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01) Subject The topic of the resource Theater Performances Plays Musicals College Students Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives. Allendale, MI 49401 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01_1983-Step-On-A-Crack_003 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Title A name given to the resource Step On A Crack (theater production), 1983 Description An account of the resource Color photograph of Grand Valley's 1983 production of "Step On A Crack," by Suzan Zeder. In this image four actors are staged in a child's messy bedroom. A child points a finger accusingly at a woman, while a man looks on. Behind them is a man who is paying little attention to the others. He sits inside a glass booth. Subject The topic of the resource Theater College students Plays Performances Acting Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/754">Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 1983s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/562d12733affd6a29521908d8261f2de.jpg 8d7c648ab1c59c3caeb5adf98d29f016 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Theatre Photos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Description An account of the resource Photographs of Grand Valley theater productions from the 1980s to the 2010s. Photos include shots of performances, backstage, casts and crewmembers. Included in the collection are Shakespeare Festival productions and small acts such as Bard to Go and the Greenshow. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Grand Valley State University Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-2017 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01) Subject The topic of the resource Theater Performances Plays Musicals College Students Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives. Allendale, MI 49401 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01_1983-Step-On-A-Crack_005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Title A name given to the resource Step On A Crack (theater production), 1983 Description An account of the resource Color photograph of Grand Valley's 1983 production of "Step On A Crack," by Suzan Zeder. In this image a child wearing a top hat poses dramatically as a man in a glass booth looks on. The set is very dark. Subject The topic of the resource Theater College students Plays Performances Acting Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/754">Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 1983s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e3c43ee407f17b2c20d4296a97bab832.jpg b093ddff456fe55899384cbe18744bb4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Theatre Photos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Description An account of the resource Photographs of Grand Valley theater productions from the 1980s to the 2010s. Photos include shots of performances, backstage, casts and crewmembers. Included in the collection are Shakespeare Festival productions and small acts such as Bard to Go and the Greenshow. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Grand Valley State University Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-2017 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01) Subject The topic of the resource Theater Performances Plays Musicals College Students Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives. Allendale, MI 49401 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01_1983-Step-On-A-Crack_014 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Title A name given to the resource Step On A Crack (theater production), 1983 Description An account of the resource Color photograph of Grand Valley's 1983 production of "Step On A Crack," by Suzan Zeder. In this image a young man lies on a kitchen table. Above him a clown gestures frantically, to the right stands another clown, and in the background a child looks on. The set is dressed like a midcentury home. Subject The topic of the resource Theater College students Plays Performances Acting Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/754">Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 1983s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/44227fb652ba0328336ce69ab7d90bd9.jpg 832eb75c1c8704cae8a5be7eec181c75 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Theatre Photos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Description An account of the resource Photographs of Grand Valley theater productions from the 1980s to the 2010s. Photos include shots of performances, backstage, casts and crewmembers. Included in the collection are Shakespeare Festival productions and small acts such as Bard to Go and the Greenshow. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Grand Valley State University Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-2017 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01) Subject The topic of the resource Theater Performances Plays Musicals College Students Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives. Allendale, MI 49401 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01_1983-Step-On-A-Crack_019 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Title A name given to the resource Step On A Crack (theater production), 1983 Description An account of the resource Color photograph of Grand Valley's 1983 production of "Step On A Crack," by Suzan Zeder. In this image a child is sleeping, framed by five onlookers. Two clowns gaze at him on the right, above a young man looks down at him, and to the left are a man and woman in dressing gowns. Toys and posters are hung on the wall. Subject The topic of the resource Theater College students Plays Performances Acting Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/754">Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 1983s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/24d9db48ee729549d16a1a5afbdcb5d5.jpg 5b89c68efe2e5315b2bdd1c8c4ddb5f2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Theatre Photos Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Description An account of the resource Photographs of Grand Valley theater productions from the 1980s to the 2010s. Photos include shots of performances, backstage, casts and crewmembers. Included in the collection are Shakespeare Festival productions and small acts such as Bard to Go and the Greenshow. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Copyright Grand Valley State University Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-2017 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01) Subject The topic of the resource Theater Performances Plays Musicals College Students Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives. Allendale, MI 49401 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV058-01_1983-Step-On-A-Crack_022 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Theatre Department Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1983 Title A name given to the resource Step On A Crack (theater production), 1983 Description An account of the resource Color photograph of Grand Valley's 1983 production of "Step On A Crack," by Suzan Zeder. In this image a man dances with a young girl. Behind them is a man in a glass booth. The actors are staged with a black backdrop and a minimal set. Subject The topic of the resource Theater College students Plays Performances Acting Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/754">Theatre Department photographs (GV058-01)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives 1983s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3b58153d8595cce1b3caa8a8e3c07cb6.jpg 7a7dc72d390968f3be8e7bd82bd72158 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_FilmPacks_V_16_002 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1938-08-16 Title A name given to the resource Stephen Bachler bronze monument Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of the memorial stone and plaque to the settlers of Hampton and Rev. Stephen Bachiler. The plaque reads, "A little band of pioneers under the leadership of Rev. Stephen Bachiler of Southampton, England seeking a larger liberty in October 1638 settled in the wilderness near this spot to plant a free church in a free town. They were joined in 1639 by others and in that year the town was incorporated. To do honor to the founders and fathers of Hampton to exalt the ideals for which they strove and as an inspiration to posterity this memorial is dedicated. October 14, 1925." Subject The topic of the resource Massachusetts--History Monuments Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/df64bd9814a8fbea12b5757c7b7a61e1.jpg cb6a8a018ef1314a7654d80e7d13e1f9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1980s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001114 Title A name given to the resource Stephen Rowe gives a speech Description An account of the resource Stephen Rowe gives a speech. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Faculty Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/98860c0a18f502ab776d511d559ec089.jpg 045aecb86236c2434f8aa3eaaadc1632 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1980s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001146 Title A name given to the resource Stephen Rowe gives a speech Description An account of the resource Stephen Rowe gives a speech. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Faculty Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9034b5f1c6e3d5633f917bbf867187e7.mp4 c0e15153b46a8cc6de240a16df923b96 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/77869612840f9882bb63369a9f81d1e3.pdf 6ad642aec9d470c4f6852947cc364648 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Stephen Rowe Date: 1984 Part: 1 of 2 [Barbara] Okay, whenever you feel comfortable, if you could just comment on that notion of students adapting to the college. [Rowe] Well, I think a theme that comes up again and again… perhaps the central theme of progressive education hinges on the distinction between the active and the passive mode. Now James' way of putting that was, I think, what he said in the talks to teachers that he gave in Boston which is really his only sustained statement about education. The center of that statement was something to the effect that in education there's one maxim, and that is no impression without expression. Now, the point is that education continuously runs the cycle of impression and expression and that the problem with most of education is not that it's wrong, but that it only runs half the cycle. In other words, it tests… it gives the students a certain set of impressions and then tests to see if they've gotten the impressions. Now, again, the point is not that that's entirely wrong, but that runs only half the cycle. From James' standpoint, and from the standpoint of progressive education generally, that is frequently called active as opposed to passive education, one for every unit of impression there has to be some expression. One has to do something with it. One has to do the kind of… engage in the kind of doing that enables the student to come into possession of the material. Not simply into the possession of the certificates that says that they have temporarily gotten the impression. And there are empirical studies and point out that that kind of learning, take the test, which certifies that you've gotten the proper impressions. That kind of learning disappears very, very fast. I mean the retention curve with that kind of learning, as compared to the more active learning, shows the initial retention higher, but the curve drops off very rapidly. Whereas in the more active mold, which is to say that impression has been followed by expiration – in this case in writing, or internship kind of work, or what we in the early days call project-oriented education – the retention initially is a little lower, but it remains far after the test material has been forgotten. So, with most of our students coming out of traditional high schools and colleges, they have come to us frequently with some notion about what they want at the college, but mostly habituated to this passive mode. And I think one of the basic events that we see over and over again with students is this kind of crucial moment of awakening to the more active mode. And so frequently – and especially entering students – there will be this very distinct process of engaging education in the more active that is initially perceived as frustrating and indeed it �seems to me that to enable someone to make the transition from the passive to the active mode, there is a certain amount of turbulence and frustration. In fact, a good curriculum should induce a kind of frustration that leads to crossing over this threshold. And it seems to me that the, quote, William James students – the ones who are sort of self-evidently reflective of the college at its best – are those who have made that transition and who are able to participate in this active mode of learning. And I perhaps should say that one of the reasons for the demise of the college was the difficulty, late in college, getting students to do that. The influence of career, careerism, as well as the conservatives and the culture, meant that more and more students were resistant to that process and more and more were willing to defer to authority and to wish to be told. And the more survival became the issue, and the more insecure people became, the more we saw real resistance on the part of students to cross that threshold and enter into the more active mode. But the point of contact, again, with William James was the central statement: "No impression without expression." And when we worked well, I think we continuously ran that whole cycle. [Barbara] Perfect! [Rowe] Good, good, good, good. Next question. [Barbara] Is this a useful question? I'm concerned… I'm sorry. Whenever you're ready to go. [Rowe] Okay, I think that James the person is difficult to understand, William James College was difficult to understand, and what both the college and the figure representative are difficult to understand. But I don't mean it is difficult to understand in the sense of being abstract, or many concepts, or it takes a great effort in the intellectual sense. The difficulty in understanding, it seems to me, is perceptual. It's a little bit like the faces and vases diagram that you get in Psychology 101. In other words, the diagram shows that as you look at it one way it's a vase and as you look at it another way it's two faces looking at each other. It's a gestalt, it's a question of perceptual angle. Now James, the figure, again I think is useful in understanding the college, James, another way to say what the opposition was… the two parts of the culture, neither one of which was sufficient, and the brilliance of the figure James… William James coming to a third orientation that was sufficient. James needed to do philosophy. He needed to make sense of things. He needed to understand life as one whole thing, and the schools of thought they were available to him were both insufficient. On the one side there was the German Idealism, which was precisely that theoretical detachment and ivory tower construction of brand theories that don't relate to anything real, on the one side. And on the other side, the reigning British Empiricism, which was enormously superficial, which literally stood around on street corners and counted things. Neither of those world views or perspectives �he found adequate. And one way to explain his genius is that he met that fundamental position, and move through it, and was able to construct a more adequate philosophy. And I think from this standpoint the- a way to articulate that is in terms of a statement he made its end of his career, when he said: "If this culture is to achieve health and vitality, once again, we must turnover, lie face down, and look into the thick of things." In other words, the traditional orientation represented by the German Idealism tended to understand life by taking a transcendent perspective out there. And that became very problematic in the twentieth century. Nietzsche's famous "God is dead" is the most dramatic and very confusing statement of that. That the way of understanding life through a transcendent principle that's out there seemed to no longer work, going to eclipse or be mysteriously absent, et cetera. The second orientation which we see throughout the twentieth century, which corresponds to the British Empiricism, more or less gives up on any larger sense of meaning or value and is happy to count things and expresses itself and materialism and consumerism, et cetera. Now this third orientation, which is not difficult to understand, again in the conceptual or intellectual form, it's a matter of what James called "angle of vision," of worldview, of perspective, of gestalt, involves an orientation to the depth of the present and to the in here, rather than the out there. And that, it seems to me, is the basic problem with understanding James the figure or James the college. It's a problem of world view. It's a problem from the mental perspective. It's a problem, not of rearranging concepts, but rather of stuff just ever so slightly to the side and seeing everything in a slightly different way. Now this is too complicated. [Barbara] No. [Rowe] No? [Barbara] But I'm going to stop and make sure we got it because… It's really whenever you feel comfortable starting, just talking about where William James College fits into the history of progressive education and/or the alternative education efflorescence. [Rowe] Okay, well I think in some ways, it's very important that the college was founded as it was in nineteen seventy-one to seventy-two, more or less on a cusp between two distinct movements. On the one side, the alternative or innovative education movement – roughly dating from, say, sixty-eight to seventy-one, seventy-two, on our campus – to the demise of Thomas Jefferson College, which was a fairly good example of that. And on the other hand, the career orientation, which began, I think, about seventy-four. So, we were fortunate at James to have had the experience really of some of the excesses and confusions of the innovative education movement, on the one hand, and to have done some serious thinking about vocation and career before the nation became obsessed �with careerism in higher education. Now, it had occurred to me that at one point, one way to understand William James College at its best was that we tried to integrate elements of three distinct educational movements. There's the traditional orientation, which in America came regarding critically by about sixtyeight. Then there's the innovative education movement, as I say, from sixty-eight to seventy-one, and then the career education movement. It seems to me that William James College, in some respects, can be understood as a synthesis of the best elements of each of those three movements. And for each of those movements there's a distinct coinage, or it's coin of the realm, or what passes between people. In the traditional movement, the coinage tended to be quantities of abstract knowledge and the innovative or alternative movement the coinage tended to be richness of personal experience. And in the career the coinage tended to be jobs and engagement with the world, primarily in terms of financial success and career. It occurred to me at one point, that if you take each of the three of those elements, the best of each of the three, you have a view of what we were doing at William James College. I think, fundamentally, we were trying to enable people to understand their commitments and to identify, develop, and interact with their most basic commitments. The identification, corresponding to the alternative innovative movement, where identifying what one is basically committed to requires some degree of self-awareness and some capacity to know what one's own experiences is. The development of one's commitment, with appropriate resources – academically, historically, et cetera – corresponds, it seems to me, to the best of the traditional education and the enactment of one's commitments corresponds to the best of the career orientation. So, the foundation of the college, as I say, on a cusp between the excesses of the innovative or alternative movement on one side, and the superficiality of careerism on the other, seems to me is very significant and fortunate fact about the history of our college. Now I think something else should be said about the ambitiousness of doing what we were trying to do. William James College, if nothing else, was enormously ambitious. I remember a day in the mid-seventies when I read in the "Chronicle of Higher Education," some private college in the east – Bennington, I believe, it doesn't really matter - was having to go because of financial difficulties from a student-faculty ratio eleven-to-one to fourteen-toone. At which point I practically expired of sheer exhaustion and realized the ambitiousness of what we were trying to do at a ratio of about twenty-three-point four-to-one. And in some ways, that fact, twenty-three-point-four-to-one is one of the fundamental significant facts about the college. To try to do small classes, individualized advising, internships, project-oriented education, all of that, at a ratio of twenty-three-point-four-to-one, is an enormously ambitious undertaking. And hence sustaining that for ten years is incredible. And we knew about burnout and related matters but the fact we were able to sustain that for a decade seems, to me, incredible. Now this isn't much about progressive education. [Barbara] Well, it's been a different answer. �[Rowe] Yeah. Yes, the college can be understood as a manifestation of the progressive education movement. I think I've already spoken to that in the previous… Is there another angle on that that you want? [Barbara] … comfortable. [?] [Rowe] Okay. Something needs to be said about this word "commitment." It seems to me that one of the most significant studies of higher education in the period of William James College was the famous William Perry book called "Forms of Moral and Intellectual Development of the College Years" and what he really pointed out, as a social scientist, is that higher education, when it works well, enables the student to move through nine stages of developmental process wherein they enter what he calls the commitment stage. Of the word itself, "commitments," has been in some respects a cliché of that period, so that there are understandings of the term "commitment" that are nearly clichéd. But Perry points in a simpler form of his statement that the deep curriculum of the college years involves the student moving through three stages: the absolutistic stage, where they think that there's one right answer, black and white, right and wrong. Secondly: the relativistic stage. Everything is relative in the sense of outer space. I mean everything can become anything else. Pure protein is in flux, and so forth. And if things go well, they emerge from that stage, and through that stage, into the commitment stage, where they are able to commit themselves, both in terms of beliefs about the cosmos or religion and philosophy, and in terms of particular people and projects. So that term "commitment," indicating the culmination of a crucial developmental process that Perry, and his successors, have argued was the deep curriculum of the college years. I think is the way that I want to understand that term and hence the significance… significance is a word I use too much… the necessity to identify what students are really committed to and provide them with the context and a curriculum through which to develop their commitment in terms of awareness, perspectives, what the academy can do at its best. And third: to at least have some experience with the enactment or embodiment or living of that commitment into the world as we find. [Barbara] What I just asked you about coping with the changes that happened… [Rowe] Okay, the future-oriented part of it, it seems to me, was in some ways a sham. Or a reflection of the society perceiving, I guess, the general term is rapid social change, so not a sham but a cliché. I think that at a deeper level there was significance to future-oriented and this is a quality that tends to be present in alternative education, generally. And that is the emphasis, the realization that education involves two elements. It involves a substance and a process. And another way to say what the problem with tradition, much of what traditional education is that it concentrates entirely on the substance and doesn't attend to �the process of learning. To emphasize the process of learning is to emphasize the importance of learning how to learn, quite independent of what the particular subject matter or substance is that the student is being required to master. So that many people in the present… in fact, many of the reports on higher education that we're seeing now – especially the Bell report, for example, and the American Association of Colleges report – emphasize the importance of a student learning how to learn as an essential part of the experience with higher education. So, it seems to me that at its best, what the future-oriented meant was attention to the process and to enabling the student to learn how to learn. At its worst it was a cliché… � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_42_Rowe Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rowe, Stephen Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Stephen Rowe interview (1 of 2, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Stephen Rowe by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Stephen Rowe was a faculty member of William James College and a longtime philosophy professor at Grand Valley. In this interview, Stephen discusses how William James students adapted to the college, how the perception of the college was difficult for many to understand, and how William James College fit into the history of the alternative education movement. This interview is part 1 of 2 for Stephen Rowe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2c998017ef75ab39833000f1ecc58b9e.mp4 cc8ff28dfbd512ff8231ad2055d8347a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a3facaaaf8044d6072fba7dcfccd1346.pdf 17cea6ad179836c64aca9c38ff4f5093 PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Stephen Rowe Date: 1984 Part: 2 of 2 [Barbara] Alright. I guess the one thing we should really start talking about is if you could – Oh, I would say, tell me one or two of the main thrusts of James's philosophy that were manifested in the college. [Rowe] Okay. I think in terms of the college, the most important thing about James, as tends to be the case with the other great figures in the twentieth century, is that he wound up taking on the central cultural problem, which for some people is a problem of ideal and actual. For other people, it's the problem – beginning with Descartes – of the separation of mind and body. For others, it's fact and value. And for James, it tended to be the problem of theory and practice. In other words, there's fairly widespread agreement among the great figures in the twentieth century that our culture is dichotomous or it had become unstuck in such a way that you get two elements that are not related. An extreme expression of that, of course, in our time is Heller's "Catch Twenty-Two.” Here's two choices, neither works, pick one. Gregory Bateson's “Double Bind” – same idea. But for James, the problem tended to be – or the manifestation of that deep problem tended to be – in terms of theory and practice. Such that, he observed, that without intervention, the situation would develop where your thinkers would drift to one end of the room and create grand theories that were related to nothing real. And your actors would drift to the other side and mindlessly act out whatever procedure or undertaking was going. So that, again, all things being equal, and there being no intervention, there tends to be this split between theory and practice, or ideal and actual. And with William James College, we tried to take that problem on. And hence the integration of theory and practice, stressing the importance of internships, and the consequences of what one is learning on one side, and the implications on the more technical side – or career-related side – at the same time. Now there's more to be said about James, but it seems to me that in an era of alternative education, many of the examples and instances of alternative education – perhaps even on our campus – failed because they lacked coherence or they failed to achieve sufficient intellectual discipline. And they simply became schools of doing your own thing, which is what happens over and over again with progressive education… a history for progressive education. And we were most fortunate with William James College then that we had really the discipline of a great thinker with whom we could be in dialogue. So, it seems to me that with William James College we have at least three things. It's an instance of alternative education, which in some ways is the same tradition as �progressive education, which as I say fails over and over again because it lacks discipline and coherence, and it devolves into a situation where people are merely doing their own thing. Secondly, the college was a manifestation of the human potential movement and, unfortunately, that movement in many respects suffered the same fate as has progressive education, which is to say that it failed to find sufficient articulation and hence in the worst forms became helter-skelter or nearly do your own thing. And to me, the history of the modern period, generally, I mean the whole of the modern period displays that problem, that there's some great idea about the dignity of the individual and a certain kind of relationship in which the individual can mature. But – and here I place most of the blame on intellectuals – we have had an enormous difficulty finding the articulation that can remind us and provide the appropriate forms of discipline for that intuition about being human and the relationship between being fully human and being in community. And as John Dewey, William James later colleague, points out in many respects our failure has been fundamentally intellectual in that philosophy has failed to serve its function of reminding us and pointing us to those experiences and moments in which we are being fully human. And unfortunately, so much of philosophy or thought generally became co-opted to the superficial, mechanical, laissez-faire notions of both the individual and community that they effectively were absent in terms of reminding us of the best. So, in my view, William James College – as an expression of a period, as well as an institution in itself – was an attempt to institutionalize the best of the modern period, which is to say, again, a view of the maturity and fullness of the human being that is not antithetical to community. That, in fact, depends on and leads to a certain quality of relationship that is very difficult to give voice to in the Cartesian mechanical, even hydraulic, modern vocabulary. Where the assumption tends to be that if I do something for myself, that's necessarily at someone else's expense. And if I do something for someone else that necessarily involves sacrifice. There is, it seems to me, at the root of the modern period a vision of individual and community related in something like what we these days call synergy. That, again, is very difficult to articulate in intellectualist either/or categories. And so, here with the human potential movement, and the college as an expression of that, was a surfacing of the attempt to embody that ideal. And it just happened that it was a fortunate circumstance in that the namesake provided help on that, rather than as with so many alternative projects – educational and otherwise – the intuition appeared, was healthy for a time, and then the failure of articulation began to take its toll in terms of people drifting off into who knows what. And so, it seems me the relationship and the really continuous dialogue with James the figure throughout the period was most deeply significant in terms of that issue of having discipline and a coherent view of what we were doing that tended to center around the problem of theory and practice and the integration of the two. But it really went deeper than that in terms of the capacity to affirm both the individual and the communal dimensions simultaneously and in a way where each is enhanced, rather than one being �enhanced at the expense of the other. [Barbara] I'm going to stop the tape for a second. [Rowe] Okay. Molly, get lost. Go lie down. [Barbara] No, don't tell… tell her not to do that. [Inaudible] how we managed to just attempt to engage in genuine conversation with James is just… what techniques were important, as versus just having him has a figurehead or something, you know? [Rowe] Well, I think dialogue or conversation with vision in two particular ways. One in the structure of the college itself, which hopefully on an ongoing basis with students is alive. And it seems to me that the central elements of structure were the organization of the curriculum not around the traditional disciplines, but around problems and issues in the world. And secondly, the organization of individual student work around individualized study plans and individualized advising. Such that the student – him or herself – had to take responsibility for their education. And a second kind of institutionalizing of dialogue was the synoptic lecture program, in which we tried to emphasize the significance of vision – James’ and others – and on an ongoing basis put the college in contact with figures who are genuinely visionary. And then a related element was that we saw the need to do some basic socialization with students in terms of an introductory course that went through many incarnations. I think the longest one was called “Living and Learning at William James College,” in which we studied James. But from the students’ standpoint what's even more important is what we enabled them to make the transition from a more passive orientation to education to a more active mode. And in the context of that dealt with a Jamesian vision. Hence got it into the college on an ongoing basis. [Barbara] Let me stop it again because I'd rather we talk about the questions than me just… Can you comment on the phenomenon we agree that we’ve both seen, that when students would come to the college they would have a real… there would be an adaption period before they were really functioning. And yet when they started to function within the college – function well – we always said there was a James student. "Oh, that's a real James student." It wasn't that we taught them how to behave, it’s like they recognized some process. They learned to trust it. Can you just talk about that? [Rowe] Yeah, I think perhaps best in James' own terms, James and his… [Barbara] There we go. See I wasn't talking nicely to him. Okay, now open wide, woah! [camera zooms out and refocuses on Rowe] Alright. Okay. There was similarity in backgrounds for a lot of us that came to the college and there was sort of an understanding between a lot of us, I think. Do you think that's the most important �aspect to what you refer to as activism within the history of the college? [Rowe] Yeah, I think that our faculty tended to share a history in common. Now there were all kinds of variations, but I think in the broad terms there was a common history that goes something like the following: we were committed in the sixties to social and political change within the system. At some point – sixty-eight, sixtynine, in that area – for most of us, there was a terrible realization and that is that quote "change within the system," or social and political change in and of itself does not get at the problem. For example, nineteen sixty-nine is when Pogo said: "We've met the enemy and they are us." Nineteen sixty-nine is also the time at which the Beatles sang: "You say you want a revolution; you better change your mind instead." Or, to put it another way: there's a point, historically – in our shared history – at which social and political change became impossible without cultural change. In other words, social and political change by itself is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, unless one can get to the deeper level of cultural change. And whether it was through the consciousness movement, the women's movement, the sensitivity movement, various ethnic-cultural movements, there was a shared sense, again, that the changes that need to occur need to occur at the level of transmission of cultural value. Deeper, underneath the social and political, at the level of the value transmitting institutions: religion, family, education. Hence, most of the faculty sharing that history came to education with an understanding that education – if it's to work – is not simply about enfranchising students that hadn't been enfranchised before, though that was important. The fact that we were teaching at a public state institution that was making education available to quote "the new student" – the student to whom education had not been available before. That was a significant social and political intention of the college. But at this deeper level, there tended to be this shared concern that education could develop and facilitate the emergence of the kind of value change that's necessary in order for the culture to heal. So, at that deeper level there was a concern with value in the faculty and hence in the college and value of a relatively specific sort. Now, there were times in the history of the college when there were conflicts over articulation of the value. I can remember intense conflict, for example, as between the feminists and the, say, new culture/ new consciousness types. That became most vividly present, I think, with the synoptic lecture with William Irwin Thompson. But the point is that, at some… that the agreement upon which the faculty and hence the college was founded, was an agreement deeper than the social and political level; it was an agreement about the need for change at the cultural level. And that agreement was not without its disagreements internal to it, but it seems to me significant that we have that shared history, the activist zeal, and a sort of a loose consensus about the need for cultural change. Good? [Barbara] Now can we pet the dog? �[Rowe] Oh Yeah! Hey Moll! Molly! Now the dog's asleep. Moll! Come on over here. Come over here. We're going to pet the dog. [Barbara] What's going on? It’s suspicious. I don't believe you! [Rowe] Okay, here's where the guy pets his dog. [Barbara] Sit down, the way you were dear. [Rowe] Sit, Moll. That's good, there’s a nice dog. [Barbara] I promise you I won't use it unless I have to because its corny. [Rowe] Yes, it is corny. That's a nice dog. [Barbara] Alright that's enough petting the dog. [Rowe] Good. Alright, as you were. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_43a_Rowe Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rowe, Stephen Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Stephen Rowe interview (2 of 2, video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Stephen Rowe by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Stephen Rowe was a faculty member of William James College and a longtime philosophy professor at Grand Valley. In this interview, Stephen discusses how William James's philosophy manifested in the college and the unifying qualities of the faculty that were tied to a sense of activism within the history of the college, in addition to ending the interview with a brief interruption by his pet dog, Molly. This interview is part 2 of 2 for Stephen Rowe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c7124f8de53c12d2e7c68a53c11f2963.jpg 34e7e3bf259f08361776bb8610159287 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Red-Misc-58 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-09-21 Title A name given to the resource Stepping Out at Red Barn Description An account of the resource An article from The Grand Rapids Press titled "Stepping Out at Red Barn." It describes the plot of the show and provides information about the casting as well as information on how to purchase tickets. It also includes a photo of "[t]ap dance members ready to go Stepping Out." Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Community theater Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c5a77310d4cec8235863d6da2824762e.jpg 41c5bd88d9ba7d253640aa6b30f43252 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_LS00125 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1918-1921 Title A name given to the resource Steps to Temple of Heaven marble altar Description An account of the resource Black and white lantern slide of a man standing at the base of the marble altar at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China's Forbidden City. Subject The topic of the resource Lantern slides China Forbidden City (Beijing, China) Temples Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/931696b285aef182676ae8c9d1d7bfb3.jpg e0373217f821fd380ac568550a7776bd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a68e21dd8caf14d30cf8708f32f60d8b.jpg f5ebd804929b2ea693b4557d70645243 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Insel-Bücherei Series Description An account of the resource The German publishing company Insel Verlag was founded in 1899 by Anton Kippenberg in Leipzig. In its early years the firm only printed expensive, beautifully-produced volumes, until demand led to the publication of the more modest Insel-Bücherei series in 1912. Relatively inexpensive but with the same careful sense of design and typography, these smaller-format books reprinted shorter works from a variety of German, European, and world authors. The series numbers considerably more than a thousand titles and is still being issued. The Digital Collection contains the scanned covers of 140 titles held by Grand Valley State University Libraries. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1904-1987 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource ger Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05_IB0165a Title A name given to the resource Sternstunden der Menschheit: fünf historische Miniaturen Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1949 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Description An account of the resource Cover of Sternstunden der Menschheit: fünf historische Miniaturen, by Stefan Zweig, published by Insel-Verlag, 1949. Insel-Bücherei Nr. 165 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books. Insel-Bücherei. Z315.I5 B83 no.165 Language A language of the resource de Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7afe184df0e3d37a6b297a1b69b38f62.mp4 47c11ee3403f0af36721c012ed8dcc76 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/73542f4dd410760466f6d3a067d496ec.pdf b61177a40fc1d641009825cb41c82c0c PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Korean War Name of Interviewee: Amos Sterzick Jr. Length of interview (0:46:24) (00:06) Background Born in [Delton, MI (00:32) Had two brothers and one sister. One brother was drafted into the army. (00:46) Father owned a trucking business that hauled oats, grain, and corn to farmers, which required manual labor, not machinery. Worked for his father as soon as he was able. (01:06) Lived without electricity or running water, but had a radio. (02:14) Enjoyed ice skating, hockey, hide and seek, and eating grapes at the neighbor’s vineyard with friends. (03:13) Family was one of the first to enjoy electricity and a telephone. (03:54) Lived on 40 acres and had a muck field for growing onions. (04:45) Attended a country school called the Merriman School. Sometimes took a cart and horse to school, otherwise walked. Describes his experience in school. (05:21) Learned about the United States’ declaration of war on Japan on the radio on a Sunday at 8:00 am. He was only 10 years old at the time. (39:53) Describes his understanding of World War II. (40:50) Decided to go to Grand Rapids, MI with his friend to enlist in the Air Force to avoid being drafted into the army. (07:03) (07:35) Basic Training Left for Grand Rapids, MI on a Saturday in January, was sent to Detroit, MI on Sunday, and then to San Antonio, TX for basic training. (07:46) Decided to join the Air Force because he had always loved airplanes as a kid. (08:10) Because the Korean War was still in full swing, basic training was very condensed. Describes what it was like. (08:58) Enjoyed watching the women in the service doing calisthenics. (09:40) Pulled a [KP] one day and was assigned to guard duty once. Explains why he didn’t enjoy it. (09:56) Spent about six weeks in basic training. (10:38) Was then sent to Wichita Falls, TX for Aircraft and Engine Mechanics School. (10:50) Went to Akoya, MI to a F-86 fighter base. Only stayed there for about 30 days before being sent overseas. (10:57) Spent some time in San Francisco before leaving overseas. Describes his experience there. (11:35) (12:37) Service Overseas While boarding the ship, one of his friends got red-lined and didn’t end up going with him. (12:37) �Arrived in Yokohama, Japan. (13:05) Traveled by train through southern Japan to [Shiya], where he spent two and a half years. (13:35) Describes his experience with the Japanese lifestyle. Got along very well with the Japanese citizens. (13:54) Met a Japanese mechanic named Nakahati who was a World War II fighter pilot who shot down five Flying Tigers, but was shot down over Tokyo by a P-51 towards the end of the war. (15:08) Took a few leaves while he was there in order to travel across Japan. Describes some of his experiences in Nagasaki and other places throughout Japan. (16:04) Duties included aircraft and engine repairs and replacement. Also flew flying boxcars to drop paratroopers and deliver trucks and cannons by parachute. (22:01) Saw a lot of things and enjoyed the people. Didn’t get to know many Korean or Vietnamese people; mostly Japanese. Recalls that some of their customs were very different, but the people were very easy to get along with. (24:35) Describes some of the different customs that he encountered in Japan, the Philippines, and Guam. (26:18) (23:40) Returning Home Traveled to San Francisco by boat, which took eleven days. Enjoyed the boat ride and didn’t get seasick. (23:40) Returned home before leaving to Lake Charles, LA to be discharged. (27:37) Describes dealing with the weather in the barracks. (27:54) Everyone was offered to leave a week early if they bought a plane ticket. Bought the plane ticket with six other men from Grand Rapids, MI, cashed it in, and took a train home instead. (28:36) Would’ve stayed in the service, but no one was making any money at the time. (29:14) Had intended to go into the make farm business. Didn’t work there long because there wasn’t any money in it. (29:27) Worked in the selling business, instead. Recruited college students in Hancock, MI for eight years. Later recruited college students for a medical school from Minneapolis, MN and later recruited for a data processing school in Grand Rapids, MI. (30:12) Got married in Michigan to a girl he met in Okura. They had one son together. (32:29) Loved his time in the Air Force. If he had been able to make more money, he would’ve stayed and made a career out of it. (35:26) Expresses his love for the United States. (39:09) Today, he enjoys hunting, fishing, gardening, and landscaping. (39:21) Describes how warfare has changed since World War II. (44:14) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SterzickA Title A name given to the resource Sterzick, Amos E. (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sterzick, Amos E. Description An account of the resource Amos Sterzick Jr. grew up in western Michigan with his sister and two brothers. On a whim, he decided to leave for Grand Rapids, MI with his friend to enlist in the Air Force in order to avoid being drafted into the army. Most of his service was spent in Japan, but he also went to Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines, and Guam. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gunneson-Poling, Ruth (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-05-20 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd25ed3ad566d090db5eb3a5cf9da6b5.mp4 0eb27956609d14eb55bbfbff5798a0c9 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/95ed0d4ddcd53add43a04cab87976a36.pdf 62f81202fa0065c9cedb2b8c67d67b55 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project William Sterzick (00:24:11:26) Early Life, Neighbors • (00:39:14)he grew up in Ellicott, MI • (00:46:06)he went to Merriman Elementary School: "a marvelous place to go," it had one room, everyone was from the neighborhood, there were no strangers, the school was built well and comfortable, with a “nice playground” • (01:31:00)the Sterzicks had a neighbor family, the Blockers, who had several boys and a girl; his cousin Adrian lived across the road • (02:02:18)he attended Merriman through the eighth grade • (02:11:27)as an adolescent, the Blocker boys were his friends • (02:29:14)what they did “for fun” in middle and high school: "mostly softball" and some “neighborhood activities maybe once in a while” • (02:56:01)he thinks of Leroy Blocker as a mentor regarding art: “he was a master" with printing and drawing • (03:54:22)favorite memories from high school: baseball and dances War Starts, Sterzick Is Drafted, Training • 04:50:02when the Korean War broke out: "nothing unusual" [was going on or happened] in his town • (05:00:04)he was drafted into the army • (05:08:27)training at Camp Chaffee, near Fort Smith in Arkansas o they lived in wooden barracks o the training area would be "out in wild country," "several miles" from the barracks • (06:24:29)on the first day of training they went out to shoot thirty-caliber machine guns, which were mounted about thirty inches off the ground; they had to crawl about a hundred yards, from one end of the field to the other, beneath the fire: "you were all right as long as you kept your head down" • (08:01:24)he trained for two months, and then went home for a week or two • (08:19:17)he then spent a few days at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey; from there, he was able to experience New York City for the first time, seeing "all the sights" On To Germany • (19:36:44)at this point he was sent to Germany; they landed first at Bremerhaven in the north, then went by train to a town in the south, the name of which he could not remember, then back northward to Nuremburg • (09:18:19)he never saw combat, even though his training at Camp Chaffee was in artillery • (09:55:01)“of all things” in Nuremberg, he was put to work into a big, modern, comfortable hospital that had been built by Adolf Hitler; Sterzick was basically an �orderly, he worked with patients, and sometimes did house cleaning • (11:02:08)he lived at the hospital, in a big room shared with four other men; "we all had a window" • (11:31:03)Nuremberg: one of his favorite places, a thousand years old • bombed heavily during WWII, the “biggest bombing” happened on the second of February in 1944 or 45: “you could hear the bombs sixty miles away” ***Sterzick must have heard about this from someone else, since he himself was not in Nuremburg during WWII.*** � the city was "colorful," with a castle on the "highest part of the city, and it “originally had a moat” • (13:03:27)halfway up the hill toward the castle was the home of the artist Albrecht Durer, best known for “The "Praying Hands" • (13:37:04)he had "a lot of weekend passes": he went to Paris, Brussels, Waterloo, "places like that" • (14:07:00)there were always things to do in Nuremberg, like going to carnivals— he thinks it was "easier to win over there" than at carnivals in the United States • (15:18:02)he saw Eddie Fisher in concert: Sterzick met a friend, Tom Hudson, from Cedar Springs [MI] and they went to Heidelburg to see a show by Eddie Fisher • (15:52:24)their chaplain and the chapel services were "the center of their lives"; the chaplain, Captain Quick, was "special" • (16:23:23)the nurses he worked with had interesting personalities o two of the nurses visited Israel one time and brought back a King James Bible with an olivewood cover which they gave to Sterzick, who forgot to bring it to the interview o he visited Fort Riley in Kansas, in October of 1954, where some of the nurses he had worked with in Germany had been transferred to Sterzick Meets His Lifelong Partner • (18:27:10)how he met his wife: they worked together at the same hospital I Nuremberg, she is German and was a nurse • she had been living "just inside" of Czechoslovakia, in the Germanic Sudetenland; in 1944, she moved to Nuremberg, where she became a nurse, finally winding up in the American hospital • (20:24:02)Sterzick worked in different areas of the hospital, and his “final position” was on the fourth floor, where they had the wives and children of the soldiers; he worked with his future wife on the fourth floor • (21:30:08)he served in Germany for seventeen months Back To The US • (21:42:06)he was "delighted" to come home; he returned to the US in March of 1953; he went back to Germany in December to get married • (22:31:21)he "got a truck driving job" because that was what he did before he went into the army; he "drove truck" for a year • (23:10:24)then he got a job at an oil company in Alto that handled underground �• • propane storage, and he worked there for eight and a half years; he then went back to driving trucks (23:35:13)the military has not influenced Sterzick in any particular way that he knows of, but it left him with lots of memories: of basic training, the places and people he met (24:11:26)he has not been back to Germany since his marriage ***At this point in the interview, Sterzick displayed a number of pictures and souvenirs, which were filmed and appear on the DVD, and that concluded the interview.*** � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SterzickW Title A name given to the resource Sterzick, William J. (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sterzick, William J. Description An account of the resource William Sterzick served in the US Army during the Korean War, but never saw combat. Stationed in Nuremberg, Germany, he met his future wife while working as an orderly in a hospital. He discusses life in Germany at the time and the condition of the city after World War II. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ritenburgh, Jamie (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-05 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c70506d328356ed1dd8d3954f028b89c.jpg 97fc71842a2d24ffd3bcb83b4a97a7ba Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Concert & Event Posters Subject The topic of the resource Posters Events Michigan Universities & colleges--Michigan Description An account of the resource Division of Student Services provides programs, services, and environments that enhance the personal, social, and intellectual growth of undergraduate and graduate students at the University. Events including concerts were managed by the office of Student Life. Posters for music, speakers, poetry readings and other campuswide events are included. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Division of Student Services Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/106">Student Services concerts, events, and posters files, (GV028-06)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-07-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV028-06 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1963 – 1981 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV028-06_SteveMiller73 Title A name given to the resource Steve Miller Band, Common People, November 17, 1973 Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State College Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities & colleges--Michigan Events Posters Description An account of the resource Steve Miller Band, Common People, in the GVSC Fieldhouse, November 17, 1973 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/106">Student Services concerts, events, and posters files, (GV028-06)</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/249245cc070d1416d9a257c63e7a0c26.jpg 34506269ae3b8c0ebb2d7c4355cd613c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_000276 Title A name given to the resource Steve Miller in concert Description An account of the resource Steve Miller in concert. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/82f29db459aa698f8e4d7d8ce3db8a33.jpg 0eb39bc092546c9de5d0d0a8f3009bf4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource GVSU Concert & Event Posters Subject The topic of the resource Posters Events Michigan Universities & colleges--Michigan Description An account of the resource Division of Student Services provides programs, services, and environments that enhance the personal, social, and intellectual growth of undergraduate and graduate students at the University. Events including concerts were managed by the office of Student Life. Posters for music, speakers, poetry readings and other campuswide events are included. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Division of Student Services Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/106">Student Services concerts, events, and posters files, (GV028-06)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-07-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV028-06 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1963 – 1981 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV028-06_Stills Title A name given to the resource Steve Stills Manassas, September 27, 1973 Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State College Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities & colleges--Michigan Events Posters Description An account of the resource Steve Stills (Stephen Stills) Manassas, in the GVSC Fieldhouse, September 27, 1973 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/106">Student Services concerts, events, and posters files, (GV028-06)</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8482dff385f7964cdb4999ee0c5f36c2.mp4 1c1856a5524d2908535ce4ba1c41c3b3 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/33fa2fdc73ff050c87a8a1589643907b.pdf 1a36a40f651db91011c7c3fee162b2ad PDF Text Text William James College Interviews GV016-16 Interviewer: Barbara Roos Interviewee: Steven Laninga Date: 1984 [Unknown] People have their William James t-shirts. [Laninga] Is that right? You know, I never had a William James t-shirt. [Unknown] No? [Laninga] They don't make them in my size, so I never bought one. And it always bothered me and I couldn't really be a part without a William James t-shirt. And then I decided that was going to be my own little private experience: the William James student without the badge. My own mark. [Unknown] Okay, let’s go from the top, your history, why you came to William James College, kind of go over again what we just talked about. [Laninga] I started at William James in, I believe, the fall seventy-four, after two years of Calvin College, here in Grand Rapids, and a year of stopping out and private introspection. I bummed around a lot. The fall of seventy-four, I went back, intent on studying photography at William James. And I was attracted to the rather broad offerings of photographic training at the school, as it was clustered with the other schools. And because of Willy Jay's lenient attitude towards students, I felt that I could slip in and out of William James, and across to TJC, and over to the regular school, to get all that I needed to study photography without having to cope with the superstructure of a traditional liberal arts education undergraduate. So that was the reason I came out there, and my intention when I arrived on campus. A couple of things happened when I got there. I met my future wife about the first week and we really haven't been separate since. It's been almost ten years now. That's very nice, and that's a little present from William James to us, I think. I, also, after pursuing photographic chemistry, and darkroom, and cinema, and a number of other photographic classes, began to become aware of a greater, more profound aspect of the photographic image making process. And that was what happens after pictures are viewed. What goes on in the mind of the viewer? What goes on in the mind of the creator, and how that is transmitted through this piece of material? So, I began to be distracted by that whole topic area and ended up a good ways from where I started when I wanted to be a photographer. And I became, instead, someone who, mostly, thought, talked, and wrote about the process of communicating through media. And my degree is still a media degree, a Bachelor of Science �from William James. But a lot of my course work was really in the Social Relations department at William James. [Unknown] Can you talk a little bit about the educational experience? What you did at William James? How or what you perceived the college to be? [Laninga] Okay. [Unknown] [Inaudible] Something that it was? [Laninga] Well, I was a commuter student for the entire five years that I was at William James. A part-time commuter student. I arrived on campus about five minutes after I was supposed to have gotten there. And I would leave as soon as I had done everything I came on campus to do, whether that was attend a class or attend a class and go to the library for an hour, what have you. As a matter of fact, I used the bus to get there, for a number of years. So, my experience of William James is, perhaps, a little different than many William James alumnus in that I was not really ever caught up in the community of William James. I had almost a business relationship with the school. It was a transactional relationship. Very, very clean in that respect. I would pay for the class, I would show up, I would talk, I would think, I would write, we would interact, and I would leave. And all the stuff that went on the Skylight Room, all the committees, and task forces, and all the other stuff that I heard about and read about went right past me for a very tumultuous and colorful five years. And I was almost as unrelated to it as the people in Grand Rapids that only heard about it from associates. Still, in all my… there are some things about William James that I think cannot be taken away in that it was a school that was focused on the individual and permitted the individual to find his or her education. That was what originally attracted me to the school in the first place. And that part I really did take advantage of. I don't think that the Skylight Room and all the goings on in there was necessarily what I came to the school for the first place. I got what wanted out of school and the school gave that to me and generous quantity. I pursued my own course, and I came away fully satisfied with what I got. As I said, it was a transaction relationship. And I came away a much better person for having been there. [Unknown] We talked a little bit about how the school dealt with failure. Can you say something about that? [Laninga] William James had a pragmatic approach to education. And caught up in that is an understanding that in order to achieve worthy goals, there are risks that must be taken, and one of the clearest risks is the risk of failure. And failure was always real at William James. It was something that everyone lived with, from the lowliest new student, right on through the administrative offices. Everyone dealt with failure on a daily basis around here because much was tried and only a �portion of that was accomplished. And everyone understood the realities of stalled projects and fizzled ideas. And I have since then come to understand that one good idea is worth a hundred ones that seem to be good, and it's worth weeding through a hundred possible ideas to come land on one good one. And that means a lot of failure. That's ninety-nine failures. So, I probably… that's one of the most valuable things I learned at William James. I'm not sure that that is so readily accessible at other schools, where failure is completely different in its meaning for undergraduates. [Unknown] Moving on to how do you think… what do you think William James was as an experiment? Do you think it failed? Do you think, you know, we talked about not being allowed to fail or something…? [Laninga] Let me say it again, William James, the experiment of William James College, did not fail. I firmly believe that the experiment of William James College was not permitted to succeed. The school is a part of the community around it, and it serves the community, and the community is supposed to nourish and feed the school. And the two of them grow together. That takes a long time, it takes generations in most cases. This school was not permitted to grow for even a full generation. There is no way of knowing what kind of contribution, ultimately, the school could have made because it was not allowed time enough to bring its… they're no longer students, they're almost children, to adulthood. It's alumni we're not permitted to reach places visibility and influence in the community that are typical of a situation where a school and a community have grown up together. And that's really a tragic loss for this community, and obviously for the school, and all of those of us who felt that it was an important place to keep around. [Unknown] In five years? [Laninga] I think that if the school had been permitted to live on for a few more years, four or five years, that it would have to been impervious to any kind of administrative reevaluation. It would not have been quite so easy to simply pull the plug on the school that had fifteen years of roots in the community. I think by that time, there would have been enough reason for the school to stay around, for it to stay on and continue. [Unknown] What did survive the experiment? [Laninga] The people survived William James. And the people are scattered all over the world, but there are a great many of us still in the West Michigan area. And the school may be closed, and the books may all be scattered, and the files filed, but what the school accomplished is still here, it's a living, it's breathing, and it's making its presence felt every day, every year. And there's no telling what real contribution was made, yet, because we're not finished yet. �[Unknown] Was there anything of the philosophy that survived? Do you think West Michigan is now without a William James philosophy, entirely, because the school went away? [Laninga] No, I think the philosophy preceded the school. I don't think that's something so graded and timeless, and profound as that kind of… William James thought, originally, is already eighty or ninety years old. And I don't think he was the first… he may have been first to verbalize it, perhaps in English, but I don't think that the philosophy is gone. I think it was here before the schools here, and maybe it will return in another form for future. I'd like to think so. I know I would support any effort along those lines because I still think it's the most humane way to educate people. [Unknown] Excellent. Okay. This is Barbara's question: what is the essence of William James? [Laninga] Define essence. [Unknown] That's just what she told me to ask you, so I have no idea. [Laninga] No more help than that. What is… what was the essence of William James? [Unknown] What do you feel was the essence? [Laninga] Well, I don't want to talk about failure again, but I think that the essence of what we knew as William James was an agency. It was an agency available for those who pursued, frankly, whatever they wish to pursue. I saw a number of students out there pursuing something other than education. The school was big enough to accommodate them. It was free enough to accommodate them and was flexible enough to accommodate them. There were… part of the essential quality of the freedom of that type of curriculum is that you must allow people to… how can I say this is less than a blunt form? You must allow people to not do anything at all. You must allow people to not contribute, to not participate. They've had twenty years of a more structured regimen and built up all kinds of blocks and obstacles to a direct link to the education process. And it takes time for people to break down all those old barriers and realize and understand that nothing stands between them and what it is they want to be and what they want to achieve but themselves. So, all of these self-defeating habits, regimens, have to be cleared away. And no one can do that for you. No one can come in and reorient you, you have to do that for yourself. It worked for a great many of us. It didn't work for all of us. And probably the essence of William James was willingness to allow people to go their own way, whether that meant going out the door or not. A lot of people drifted in and out of the school, and that's not wrong. That's exactly what �the school was for. [Unknown] Great, beautiful. Alright one [inaudible] the tape. How was the William James Association formed? [Laninga] William James Association was formed in the wake for William James and out of the grief and the bitterness of the moment. A feeling a need to respond to this administrative cruelty was expressed. And the only thing that not the only thing but the thing that probably is most typical of that particular group of people, our age group, our mentality, our culture, is collective action. We almost knee jerk react to any kind of challenge in a collective manner. So, the Association was originally formed as some notion of an influence group for the preservation of some aspects of William James. And I think as that it's probably failed. But like I said before, failure's a reality for our community. And something bigger than that, I think, was realized by many people. That we’re all alive and well. We got together, we saw each other, and felt of each other. We were fine. The school was dead, we were fine and we knew that things are going to be okay. [Unknown] Crazy. Anything else you want to wrap up with? [Laninga] No, I think you've pretty well gotten it all on there. [Unknown] Alright. Thank you, Steve. [Laninga] You're welcome. [Unknown] It's going to be good. [Laninga] When do I see it? [Unknown] Well, I think there is going to be a… � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource William James College Interviews Description An account of the resource Videotaped interviews of William James College faculty, students and administrators by Barbara Roos. William James College opened in 1971 as the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. Curriculum was organized around three concentrations that were meant to be interdisciplinary career preparation offerings: Social Relations, Administration and Information Management, and Environmental Studies. The college was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV016-16_GVSU_63_Laninga Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Laninga, Steven Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Title A name given to the resource Steven Laninga interview (video and transcript) Description An account of the resource Interview with Steven Laninga by Barbara Roos, documenting the history of Grand Valley State's William James College. William James College was the third baccalaureate degree granting college for Grand Valley. It was originally designed to be an interdisciplinary, non-departmentalized college consisting of concentration programs, rather than majors. The college opened in 1971 and was discontinued in 1983 during a reorganization of Grand Valley State. Steven Laninga was a student of William James College and a member of the class of 1979 at Grand Valley. In this interview, Steven discusses the personal journey that led him to William James College in the fall of 1974, studying photography and incorporating Social Relations coursework, and how the William James Association formed in the wake of the college closing. This interview is part 1 of 1 for Steven Laninga. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Roos, Barbara (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Universities and colleges Oral histories Alternative education Interdisciplinary approach in education Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/69">William James College faculty and student interviews (GV016-16)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a9449b751a8d8ac753732a30fee1bd86.pdf 100e9de2b1c0dee2ec46663d4b19a2c1 PDF Text Text Young Lords In Lincoln Park Interviewee: Steven Sapp Interviewers: José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections Date: 7/8/2012 Biography and Description Steven Sapp was born and raised in South Bronx, New York City. He earned his B.A. degree at Bard College and is married to Mildred Ruiz-Sapp of the Universes Theatre Ensemble. Together, Mr. Sapp and Ms. Ruiz-Sapp co-founded THE POINT, a community development corporation (Hunts Point) in 1993 and Universes, a New York-based theatre group that fuses poetry, jazz, hip hop, politics, blues and Spanish boleros to create its own productions which are performed on and off Broadway, nationally and internationally. Mr. Sapp has received numerous awards for his acting and has written, acted in, and directed scores of productions. One of his most recent productions is “Party People” (2012) which is primarily about the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. �Transcript JOSE JIMENEZ: Okay. If you can give me your name, Steven, and your birth date, and where you were born. STEVEN SAPP: My name is Steven Sapp. Birthday is May 12, 1966, and I was born and raised in the South Bronx, New York City. JJ: The South Bronx. And what was the date again? I’m sorry. I didn’t [hear?]. SS: Steven Sapp. JJ: But the date? SS: May 12, 1966. JJ: Okay. SS: Yeah. JJ: [Seems pretty young?]. Okay. Any brothers and sisters, or --? SS: I got one sister. She’s five years younger than me? Five years younger than me. It’s just the two of us. JJ: [And your?] parents’ names? SS: Same. [Patricia?] Sapp. Steven Sapp. JJ: [The same?]? SS: Yeah. Yeah. JJ: Okay. These are more, like, oral history, so -- SS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. JJ: -- (inaudible). SS: Yeah. 1 �JJ: So, [00:01:00] what was it like -- just a little, brief background of what it was like growing up in the Bronx and that ’cause I’m not familiar with the Bronx. SS: Yeah. Well, the Bronx in particular that I remember was -- and I’m from the projects of the Bronx, and I remember -- JJ: What projects? SS: Forest projects, the Bronx. And I just really remember there being bombed-out -well, what looked like bombed-out buildings. You can go for blocks, and blocks, and block, and blocks. A lot of the tenement buildings were burnt out, and I’m old enough to remember the ’70s, where landlords, mostly the Jewish landlords, would burn out apartment buildings. They would pretty much come on a Tuesday, and say, “Everyone has to move out of the building by Friday,” for insurance, and burn it. And so, there was stretches of time where you could go for blocks, and it was nothing there. JJ: But, I mean, did they own the projects? SS: No. The projects were different. The projects were separate, but everything around the projects was burnt out, so, when [00:02:00] you left the project, you literally walked through what looked like war. JJ: So, this was around the ’70s? SS: I was born in ’66, and what I remember is, when I’m being four and five, so, like, 1970, ’71, ’72. JJ: So -- 2 �SS: So, I remember when the Panthers, especially in New York, were around, and when the Young Lords, the New York chapter of the Young Lords with the Garbage Offensive -- that’s what we were looking at. JJ: Oh, you saw that? SS: Yeah. JJ: I mean, literally -- SS: I literally saw mounds and mounds of garbage. I remember that that was kinda like -- and then you had rats running through the garbage. So, when we were little kids, playing, and if you were playing near the street, where the garbage was, that’s what you saw. And the projects were the projects. Everybody was stacked on top of each other, and this is before crack, so it wasn’t all crazy in terms of -- but it’s still a project living. You know, we had free cheese. The government’s giving out free cheese, so you stood in line. JJ: [Yeah, I remember that was?] (inaudible). SS: Yup, and you got your block of free cheese. So, my life was pretty much consisted of project living and the tenement buildings. JJ: Okay, so, free cheese -- that meant, you were a family [00:03:00] [on welfare?] -- SS: Yes. JJ: -- at the time? SS: We were on welfare. JJ: That was part of the welfare program. SS: That was part of the -- yeah. And so, that’s -- for me -- JJ: Was it everybody like that on welfare in the projects, or --? 3 �SS: Yeah. It seemed like everybody was on -- and, [literally?], that’s just what it was, and I learned really early on it was -- for me, I figured out that it just seemed like it was just a cycle. Everybody was caught in the same thing and that there was no way out. Like, I saw my aunts, and my uncles, and my father, and everyone was just working-class people, but it was like a ceiling, and nobody was breakin’ out of it. The best thing you could do was get into the projects. You know what I mean? And I remember being young, going, “I don’t want to die here without seeing what’s outside of the projects,” and I was very conscious of that. I got to get out of here just to see something else. I don’t want to die here. JJ: Did you have other relatives that had gotten out of the projects? SS: No. Everybody was kind of -- it was that. So, I was the first person in my entire family [00:04:00] -- family -- to go to college, to go. And nobody knew how to explain it to me. In terms of how to fill out a college application, all that stuff, my guidance counselor did that with me ’cause my -- JJ: (inaudible) get to that point where you’re thinking (inaudible)? What [was it?] growing up, and grammar school, and all that? SS: Well, I will tell you this. I had a teacher in the second grade. His name is [Gary Simon?], and he created the [ABC Schools?], which is like a better change, and it was like they would take inner city kids and bring them to these prep schools, and it was like a -- yeah, it was like in junior high school. You would go to these prep schools. And he signaled out a couple of kids early, like in the first and second grade, to -- he thought that we were smart, and we were in classes that had 35 kids in the class, and he wanted to make sure that these particular kids 4 �who he thought were really smart [00:05:00] can make it. So, I got picked by him in the second grade, and he went to our parents, and it was eight of us, nine of us, and we stayed after school to work. So, we did our regular day in school, and then, at three o’clock, you went to Mr. Simon, and you’re with him to five, six o’clock, and he gave us extra stuff to do, and it was that guy who really put into our heads that -JJ: Mr. Simon. SS: Mr. Simon, that there was something else out -- JJ: Now, was he African American? SS: No, he’s straight white dude. JJ: Straight white dude? SS: And really serious about education and really serious about teaching us. Those who he had, it was serious. So, our reading scores were two years above what the average was. If I was in the sixth grade, my reading score was eighth grade level because of this guy. It was the first person I heard really talk about how to get into college. It was him. Like, you can actually go ’cause you thought, well, you can’t either afford or you’re not smart enough, but Mr. Simon was like, “Uhuh. You guys are just as smart or [00:06:00] smarter than them white kids ’cause you come from here.” JJ: What was his angle? Was he just liberal-minded, or --? SS: He’s just a liberal dude. JJ: So -- 5 �SS: He was a liberal dude who was stuck in a public school as a elementary school teacher, but he had bigger visions, and we were kinda like his guinea pigs in a lot of ways. And, out of the nine of us who got picked, I think seven of us are doing really well. Seven, eight of us. JJ: Now, he picked you into his own program? SS: It was his own program in the school. JJ: He just made it up. SS: He made it up. He gave us extra books to read. He gave us extra assignments to read, who he felt could handle it because the way that the curriculum was in the school, you did what everybody else did, and he was like, “Uh-uh. These kids -- you could do something else.” So, it made you, when I was in the second, third grade, think about life in a bigger way. You know what I mean? Yeah. That’s what I remember [00:07:00] about the Bronx and just loving it ’cause it was communal, and it’s your family. JJ: [You went home?]. I mean, what about the -- any violence or anything? SS: In my house or just in the neighborhood? JJ: In the neighborhood. SS: Oh, yeah. I mean, the regular bang, bang, shoot ’em up. Regular stuff, and you learned -- JJ: Drugs? SS: Yeah. Violence, drugs. And you get desensitized to it, and maybe I think it’s like -- JJ: What do you mean, desensitized? 6 �SS: You think that that’s normal. So, if they’re shooting, you don’t even blink twice ’cause you think that’s normal. If somebody gets shot, you don’t blink twice because you -- I remember being -- think it was, like, eight or nine. I was coming out of a movies. It was a local movie theater, and we were coming out of the theater, and I distinctly remember this. There was a woman walkin’, coming this way, and we got out the movie, and a car pulled up alongside real slow, which you kinda noticed, and the window rolled down, and I saw the shotgun come out. Boom. [00:08:00] In the side of her head. And I saw it -- and drove off -- and I remember being in shock of seeing something like that, and then not being in shock, that it was like that’s where we’re at. Now, if you think logically, you know, this woman just got shot down, gunned down in the street. And so, you became almost desensitized to it, where you learn to accept it, or this is what our natural existence is. This is how we live. And you learn how to navigate your way through it. You know what I mean? You don’t go here. You go here. You don’t talk to So-and-so. You talk to So-and-so. You need to know all the drug dealers and the drugs so nobody messes with you. I learned that quick, to not speak to people. They don’t know you. If you’re not in a gang or rollin’ with them, if they don’t at least know you, they’re gonna get you, so I made sure I spoke to everybody. [00:09:00] “What’s up? What’s up? What’s up?” Everybody knew me. I knew everybody. They don’t bother you. If you got to fight somebody, you hurt ’em so nobody’ll -- ’cause I didn’t want to fight, so I was like, if I got to do it, I got to hurt you so you don’t have to come near me no more. So, it was -- again, it’s normal violence. I mean, [I don’t wanna?] say normal violence. It’s what you 7 �thought as normal. Somebody gettin’ arrested, or somebody gettin’ shot, or somebody gettin’ thrown off the roof, or somebody OD’ing, that’s what it was. JJ: But you, yourself, never got arrested or --? SS: Nah, ’cause my father grew up in Harlem, and he was a take-no-shit type of dude. He still is. So, he told me -- he said, “Let me tell you something. All you got to do is go to school.” He said, “I’ll clothe you. I’ll feed you. You ain’t got to worry about nothin’.” He said, “All you got to do is go to school.” He said, “Now, you don’t go to school me and you [00:10:00] got a problem.” He said, “If I don’t take care of you, if I don’t do this,” he said, “People do stuff because they don’t have no money or whatever, and, you know -- so, I’ll make sure that you won’t need, but if you --” He said, “If you go to jail or you get strung out on drugs, me and you gonna have a problem.” And I was young. I was, like, eight, and I didn’t know what he was talkin’ about, but he -- JJ: [He was serious?]. SS: He was serious about that. So, the only time me and him had any run-in was school because he’s like, “You’re not stupid. You’re smart, so you can do this backwards and frontwards, so, if you don’t do it, me and you gonna have a problem.” And that’s when -- any time I didn’t do well in school. So, in terms of gettin’ in trouble -- JJ: So, he was [verbal, mostly?]? SS: I mean, yeah. He didn’t really -- I mean, if I got hit, I got hit because of school, but he was a serious dude. It wasn’t like, “Oh, let me see.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If he said it -- he’s like, “If I got to come out there with you --” So, I 8 �stayed -- [00:11:00] I mean, I knew everybody, and I had friends of mine who did stuff, but, when it got deep, I was like, “I’m not going with y’all ’cause my father’s [not gonna understand?].” I’m like, “I’m not goin’.” And I didn’t. You know what I mean? I would hang out just enough. You hang out. You drink your wine. You smoke your weed. You hang out with -- but, when it was like, “Oh, we’re gonna go do this,” “See y’all. I’m going home ’cause my father’s not gonna have it.” And my mother was there. My mother was in the house, and she was a housewife. JJ: Is it Patricia? SS: Patricia, yeah. She was a housewife. So, I came home from school. My mother was there. She’d help you with your homework. She’d make sure we would look nice, clothes. Even if we didn’t have nothing ’cause I’m old enough now to -- JJ: [It’s just two?]? SS: And it’s just me and my sister. So, she, the everyday -- JJ: Is she older or younger? SS: She’s younger. So, I was the older one. She made sure we always -- so, we didn’t need anything, and, now that I’m older, I realize that we were poor, but you’d have never known it. Neither one of ’em had any addiction, so it was like [00:12:00] the money my father made, he gave it to my mother, and it was in the house, so we had nice furniture. We had nice clothes, but we were poor. I never went to bed hungry ever. So, all those things that people -- and I have cousins who have done jail time [and that?] ’cause their home life wasn’t stable. My home life was. Like, my father would have his moments where he would be very 9 �aloof, or very distant, or angry at the world and didn’t talk very much, but, in terms of him being in the house, he was there, so I had both of them in there, so I never felt like I had to drift off and do something. They allowed me to be my age. I didn’t have to grow up faster than I needed to grow up. JJ: What kind of work did he do? SS: He did a little bit of everything. He was a cook for Nedick’s for a long time, and then he worked for the railroad, just cleaning out the pipes, and the heating, and ventilation in the train stations for Amtrak. He did that for a long [00:13:00] time, and, now, he’s a security guard. Carried a gun and, you know. JJ: Your mom was -- SS: Nothing. She never worked. She never worked. She stayed home, and my father -- JJ: Was that a religious thing, or --? SS: No. I think we’re more old-fashioned. Not that she couldn’t work. JJ: Okay, so more cultural. SS: Yeah. She just stayed home and raised -- you know what? She was a mother. She was like, “I’m a mother. This is my job.” And she went (makes sound) and zoomed in on us, and, to this day, to even my nephews, my sister’s kids, she is that matriarch. “My job is to be home, make sure the house is right.” JJ: But your father was not into the church or anything like that? SS: He is now. He got saved maybe about 10 years ago, he got saved because he got to a point personally where he just -- he was low. You know, he’s a old street dude from Harlem who had [00:14:00] kids when he was 22 but still kinda wanted 10 �to hang out, and he was a good father, but you can always see he was kinda tortured. Like, he would sit in the living room in my house, and he used to drink. So, I would come home, and, if you heard music playin’, I knew he was sitting in the living room. I’d come to the door, and I hear music. I’d be like, “Oh.” And I opened up the door, and he would be sittin’ there. He’d have his vodka, and he’d be drinking, and he’d see me walk by. “Come in.” I’m like, “Oh.” “Sit down.” And then, he’d start talking, and he would talk about -- he would just talk, and, at that -- I don’t know what he was talking about, but he would just talk, and he would just tell me things and then send me away. And so, that’s how I got to know him in terms of what a tortured man working, trying to make it in the world, living in the projects, and raising a family -- he would say it to me, but, at 15, didn’t know what he was talkin’ about. [00:15:00] But he gave that to me. Like, I completely understand it. I completely know exactly what that is. You know what I mean? So, as I got older and became a man, all these things I began to feel, and experience, and not quite understanding, and being angry about, I can equate it with my father, like, oh, I get it. This is what I’m feeling as a Black man, trying to -JJ: Now, you’re (inaudible) you’re not into a church or anything. SS: I’m not. I’m more spiritual than going to church. I’m just like, you be a good person. You have some sense of spirituality. You know, goin’ back and forth to the church thing, it’s nice, and it’s very admirable, I think, but then you start gettin’ around people -- 11 �JJ: Now, was he in the service, your father, or anything? Where did he get his discipline? SS: Himself. He used to sing when he was a kid, like, 13, 14. He was in a little singing group, but I think he was always that type of dude. JJ: [It was a?] singing group? Singing group? SS: Yeah. He didn’t go to the service. [00:16:00] He’s a really strong dude. You know what I mean? And I think he’s so proud now of me and my sister, how we turned out, ’cause we turned out -- you know, we’re good kids. JJ: What was your sister’s name? [Did we get that?]? SS: Her name is [Patria?]. JJ: Patria? SS: Patria, yeah. And she’s an accountant. JJ: You’re Junior. You’re Junior. SS: I’m Steve Jr., yeah. And we turned out good. We didn’t get in trouble. We were almost, in one sense, boring considering some of my cousins were wild. My cousins were just wild, and always in trouble, and getting arrested, and da, da, da. Me and my sister, you know -- not that we were raised middle class ’cause we were far from it, but the way my mother and father -- mostly my mother -- had the house, the feeling of it, it felt middle class in that apartment in the projects, but we was poor as shit. You know what I mean? But you would have never known it. My cousins used to come to my house for Christmas because we used to get so much -- my mother and father used to save [00:17:00] money all year to 12 �buy us Christmas presents. That’s how those two were disciplined in terms of having a family, so that’s how I grew up, so I didn’t -JJ: So, your parents, in order to keep you in line, had to also attack ghetto life. So, did they do that? SS: My mother never acknowledged -- she would always tell me, “Why you always talk about it like this? This is community. You got your friends.” We weren’t living in the ghetto to her. This is where we live, and this is beautiful. We have family, and there’s a community center, and there’s this, and there’s a movie theater. And my father was out there, you know? He was out. But they didn’t bring it home. My father never brought that element into the house. My mother wouldn’t allow that element into the house, so we didn’t grow up -- JJ: So, he was street-savvy (inaudible). SS: He was street, and he [00:18:00] did his dirt -- JJ: But that was outside [the house?]. SS: It was outside. He didn’t bring it into the house. Only thing he would bring in, he would drink. He would be drunk in the house, but he didn’t bring [dumbness?] into -- he wouldn’t have it. The house was almost his sanctuary. And I appreciated that, that we didn’t have to deal with -- there’s a lot of stuff I know people deal with. I didn’t deal with it in my house. When you go outside, you deal with stuff, but, in terms of when I went home as a kid -- JJ: Now, did you ever see it outside? SS: Oh, yeah. JJ: (inaudible). 13 �SS: My friends. My family. My cousins. They grew up hard. JJ: So, you never saw your father in a negative -- SS: One time, maybe nine or ten, he used to always go to Harlem ’cause he grew up in Harlem, so he would hang out in Harlem, and I was in the barbershop. JJ: You don’t have to answer. I was just -- SS: No, no, no. If it, you know -- and I’m sitting in a barber chair, and I was watching television, and everybody from the barbershop was runnin’ outside. “Where’s everybody runnin’?” [00:19:00] So, I kinda went outside, and there was a big circle, and he was beatin’ this guy half to death in the street, and I remember being so shocked at the violence of it, of where, mentally, he was and how violent it was. It really surprised me. Like, oh -- and how aggressive it was. You know, as a kid, you’re enamored, but I was also very, like, I don’t even know who that is, and it still sticks to me to this day. I don’t know who that was. And I think it bothered him that I saw him like that ’cause I remember him turning and seeing me standing there, and then him -- “I got to go home.” And his hand was, like, this big. It swole up. And he had to take me home, and my mother asked him, “What happened to you?” And him like, “I go into a fight.” “Oh, my God. You got into a fight? [00:20:00] (inaudible).” But he tried to keep that stuff from us, which I appreciate. He never went to jail. None of that stuff. [He’d?] go to the bar, and hang out, and get drunk, and stay out all night long. That’s him. JJ: Okay, so, you got into the -- [what is?] your political thinking (inaudible)? SS: It’s funny you say that. Some cop shot somebody, and it was on the news, and it was in the Bronx, and everybody was up in arms, and this guy stood up, and he 14 �had dreadlocks, and I remember going -- he just looked different, and it said his name. I don’t remember what his name was, but, underneath it, it said “Activist” on it, and the way he spoke -- I was like, “I want to be that.” JJ: Some guy got shot --? SS: Some guy got shot, and [00:21:00] people were protesting, and this guy got on the news, and had the camera in his face, and it had his name, and he had dread-- and it said “Activist,” and I was like, “I don’t know what job that is, but I want to do that,” because he was with the people, and I was just really paying attention to that guy ’cause he wasn’t -- it was something I didn’t know what it was. You know what a teacher is. You know what a cop is. But what’s an activist? ’Cause that’s what it said on the news. And I remember that distinctly, and then I remember paying attention to what was -- I knew shit around where we lived wasn’t right, and that the cops [kept rollin’ us?] wrong, and how we were livin’ was wrong, and rats and roaches is wrong. It’s like I knew it. And so, I would pay attention to the rallies, and I would -- I didn’t necessarily always go, but I would pay attention to -- listening to people talk. My father had this Louis Farrakhan record, and I don’t even know where he got it from, [00:22:00] and I used to play it over and over and just really kind of -- listening to this fervor of people fighting against injustice. And my mother and father wasn’t into it at all, but, to me, I was looking around, going, “If I have to live here or people that I know and love have to live here, it don’t need to be like this.” And you look at TV. It’s like that neighborhood doesn’t look like this, and [how?] -- JJ: And your friends were also political. [I mean?] (inaudible) -- 15 �SS: No. None of them was. That’s just with me. It was just in my head. They really weren’t. I just felt it. I mean, it’s like I grew up, and it was Blacks and Puerto Ricans. That’s what’s in the neighborhood. So, to me, it’s like we’re all in this together, and why is it not -- why are we struggling in here together? And I’m very conscious that there’s only Black and Puerto Ricans here. There’s no white people here. [00:23:00] You know, it’s just Black and Puerto Rican, and we’re smashed on top of each other, and the elevator’s broken, and you got to walk up 14 flights of stairs, and So-and-so got robbed, or somebody got shot, and the ambulance -- takes them five hours to show up. I just knew that shit wasn’t right. JJ: [So, people were?] talking about that. SS: Mm-hmm. I didn’t know how to get involved. JJ: But you were hearing it. SS: Yeah. You were around. I mean, you did see Panther papers. You did see Young L-- you did see it. And we were young, so you would go and look, but, since my mother and father wasn’t into it, I didn’t have enough guts to just -- I’m gonna go by myself and go to this thing. I didn’t do that, but it stuck that there’s something wrong, and there’s people fighting for justice of these conditions that we’re in, and then trying to learn, how do you change it? You know what I mean? There’s congressmen, and [00:24:00] the aldermans, and everybody that you saw around, but it’s like, they’re not really kinda changing things. But that guy who I saw on television, who was an activist -- JJ: You were in high school or grammar school? 16 �SS: Maybe junior high school going into high school when that -- so, when I went into college, it really was real evident. They’re distant, the two different worlds that existed. JJ: As you got into college, are you getting more nationalistic also, or no? (inaudible)? SS: No, no, no. What happened with college was I realized I was a minority. I didn’t realize that when I was in -- when you grow up in the hood, you’re around your folk. You don’t feel like a minority. You hear the word, but it’s like, we’re the majority here. The second I sat in college, it was five black men in the entire campus. I knew what the word was, and it scared me because your first [00:25:00] instinct’s, “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be around people don’t want me around.” I’m talking to people that -- they’ve never been around person of color before. They don’t know how to act, but I also know I’m supposed to be here, and I got to figure this out, and I got real angry because I can see the two worlds. I can be in college, Upstate New York, and trees, and da, da, da, da, da, and then get on a train, and ride down two hours, and instantly be back in the projects. In the same day, your world would be like, [flip?]. I’ll tell you something. It was one time I came home from college, and a friend of mine was sittin’ outside who I hung out with, Puerto Rican guy. And he was like, “Yo, come on. Hang out with --” You know, I’m like, “Aw, man, I just got home.” He’s like, “No, come on. Come on. Come on.” So, I’m like, “All right.” Go upstairs. Literally go, “Mom.” I put my bags down. “I’m goin’ out.” She’s like, “Oh.” So, he takes me to Spanish Harlem, where we used to hang out, and [there?] was 17 �this guy named [Mikey?]. Now, [00:26:00] Mikey used to run a lot of cocaine, all that stuff, for all of Spanish Harlem, and he owned this tenement building, and he had an apartment on the top, and all the other apartments -- you can rent a room for a girl while you smoke or -- so, we’d kinda go, and smoke, and hang out, and drink wine. And so, this particular time, everyone was hangin’ out in Mikey’s house, which you really didn’t do. So, I come, [and I sit down, and?] he knew me. Like, “What’s up? What’s up?” We’re drinking. We’re smoking. And he comes in the room, and he’s like, “Well, you know --” Looks at me. He goes, “The shipment’s comin’ in. You cool with that?” And I’m like, yeah, cool. I’m trying to be like, “Yeah.” And they’re bringing -- so, I’m sitting there, going, “Oh, shit.” ’Cause, two hours ago, I was just in Upstate New York. So, I’m sittin’ there, and I’m watchin’ all this kinda go on. I’m trying to be cool. So, about halfway through the night, I can see Mikey [00:27:00] lookin’ at me from across the room, not really sayin’ nothing, and I’m like, “Uh.” So, finally, after about an hour of him literally staring at me, I said, “What’s up, man?” He goes, “Come here for a second.” He’s like, “What you doin’ in here?” I’m like, “What? I’m hangin’ out.” He’s like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The fuck are you doin’ in here?” I’m like, “Mikey, what’s the matter? I’m just hangin’ out.” He goes, “Don’t you go to college?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “You in college?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He goes, “I’m not sayin’ you better than us, but you ain’t got no business in here. Real shit happens in here. You understand?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He goes, “I don’t want to see you in here no more. Don’t come in here no more.” I’m like, “What? I’m hanging out.” He’s like, “Don’t come here no more. You come up in here, if 18 �you come in my building, we’re gonna have problems.” Like, “Okay.” And I always respected that. I got it, [00:28:00] what he meant. And then -JJ: He was (inaudible). SS: I mean, he was a older dude, and we didn’t -- that’s the first time he ever talked to me directly, and I got it, and, for some reason, it bothered him that -- he knew I was in college, and that -- my friend who took me there, had to cut him off, and it hurt me to my heart, and, to this day, my mother’s like, “I can’t believe you’re not friends with him.” Because he was my good friend, and he was slidin’ into that world, and, you know, when you got your friend, you gonna be slidin’ right there with him. If he’d got into some trouble and something would have happened, he would have called me, and I would have went, and I was like, “I can’t. I can’t roll like that. I can’t do it.” I got in college as a chance to do something else. I can’t roll with you. He’s -- “Come on, man. We --” And crack had just came out, and I was like, “I can’t. I can’t.” He offered me a chance. He goes, “You could be the runner. All you [00:29:00] do is just pick up the money. That’s all you got to do. We’ll pay you.” For a second, I was like, “Well, you know, I’m in college. I could use the extra money.” He goes, “Yeah, but you got to carry this nine millimeter ’cause, you know.” I was like, “(inaudible).” He said, “Why won’t you carry it?” I said, “Because I will shoot somebody.” You know what I mean? It’s like you’re gonna shoot somebody. So, I had to leave all them alone and really focus on -got a opportunity. I’m in school, you know? I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna do with myself, but I’m in school. It’s a chance to do somethin’, and I’m gonna do that. 19 �JJ: (inaudible) your studies, and you’re in theatre, or --? SS: Yeah. I studied theatre and writing, yeah. JJ: Why did you get into that? SS: Writing was -- I always did it when I was a kid, and I was in college, and they asked me -- [the dean was?] like, “Why don’t you take a acting class?” All right. And I liked it, and I wanted perform, but you just don’t -- that doesn’t relate to where we’re from. [00:30:00] So, in one sense, I was doing it because I enjoyed it, thinking I’ll eventually have to stop and figure somethin’ else out so I can get a job, and I just never stopped, you know? And my mother would tell people that I was studying journalism to be a writer for the newspaper ’cause she didn’t want to tell people that, “My son’s studying to be a writer, and he’s doing theatre.” You can’t get a job doing that, but that’s what I liked. JJ: So, she didn’t want you in theatre? SS: No, ’cause where are you gonna work? Where are you gonna work? Who do you know that does theatre? Nobody. How you gonna make a living? Her whole big thing was, “You need to come home, and you’re gonna get a city job.” They had all these jobs opening up for the railroad, for transit. She said, “When you get out of college, you’re gonna take the transit test. You’re in college, so you’re gonna have a college degree. You can be runnin’ the trains. You can be a supervisor ’cause you have a college degree, and you’ll be set.” [00:31:00] And she had already had that picked in her mind for me, that that’s what I was gonna do, and I was like, “I can’t do that.” So, I didn’t come back. I stayed Upstate. 20 �JJ: Now, you were meeting other people like meeting Mildred at that time? SS: I met Mildred in college. She auditioned for a play of mine. JJ: Oh, she auditioned for a play of yours? SS: Mm-hmm. I was a director, and she -- JJ: So, how did you get to that point? SS: Of what? JJ: To do plays. SS: Well, you know, when you become a senior, they let you create your own -- JJ: Senior? SS: Yeah, when I became a senior in college. Because, since I was one of the only Black men in the theatre department, when they gave me a play to do, I was usually running from something ’cause all the roles for Black people were racist. So, I told them, whatever play y’all pick, I don’t want to do it because I don’t want to be a runnin’ slave. I don’t want to do it. Can I create my own thing? And they were like, well, yeah. You can do whatever you want. So, they left me [00:32:00] alone. So, the play I wrote was about a kid -- JJ: What college was this? SS: Bard College. JJ: Bard, right. SS: Upstate New York. And I wrote a piece about pretty much a character that was myself, who was from the inner city, who goes to a predominantly white school, and the two worlds he has to bounce in between to survive, and I called it Purgatory. You didn’t know which place was heaven, which place was hell. And 21 �Mildred walked in the room. She was a freshman, and I was sittin’ there, and she walked in the room, and I was like, “Okay.” And I leaned over to the guy who was my assistant, and I said, “That girl can [stand?] anything right now, and I’m gonna put her in the show,” and I kinda sat back, and she started singing. I was like, “Okay, cool. Good. She can sing.” But we related to each other ’cause we both came from -- she come from the Lower East Side. I was from the Bronx. We were in a predominantly white school. Both our parents are working class people, and here we are, two people trying to figure it out, and we just gravitated toward each other, and we had a sense of community. We had a sense of [00:33:00] family. Like I said, I grew up with Black and Puerto Ricans, so, you know, she’s Puerto Rican. It was like -- my father speaks Spanish. He learned Spanish on the street, so he speaks Spanish. So, when I met Mildred’s family, it felt like family. You know what I mean? My best friend who was taking me around in Spanish Harlem was Puerto Rican, and I was always at his house. So, my connection to Puerto Rican culture is -- it’s part of me. You know what I mean? JJ: So, [was your best friend in theatre also, or?] --? SS: No. He’s the one that stayed. He stayed back, and -- JJ: Stayed back. SS: And got caught up into drugs, sellin’ stuff, got arrested, and went in and out of jail, and I stayed in college. JJ: [So, now, you have?] all these other friends that are in theatre. 22 �SS: You start to meet people up in college. You’re meetin’ different type of people, and it was kinda, like, who you actually like, and they come from different worlds, and they come from different financial brackets. I mean, I had a friend of mine whose [00:34:00] father was Arthur Rankin, who used to make the claymation cartoons like Frosty the Snowman, and it says “Rankin and Bass.” His stepfather was Rankin. So, he had -- it was like money, money, money, money, money, money, money. It was just a different group of people you’re around, and, once I started meetin’ different people, it’s like, okay. Having access to other worlds is like -- how do you get access to that and still stay true to yourself without changing? You grow up, but I was like, “I’m still Steve from the Bronx, but I want to be Steve from the Bronx --” JJ: So, you always thought about that. [You wanted] to remain true to yourself. SS: Mm-hmm. I was very -- JJ: Not changing -- what didn’t you want to change? SS: I didn’t want to deny the fact that I was from the Bronx. I didn’t want to deny the fact that there was elements of my childhood which was rough, hard, and raw. I didn’t want to deny the fact that -- but I [00:35:00] also learned how to be able to go in a classroom, and talk this way, and be around this, and can go home, and hang out, and be cool with everybody else. How do you take this, the rhythms, the essence of where we’re from, or community, our culture, and bring that with you? You don’t have to leave it there, and go to college, and -- you bring that with you. So, even the work that we do, theatre, I wanted to bring who we were, the people who I know, Ray Barretto and Marvin Gaye, with me to college, not 23 �leave it there. So, I would always say, “I’m Steve from the Bronx,” and whatever your interpretation of the Bronx was, that’s how you took me. If you thought that people from the Bronx were gangsters and them -- all right. Then that’s what you think I am. ’Cause, you know, they would think that. “Oh, have you ever been in a gang before?” They would ask me that in college. “Have you ever been shot?” I was like, “Is that what you think? You watch TV?” It’s like, yeah. I know some people who been in gangs. I’ve seen people get shot. [00:36:00] And? Does that make any difference while we’re both sitting in this college together? You know. JJ: You got your degree in theatre. What was the first play that you [performed?]? (inaudible) [your character?]? SS: Yeah. I mean, I did that in college -- JJ: And after that. SS: And then, after that, I didn’t do theatre for five years. Got a job, but we were workin’ in the community, teachin’ reading and math at this community center, Mildred and I together. And then -- JJ: Now, were you married then? SS: No, we weren’t married. We were living together. We weren’t married. JJ: (inaudible). SS: And that was our job, and -- JJ: So, you had a community center, so -- SS: We didn’t have it. We worked at one. JJ: Oh, you worked at one. 24 �SS: And then, what happened -- JJ: (inaudible) [like an activist?]. SS: Yeah. It wasn’t really -- it was social service. It wasn’t active -- it was more social service. And then, our funding cycle was ending, and it wasn’t being refunded, so we were about to all get laid off, and this other guy [00:37:00] we knew said, “Why don’t we start our own center?” And I was like, “What?” “Start our own center, man.” And I was like, “And get paid how? Like, how we gonna eat?” “We can do this. We can do this. You do theatre. Why don’t we, like, have a theater?” I was like, “In the South Bronx, we gonna have a theater?” He’s like, “Yeah.” So, we were like, “All right.” So, we found this abandoned bagel factory in the Bronx, and the landlord who owned that bagel factory, abandoned bagel factory, owned the same building that we were in, working, so we kinda knew him, so we went to him and was like, “Look. [We want?] to start this theater slash center-type thing.” And he was like, “Uh-huh.” He’s like, “Could you give us, like, a year’s free rent? And we will renovate your space, and, if we don’t get this place up and running in a year, you can have a renovated space.” And he said, “All right. Deal.” So, he gave us a year free rent, and we proceeded to go in that building. We cleaned it all out. People from the community [00:38:00] started giving us screws, and we literally renovated that building in a year. Put a theater in there. We had businesses. We had a restaurant, a barbershop, dance studio, record store, all owned by people from the community. And then, we put in -- it was a social service agency called [Unitas?], and they were the big sort of tenants that we had. They paid the bulk 25 �of the rent, and we ran that building, and, out of that, I started doing theatre again because I had a theater that we built, and we did that for -- we opened in ’93. And it’s funny. Yomo Toro just died. The opening night of the theater, we had all these people come over, and Mildred started singing a song, and Yomo Toro was there, and he walked up on stage and started -- Mildred was singing “[Preciosa?],” and he started playing with her, and I’ll never forget that moment of her turning around and seeing Yomo Toro standing in the South Bronx, [00:39:00] in this building we had just built, playing cuatro behind -- and he was so nice and so cool, and he hung out all night long, and it felt so special because we created our love, which was theatre and art, and brought this back to Bronx, basically, and it was a beautiful thing we had there. It was really beautiful, amazing. We had poetry nights, and Latin jazz nights, and gay men in the Bronx rented a space, and the Ñetas, the Kings, and Zulu Nation came to me to ask me, could they have their meetings in the building? And I was like, “Oh, Jesus Christ.” So, I said, “Well, we got to talk about it.” So, Bam says, “Okay.” So, Bam sets up a meeting, and I go in the theater, and it’s Bam -- it wasn’t King Tone, but it was somebody from the Kings, someone from the Ñetas, all in the building at the same time, talking, discussing whether [00:40:00] Zulu was gonna come to [their?] section of the Bronx, and I walk in the room, and they’re like, “Steve, talk about this.” And there’s like 200 brothers in the room from all different sides, and I just kinda got up and was like, “Look. This is my building. This is our building here. I’m willing to give y’all space, but y’all can’t be up in here acting crazy. I can’t have it. Kids come here during the day. Like, I really 26 �can’t have it.” So, we had that type of environment, and it was amazing. It was a really beautiful thing, to see that mixture of me turning into an activist, which I always remembered, and doing theatre with it in the Bronx, you know. JJ: And who was paying the bills? SS: The first year, we were on unemployment, and I was teachin’, like, poetry classes on the side, but, once it was really up and running, yeah, that was our life. JJ: For a few years, or --? SS: It was our life for seven years, and then it got -- our relationship with [00:41:00] our two partners got real funky, and it’s a longer story, but we left, and we were -the only thing we had was Universes. JJ: So, you had started Universes [in that?] --? SS: We started, and that became a issue to the building. Like, “Oh, you guys are making money on the side.” Like, “We ain’t makin’ no money on the side. We’re doing Universes ’cause it’s fun.” And, to them, it got -- ’cause we started to get a little name for ourselves, but you don’t make any money. Somebody paid us 100 dollars. I was like, it was five of us. We split 100 dollars. But they got really threatened, and it became this whole, big thing. And so -- JJ: So, what was the play that you did then? SS: We did something called The Ride, and it was in this downtown, funky, New York -- JJ: The Rise? SS: The Ride. JJ: The Ride, okay. 27 �SS: R-I-D-E. Some funky play we did. You know, just us kinda just putting stuff together. But what happened was there was a space called PS 122, Performance Space 122, which is really known in the New York Downtown performance scene. The guy who runned it saw us [00:42:00] and booked us. He came up to the POINT, and he saw us -- which is the name of our center, and he saw us before we left and booked Universes that night, and he took us to this performance space. JJ: The center was on what streets? SS: My or --? JJ: This POINT. SS: The POINT was in Hunts Point, Barretto and Manida Street. Hunts Point and Manida. JJ: Hunts Point, okay. SS: And -- JJ: And this is the Bronx. SS: This is the Bronx. And then, this guy came up from Manhattan, saw us, and took us to his space, and that’s how we started getting a bigger name for ourselves, because this guy saw us and thought we were really interesting. And so, when we left the POINT, we just focused all of our energies on making Universes work. JJ: So, you did The Ride, and what other --? SS: We did The Ride, and then our first big hit -- we did this play called Slanguage, which -- that was in 2001. JJ: And what was that about? 28 �SS: That was about the evolution of language in our communities is what it was about. So, how you go from slang to how Puerto Rican and Spanish people learn English -- [00:43:00] it was a sort of just thing -- poetry and music, but it was all about how we learn language, how we use language, how we flip language, how you don’t say autobus. You say guagua. You know, it’s like the way people from the hood take language and flip it, and it was a big hit. The New York Times came, and reviewed our show, and was like, “This is an amazing theatre company,” and, instantly, like that, since the New York Times said it, we became this theatre company. JJ: So, that was, like, your first promotional -- SS: Yeah, and we got a lot of -- JJ: -- [thing was?] the New York Times? SS: Yeah, and we toured for eight years with that show. JJ: Slanguage? SS: Like, we were colleges, performance spaces. We were just everywhere, and we weren’t makin’ a ton of money, but we were touring, and that’s all we did. We didn’t take a job. We did Universes. JJ: Now, did you look up to other groups? I mean, did you have [00:44:00] some -- SS: Well, there’s a group -- JJ: -- [type of?] role models? SS: There’s a group called Culture Clash. JJ: Culture Clash? 29 �SS: Culture Clash. They’re out of LA. They’re Chicano, but they are -- I can’t even -they’re like vaudevillian actors from the neighborhood. You know what I mean? And they were so talented, and we just, like, “Those dudes are it.” But, really, for us, it was like musicians we looked up to, poets, Amiri Baraka, Pedro Pietri out of New York, (inaudible) movement. We came out o’ that. So, that’s like Miguel Algarín, all of those people downtown. Mikey Piñero. That’s where we come from. We were, like, the next generation right after them. So, all of our early stuff [Universes working?], we’re in the poetry scene. We weren’t really doing theatre. We were all in the poetry scene and open mikes. So, that’s where our heroes were. Sandra María Esteves, Willie Perdomo. They really shaped us, criticized [00:45:00] us, pushed us, and we got our -- what we do, our swagger, at the Nuyorican. JJ: And what about before (inaudible)? Were there some other plays? SS: No. It was Slanguage, and then Mildred and I did another play called Eyewitness Blues about a trumpet player, and then we did Ameriville. JJ: And how did that [come about?]? SS: Ameriville came about -- we were tryin’ to write something about the history of fear in America. We were tryin’ to write a play. And, in the middle of trying to write about the history of fear in America, Katrina happened, and, sitting there, looking at how the country responded, just the whole thing around it, it was just like -- so, we wrote this piece, the opening 10-minute piece of Ameriville, about that, and that’s all we were gonna write. And then, our director who we were working with at the time heard that piece and said, “This is your show. You 30 �should write it about what happened in New Orleans and then [00:46:00] open it out to the whole country.” So, we were like, all right. Whatever. We didn’t want to do it, but we opened it out, and it turned into something. He was right. Something really, we thought, smart. So, we did that, and that became a big hit. JJ: Now, what about Party People, (inaudible) that you performed today? SS: Party People was -- Oregon Shakespeare Festival here has a separate slot that they call the American Revolutions cycle, where they commissioned 22 writers to write about moments of change in American history. When we first premiered Ameriville in Louisville, Kentucky, the people who were in charge of American Revolutions came to Kentucky, and saw us, and said, “We want you guys to write one.” So, we were like, “Okay, cool. What do you --?” And he was like, “Could you write about the Bill of Rights? Could you write about the Declaration of Independence?” And we were like, “That’s not really interesting.” They said, “Well, you guys can write about whatever you want.” So, we went, and we [00:47:00] sat and thought about -- if you think about American revolution, what’s American revolution to us? And we were gonna keep it real. We were like, really, the Black Panther and the Young Lords, really. JJ: And that comes from your Bronx -- SS: That comes from my Bronx upbringing, Mildred being in the Lower East Side. We were always around it. JJ: The Young Lords and the Black Panthers. SS: The Young Lords and the Black -- so, we felt like that’s -- JJ: Seeing it personally. 31 �SS: Seeing it personally and being recipients of the programs, of free breakfast -- we saw it -- of the garbage pick-ups, in New York, at least, and Lincoln Hospital. I grew up really close to Lincoln Hospital, so it was like I know -- I saw it. I remember what Lincoln Hospital [was before?], and then I remember it afterwards. So, we were like, “If we’re really gonna write about somethin’, we should do --” And we were gonna be honest to ourselves. [It’s that?]. And we don’t know how we’re gonna do it, but that’s what we should write about, and, when we told them, they were like, “Okay. Go ahead.” And then, that’s when we started trying to find people. That’s how we found you, [00:48:00] ’cause we were like, “Well, we’re just gonna start --” ’Cause we knew that we had access to the New York chapter of the Young Lords, so we were like, “We’re not gonna call them. We need to go to the source.” So, we were like, “We got to go to Chicago, and we have to find Cha-Cha.” That was our main -- was like, “Well, who do we know who knows him?” “I don’t know,” you know. And so, Mildred literally looked and called you, but we knew we had to go -- we went to you, and then we went to Oakland. We didn’t talk to anybody [to?] New York ’til, like, last, really. We said, “We have to go to the sources of both, not here. That’s too easy. We have to know exactly where it comes from.” And you just happened to pick up the phone, and that started that process, and what we learned from that process, hangin’ out with you that first time, and then going to Oakland and getting that -you know what I mean? And then bringin’ that here and then working it into a play. JJ: [00:49:00] So, the play’s about what? Can you kind of describe it a little bit? 32 �SS: It’s about two young -- I will call them -- one is a cub, Panther cub, and the other one is the nephew of a Young Lord who grew up in New York -- and them trying to decipher all of the history and make sense out of it but in their way now. So, it’s a little misguided, and they’re trying to put an event together and invite some Panthers and Lords together for this thing. Now, us doing our research, we’ve discovered -- which I kinda knew -- is certain people can’t be in a room together. There’s history there. So, we were like, “Well, what happens is we put people in a room together?” We saw footage one day when we were doing research -- we were lookin’ online, and we found -- I think it was the fortieth anniversary of the New York chapter, and they were all in this back room, and they said, “And, now, Young Lords.” And the door opened, and [00:50:00] you can see people coming out of the back, but people’s faces -- some people were smiling. Some people weren’t smiling. You can see that something went on in the back, and I remember thinking, what went on in the back? I want to know what that conversation was. And so, when we started to talk to people and see the complexity of what relationships are, and how some shit that got said 25 years ago, people didn’t get over it, or people got history, or were COINTELPRO, and you just don’t know who is who, [to be like?], well, what happens if you throw some people back in the mix together who haven’t seen each other in a while? What comes out in the conversations? Being orchestrated by these two kids who know and totally have no idea what they’re doing, but they’re trying to figure it out. And so, they’re taking what they learned, and they flip it to the elders, and the elders respond, or they get taken to different places, and different things 33 �[flash?]. That’s what the play’s about, but [00:51:00] it’s -- for me, I wanted to show -- I didn’t want to romanticize the ’60s, and what I mean by that is I wanted to talk to or see characters who [comprise the?] Young Lords and Panthers now. Like, I remember when we met you and just what it was like talking to an older gentleman. We weren’t talking to the Cha-Cha in the papers. We were talking to a man who’s already lived a long life and what your perspective was on that life. So, it was like, that’s interesting to me. That’s who the American public needs to know, what they went through, what their sacrifice was for this life. If you romanticize the ’60s in this -- you know, you see Black, and white, and people with berets on, and it looks very sexy, but it’s like, no, you see somebody who’s gone through this, and they’ve had this happen, and this happen, and this happen, and they’re still here, and they’re trying to make sense of all the stuff they’ve gone through. So, you’ve got that complexity with these two kids, trying to figure out [00:52:00] what it is smashed together. That’s what this play’s about. JJ: Okay. And it’s gonna play here for -- SS: It’s gonna play here ’til November 3, and then we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of theaters comin’ to check it out. New York, Chicago, Berkeley, LA, you know, they’re all coming down, so you hope they like it. So -- JJ: Okay. Any concluding thoughts? SS: I am proud of the work that Universes does as a company. I’m proud of the fact that we’re very honest with ourself about what we wanted to tell in this type of story. I’m proud of the research that we did, that we actually went and talked to 34 �folk, and that we had the guts to bring it to an American stage, and it’s very complicated. It’s not an easy thing to sit and watch. It’s not very celebratory all the time. [00:53:00] Everybody gets sort of exposed in their own way. It’s a very complicated issue, but I’m very proud of the fact that we went for it. You know what I mean? And I hope for the world to see this, to learn who you guys are the way we do as human being that are very complex and very interesting. And what you guys did is a part of American history, period. You know what I mean? American history is not just reserved for -- like, this is a part of American history, an important part of American history that, if you remove it, there’s a lot of things that would not be here if this did not happen, and we laid claim to that, and I’m proud that we did it. JJ: [I’m?] very grateful (inaudible). SS: Thank you. Thank you. END OF AUDIO FILE 35 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c4bf6da83ee69a2bbe9d28dbcbdea55a.mp4 1ed832e4c6e6f3bd1d06f984a8d71aae Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Description An account of the resource Collection of oral history interviews and digitized materials documenting the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Interviews were conducted by Young Lords' founder, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, and documents were digitized from Mr. Jiménez' archives. The Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection grows out of the ongoing struggle for fair housing, self-determination, and human rights that was launched by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, founder of the Young Lords Movement. This project is dedicated to documenting the history of the displacement of Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos, and the poor from Lincoln Park, as well as the history of the Young Lords nationwide. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jiménez, José, 1948- Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection (RHC-65)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng spa Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-65 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2012-2017 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Título Spanish language Title entry Steven Sapp vídeo entrevista y biografía Sujetos Spanish language Subject terms Young Lords (Organización) Puertorriqueños--Estados Unidos Derechos civiles--Estados Unidos--Historia Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Afro-Americanos--Relatos personales Justicia social Activistas comunitarios--Illinois--Chicago Partido Pantera Negra Artes, Afro-Americanos--Nueva York (N.Y.) Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park (RHC-65)</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-65_Sapp_Steven Title A name given to the resource Steven Sapp video interview and transcript Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sapp, Steven Description An account of the resource Steven Sapp was born and raised in South Bronx, New York City. He earned his BA degree at Bard College and is married to Mildred Ruiz-Sapp of the Universes Theatre Ensemble. Together, Mr. Sapp and Ms. Ruiz-Sapp co-founded THE POINT, a community development corporation (Hunts Point) in 1993 and Universes, a New York-based theatre group that fuses poetry, jazz, hip hop, politics, blues and Spanish boleros to create its own productions which are performed on and off Broadway, nationally and internationally. Mr. Sapp has received numerous awards for his acting and has written, acted in, and directed scores of productions. One of his most recent productions is “Party People” (2012) which is primarily about the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jiménez, José, 1948- Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) African Americans--Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Black Panther Party Arts, African American--New York (N.Y.) Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-07-08 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fdffb20f51759fe0ab221f422f06aa9d.mp4 2e6a25c7042b51ef31476f89aeeaec30 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/abd5da143b558e012af39ce3f4879e17.pdf a251d94d2ee4182445119741b970d56e PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Dwight William Stevens (1:11:34) (1:08) Before the service • Farm boy • Could milk 8 cows an hour • Worked with brother who was 17 years older • Dad left the family • Went to rural Star City school through 8th grade • Went to Lake City High School • Graduated high school 1929 (4:20) Memories of WWI • Around 7 years old • Rationing of sugar, butter, etc. • Sugar rationing started at 2 pounds per week, then went to 1 pound per month • His older brother was prepared to go to war but it ended before he was sent over (5:54) Impact WWI on the community members • Many people from the community went off to war • Daniel Spice, Leonard and Richard James – wounded • Someone said to Stevens: “You’ll have a chance to serve in a war, everybody does.” • Stevens was 6 or 7 years old (6:58) Grade school • 1 room school house • 1 teacher for 40 kids • When WWI ended, the saw mill in Jennings whistled continually through the morning (10:02) Grocery store • Star City about 1.5-2 miles away • It was a meeting place for the community • Mom took horse and buggy to the store • If went to the store in Lake City, it was 12 miles away. o Would put horse in livery barn and pay for oats/food/water o Stevens would stay at the livery barn and talk to people while mom went shopping (12:06) First car • When car on highway, horses would rear up; horses got scarred • Only rich people had cars; the Stevens family had a horse and buggy • (13:03) One-room school house • Neat because could learn from the older kids since it was a 1st – 8th grade school • Star City was a pretty good school • Some teachers were good, some were bad �o As a second grader, witness a 7th grader get whipped by the teacher with a big stick o Next morning the 7th grader’s mom came and talked to the teacher (15:07) High school • Nearest high school was Lake City, 12 miles away • Got job for room and board in Lake City • Played football, baseball, and basketball • Graduated 1929 (16:58) College and the stock market crash • Fall 1929 Stevens was starting at Michigan State o Cost $600; good agriculture school • Remembers learning about the crash from the newspapers • Got a job selling magazines to earn tuition • Moved to Central Michigan University because was cheaper; only $300 • Took 2 years off and taught school for $55 a month; then went back to school • Sold magazines door to door in Detroit during summer o “True Romance” and “Pictorial Review” o Sold about 10 copies per day • Superintendent of White Cloud wanted Stevens as a teacher • One day the principal got fired and Stevens became principal of White Cloud (for 6 years) (26:51) Pearl Harbor • Had a job in Saginaw o Became principal at Webber school K-8 (held that position for 20 years) (28:00) Why he joined the Navy • Because teacher, deferred from draft • But, friend had a party and Stevens was invited • Went to the party and saw his friend wearing his Navy uniform • Stevens thought the uniform looked pretty good! o Asked: “Where’d you get it?” • So went to Detroit and volunteered for the service o Fort Schuyler, NY for a couple of weeks o Harvard for 3-4 months o Sent to Pacific as a Lieutenant Junior Commander [junior grade?] ƒ Ended up as a Lieutenant Commander (30:07) New Guinea and Australia • Land based there [New Guinea] for a few weeks • Hell hole • Always wet with either rain or sweat • Then went to Brisbane, Australia • Bumped into General MacArthur (32:08) Commander Aircraft 7th Fleet • Spent a year with Fleet o At Harvard, Stevens took communications • Did work with messages – encoding and decoding �• • • • • Get reports about the whereabouts of Japanese supply ships Would encode messages to bomb ships, etc. Stopped at various points in New Guinea Ladies of New Guinea would come and trade souvenirs for sweatshirts or t-shirts Cigarettes were a popular trade but Stevens didn’t trade them because he liked to smoke them • Did not run across members of the Red Arrow Division (36:16) Philippines • Tacloban o Nice town • Manila o Talked to natives o Got an apartment ƒ 2 bedrooms, 1 bath for $50 per month o Lived there about a year (40:18) Suicide bombers • Japanese suicide bombers would come in as a flock and crash into ships • 1 time, Stevens ship was hit o Shook the ship o A little bit of damage o Ship shot anti-aircraft guns (42:07) Japanese Prisoner • A prisoner was brought to the ship • Guard had a carbine rife and said, “Don’t move or I will kill you.” • Someone shouted, “Just shoot him already.” • Some people felt that all Japanese people should be killed • Stevens believed that “everybody is human, this prisoner is just like me” (42:58) Dive bombers • Stevens was in 4 invasions • Never got hit badly but saw other ships get hit; terrible • During the first bombing, captain announced that they were being bombed by the Japanese • Stevens and 11 other guys were assigned to the first aid room on the ship o Stevens had a cigarette in hand but couldn’t hold it because scared His Jewish friend was saying over and over, “We’ve got to have faith” while his Catholic friend was doing the rosary. • Didn’t get hit • Suicide bomber missed ship (45:50) Filipino people • Lovely people • Many men would get married; Stevens was already married (46:50) VJ- Day • In the Philippines • Lots of celebrations! • The question on everybody’s mind was: “When are we going home?” �o Sent home 3-4 months afterward (48:31) Panama Canal • After got home, went back to Saginaw but didn’t have his position opened • Went back to Great Lakes o Signed up for Separation Control ƒ 8 hours/day, good wages ƒ Signed up for 2 years o Assigned to Panama Canal; wife came o Nice place o Ships would come into the canal zone ƒ The ship’s officer would trade in secret Pacific publications for the secret Atlantic publication or vice versa o Stevens was an issuing officer o Big vault where would keep the publications • Went back to Saginaw, was principal at Webber school for another 20 years • Retired from Webber, worked at private Northwood University for 5 years (53:18) Masons • Joined the Masons in 1937 • Lots of Masons in the Navy o AMING (American Masons in New Guinea) Square Club o People of the Army, Navy, etc. would go to these meetings o Usually about 50 people in attendance • Went to lodges in Manila, Panama, Costa Rica (57:42) Overall experience in the Navy • The war itself was horrible but a lot of good from serving • Didn’t resent being in the service; got to see the country and meet a lot of nice people • Used to get together in Chicago with the gang from the Pacific o Used to be about 50 guys, then went down to 6 guys, and now there are only 2 left…Stevens and one other man (59:25) Masonry • Proud • Never went “through the chairs” and regrets that • But saw a lot of different lodges • His father and 2 brothers were all a part of the Masons (1:03:25) More about magazine sales • 1936 in White Cloud; as a teacher, no pay during the summer • Sold magazines for 7 summers o Went to Portland, Kansas City, Cleveland, Wyoming • Afterward, became an inspector at a factory in Saginaw � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context StevensD Title A name given to the resource Stevens, Dwight (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stevens, Dwight W. Description An account of the resource Dwight Stevens spent time in the Navy in the Pacific during WW II working on decoding Japanese messages. He served in the Philippines and witnessed Kamikaze attacks on Allied ships. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer) Collins, Carol (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-07-24 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives